Alewife T Station, Garage, Bus, & Trails

Oh cool, that's the first I've seen of this. Then again I only started paying attention to the intersection once some I know had to get a car to do a reverse commute, they're only a few months in and already telling horror stories!
 
^ I go through there every day (reverse commute via Rindge) but I'm through before 7am. It's pretty miserable if you're trying to get outbound after 7:15. Don't even talk about inbound...
 
I dont understand why the fuck a two lane road and a one lane road simultaneously get green lights into a 2 lane road.
 
jass said:
I dont understand why the fuck a two lane road and a one lane road simultaneously get green lights into a 2 lane road.
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Alewife Brook Pkwy. is another ex-MDC warcrime. The one constant across all MDC/DCR roads is the worst fucking signal layouts and timing on the face of the earth. So there you go...a superfluous 2nd set of badly-timed lights onto 2W instead of a controlled merge.
 
Road construction at Alewife is underway. Slide deck on exactly what it is here: http://arlingtonma.gov/home/showdocument?id=25508
Lots of tiny improvements that hopefully will add up.

Here's a diagram of the finished intersection:
MXE7KM4.jpg
 
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That almost looks like it will rival Kelley Square in Worcester for a true clusterfuck.
 
Nah, that still has order. Kelly Square is pure anarchy with 7 approaching roads.

On the other hand, why couldn't north be facing up in that diagram?
 
meddlepal said:
That almost looks like it will rival Kelley Square in Worcester for a true clusterfuck.
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I've never been to Kelley Square but I have been through the Alewife absurdity in its current iteration. This drawing moves Alewife farther up my list of places to be avoided like the plague, and I'll add Kelly Square sight unseen.

This is fortunately easy for me as my travel patterns only very rarely take me near Alewife during commute hours; I offer my condolences to all who can't avoid it.
 
West said:
I've never been to Kelley Square but I have been through the Alewife absurdity in its current iteration. This drawing moves Alewife farther up my list of places to be avoided like the plague, and I'll add Kelly Square sight unseen.

This is fortunately easy for me as my travel patterns only very rarely take me near Alewife during commute hours; I offer my condolences to all who can't avoid it.
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Oh, I was there 2 hours ago. And it was a clusterfuck at lunchtime.

Nothing is going to improve that without outright elimination of some traffic light signal cycles. Especially the one at the final merge onto 2 EB, which is the easiest of the eliminations. And this plan doesn't even attempt that. In fact, by add-a-lane'ing to absurdity it prevents that from ever happening. You could have free movements onto the highway if 2 lanes from 16 EB + Alewife station exit merged into 1 lane from 16 WB. So of course...let's keep all the queues and just give them double the lane capacity to sit there and stew for exactly as pointless an extra wait that backs up exactly as much past the previous signal. Brilliant use of funds.
 
My big pet peeve is the people coming east on Route 2 turning left onto 16 towards Mass Ave use the right lane and then cut in at the last second. This design does NOTHING to alleviate that. There needs to be queuing space for two lanes heading that direction. The rest of the traffic proceeding on Route 2 past Alewife could easily be handled by one lane.
 
I am no expert, but this is one of the worst traffic areas in Greater Boston. My solution: "dieting" the four lane sections of the Route 2 Expressway to three lanes (to alleviate some merging traffic), and find a way to have grade-crossing free access between the Route 2 Expressway and Alewife Garage.

EDIT: was touched upon on the previous page.
 
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I feel like this clusterfuck wants to be a rotary, but there just isn't enough room on this plot of land.
 
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How is this different from the existing configuration? Looks the same.
 
BussesAin'tTrains said:
How is this different from the existing configuration? Looks the same.
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There are trees and grass plantings on the median that haven't been killed by road salt yet.

And better curbing. Easier for the exact same guys who've worked the medians in rotating shifts every day for the last 12 years posing as homeless vets to keep their footing. Gotta think of the vets.
 
BussesAin'tTrains said:
How is this different from the existing configuration? Looks the same.
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Per the presentation:

* Widen the departure of Route 2 westbound to provide
three travel lanes.

* Widen the existing left turn lane on Route 2 eastbound
to Alewife Brook Parkway (Route 16) northbound
approach to formalize a 2-lane approach to prevent the
queue of the left turns from blocking the lanes
continuing through on Route 2 eastbound. The single
wide acceptance lane will also be widened to
accommodate 2-lanes to Alewife Brook Parkway
northbound.

* Widen the right turn lane from Alewife Brook
Parkway southbound to Route 2 westbound to
provide double right turn lanes.

* Slight sliver widening to existing roadways to
provide 2-11 foot lanes with 2 foot shoulders.

* Improve LOS

* Reconstruct wheelchair ramps
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datadyne007 said:
I feel like this clusterfuck wants to be rotary, but there just isn't enough room on this plot of land.
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It was a real, functioning rotary in identical configuration to the other two at Fresh Pond until the station exit road was added in 1988, necessitating installation of all those traffic lights. This isn't MDC-era cruft. Somebody at MassDOT 27 years ago willingly chose to inflict this pain.

http://historicaerials.com?layer=1978&zoom=18&lat=42.39801690876712&lon=-71.14183902740479
 
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