Commonwealth Avenue Improvement Project

So no bike lanes? That's a bummer. Also, it doesn't sound like any effort is being made to widen the dangerously narrow T platforms.
 
cden4 said:
So no bike lanes? That's a bummer. Also, it doesn't sound like any effort is being made to widen the dangerously narrow T platforms.
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As I said, you can tell the plan was drafted in the 80s, and the biggest change since then will be replacing garbage cans with big belly compactors.
 
The St Marys street crossing is almost done.

Tomorrow is the last day for police decals.

After this, the only thing left is a tiny piece of sidewalk near blandford street, which for some reason is temporary asphalt instead of concrete.

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Kenmore Square:

Right turn lane from brookline to the square has been eliminated. Now its a more perpendicular crossing.

Are brookline cars allowed to turn left? The new arrangement seems to suggest so...

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The old signal is where the curb used to be. Over yonder you cans ee the new border
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That extra sidewalk space coming down from Brookline Ave will certainly be put to use doing Red Sox games. Nice to see that the square is becoming smaller to cross.
 
Kenmore of past.

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While some changes are good....

THIS IS THE WORST IDEA EVER. YOU DO NOT TAKE A CONFUSING SIGNAL AND MAKE TI WORSE BY MAKING IT TRI DIRECTIONAL!!!!

Kenmore is now full of the sounds of honking, as cars that pull to the leftmost lane hoping to go staight get honked at when they dont move as theres no pavement indication that the signal has three different direction.

Also, all the pedestrian lights are wrong. Not wrong, as in the traditional Boston way of having a 30 second delay, but wrong as in they say walk and dont walk at exactly the wrong times.

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The rest of Kenmore is fine, although I dont understand this, are they planning another crosswalk here?
Note the new streetlights (next to the old one)

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jass said:
Kenmore of past.
While some changes are good....

THIS IS THE WORST IDEA EVER. YOU DO NOT TAKE A CONFUSING SIGNAL AND MAKE TI WORSE BY MAKING IT TRI DIRECTIONAL!!!!

Kenmore is now full of the sounds of honking, as cars that pull to the leftmost lane hoping to go staight get honked at when they dont move as theres no pavement indication that the signal has three different direction.

Also, all the pedestrian lights are wrong. Not wrong, as in the traditional Boston way of having a 30 second delay, but wrong as in they say walk and dont walk at exactly the wrong times.
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LOL, aint that the truth. I've wondered for a few weeks why there isn't at least temporary paint for the west/outbound lanes.
 
They expanded the sidewalk on the Commonwealth hotel side to Brookline St, but then as it goes down brookline it tapers down to the old width! They should have kept it the same extended width as the rest of that side of Brookline St.
 
Actually, the city proposed redoing brookline street by doubling the size of the sidewalk on the east side (red sox), and adding a bike lane. This was at the expense of a lane however, making the street one way. Locals opposed, and the project is dead.

I believe a second proposal was 2 ways but without parking. Again, NIMBYs demanded parking for the bars.
 
Perhaps the bike lanes could still have been added, by narrowing the travel lanes to 9 feet each?
 
The latest plan on Brookline Ave is to widen the south sidewalk where most of the pedestrian traffic is and add street trees. I believe some parking will be removed and some will be preserved. Unfortunately, there isn't room for bike lanes in the current plan, however they will be building a multiuse path that connects from near Yawkey Station past Fenway Station and beyond, so there will be an even nicer bike route for cyclists uncomfortable sharing a lane. Perhaps they will put some sharrows on Brookline Ave as well.

It's all part of this larger planning process:
http://www.cityofboston.gov/transportation/flk/

They recently finalized a new plan for Boylston St which will have wider sidewalks AND bike lanes, so that's definitely something to be happy about.
 
As I said, the Brookline street project has been completely canceled.

The only work that will be done is fixing current conditions (resetting sidewalks if there are cracks and such)
 
I can live with the Back Bay-ification of Kenmore, but the ugly horizontal armed traffic lights don't really complement that image. Imagine the Commonwealth Avenue mall or Newbury Street blemished with that blunt crap. Back Bay's streets are called Parisian for a reason; the boulevards there don't need overhead signals, even where five intersect.
 
cden4 said:
They recently finalized a new plan for Boylston St which will have wider sidewalks AND bike lanes, so that's definitely something to be happy about.
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To clarify, it's outer Boylston/the Boylston extension and not Boylston Proper. I think a certain lady representative's head would spin right off if Boylston in the Back Bay was dug up for wider sidewalks. The construction vehicles, DEY HAZ TEH SHADOWZZZZZZZZ!!!111!! O NOES!
 
In fact, I'd prefer to have overhead traffic lights removed everywhere in the city, and the signals instead mounted on poles at the sides of streets or in the medians. Overhead signals especially don't belong on park roads such as Memorial Drive or the Fenway/Riverway.
 
That is the biggest problem with all the work on Cambridge Street. The overhead lights, the sheer number of them, just ruin it.
 
I'm surprised that no residents complained about this during the initial review processes.
 
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