Commonwealth Avenue Improvement Project

I don't think so; unlike Huntington, it's not on the same alignment as the subway.
 
Some Comm Ave news further out - Newton is reconstructing the median and key intersections between Centre Street and the city line by BC.

The median work is straightforward - new curbs and better landscaping; this already happened a few years back on the stretch of Comm Ave west of Centre Street.

The intersection work is a bit more troubling, specifically at Grant Ave and Hammond Street. I've never noticed congestion at these intersections resulting from turning before, but apparently there was because they're installing signals that cycle through every-which-turning-signal. What's especially silly is that the left turns off of Comm Ave get their own signal cycle, but the street is only one lane in each direction. Isn't that... useless? Unless the front few cars happen to want to turn left, the signal is completely wasted. Ever since they've installed these, I've noticed greatly increased driving and idling times along this route.

One nice thing however about the intersections is that they're adding traffic islands in some of the intersection dead space, which could make these much more attractive and safe for pedestrians.
 
Long past time to resurrect this thread.

The 25% design for Comm Ave Phase 2A can be viewed at this link. This design is over 2 years old but the city has not updated anyone or anything since. Conversations seem to indicate that not much has changed and the 75% design will be coming out sometime in the next few months. Phase 2A is funded in the FY2015 TIP so it is supposed to be ready to go by October of this year. The city of Boston, BTD, is responsible for the design, which they will give to MassDOT for implementation.

I'm glad to see, digging through this thread, that other people have noticed the shortcomings of Phase 1. Unfortunately, Phase 2A looks poised to repeat the same mistakes, including significant sidewalk narrowing, additional fencing, and no bike lane improvement.

The 25% design does not show any MBTA improvement but supposedly the T is right now engaged in an internal process to decide station consolidation options. Perhaps some of that will come to light next Wednesday, May 28th, at the Green Line Forum.

I am working on organizing a group of people interested in fixing the numerous problems with the Phase 2A design (and beyond). Send me a message if you are interested in joining.
 
Matthew said:
Long past time to resurrect this thread.

The 25% design for Comm Ave Phase 2A can be viewed at this link. This design is over 2 years old but the city has not updated anyone or anything since. Conversations seem to indicate that not much has changed and the 75% design will be coming out sometime in the next few months. Phase 2A is funded in the FY2015 TIP so it is supposed to be ready to go by October of this year. The city of Boston, BTD, is responsible for the design, which they will give to MassDOT for implementation.

I'm glad to see, digging through this thread, that other people have noticed the shortcomings of Phase 1. Unfortunately, Phase 2A looks poised to repeat the same mistakes, including significant sidewalk narrowing, additional fencing, and no bike lane improvement.

The 25% design does not show any MBTA improvement but supposedly the T is right now engaged in an internal process to decide station consolidation options. Perhaps some of that will come to light next Wednesday, May 28th, at the Green Line Forum.

I am working on organizing a group of people interested in fixing the numerous problems with the Phase 2A design (and beyond). Send me a message if you are interested in joining.
Click to expand...

This is something you will probably never see me say again, but at 25' and 20' the Comm Ave sidewalks could be narrowed without any ill effects.
 
Two things: they're actually not that wide because they're cluttered with stuff, utility boxes, poles, sidewalk cafes, etc. City plans might actually reduce available space below 10 feet for walking (already the case in some sections), and you know how heavy pedestrian volumes can get. Two, what are we getting in return? I might consider it if the return was something awesome like a cycle track. But actually it just seems like they're narrowing the sidewalk to widen the travel lanes, add left turn lanes, or just more anti-pedestrian "spite-space" (my name for greenspace that does nothing to enhance the street for non-motorists, and seems to exist mostly to annoy pedestrians).

I might be less concerned if the city hadn't already demonstrated its incompetence in Phase 1. They installed so much fancy street furniture that the walking paths are greatly reduced, in some cases, nothing more than 4-5 feet across. Pedestrian traffic, especially undergrads running between classes, is so heavy that I've taken to walking on the grass, the spite-space, and even the motorway, just to get through when I'm passing by in those times.

If Comm Ave is to be a "great" walking street then it should have a wide sidewalk. Boston has a sad history of cutting sidewalks down to almost nothing, with complete neglect from city agencies. Comm Ave is one of the few exceptions to that, and I think it should be protected. On a street like Comm Ave, a 20 ft wide sidewalk should be considered a minimum, and it should become a public space. If it gets any smaller, it cannot be a public space, just another "roadway" for pedestrians.
 
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I think it's a waste to line the B line with trees. We don't need to hide the train.
 
I think that Boston uses trees here to hide the "dirty Green Line" from precious suburbanite eyes. Wouldn't want them to see how the other half lives.

Ok ;) Having said that, I think that Brookline has managed to achieve a pretty cool effect on Beacon Street with the old growth trees arching over the right-of-way. New Orleans does that too. Key characteristic of both: no damn fence down the middle!

Trees are nice. But not so nice when they are used as a "weapon" against pedestrians the way Boston often does.
 
All those A frame signs are illegal. A few years ago the city confiscated all signs on Newbury St that were on the public sidewalk and not private property. Perhaps it's time for the same on Comm Ave.
 
Or if the sidewalk was wider there, those A-frames wouldn't be an issue at all. Too much of Comm Ave space is used up by grass set backs (CAS side) and things like the plant area with bench and etc (the fence is useful, if unintentionally, as a bike rack). As for the picture itself, I would have to first recommend not putting tree and bench there.
 
The issue is that the T tracks aren't actually in the center of Comm Ave. For whatever reason, they are 10' closer to the inbound streetwall than the outbound side. So in their attempt to make everything the same, the inbound sidewalk got considerably reduced in width. Further exasperating the issue is that the narrower inbound side is where all the commercial activity is (A-frames, more people going in and out), while the wider outbound side is primarily academic, with setbacks and less signage and such. Without moving the T tracks though, you can't really fix it while keeping both sides the same.

With these conditions, I think the best solution would be to remove parking completely from the inbound side, and replace the parallel parking on the outbound side with angled parking. I think you would loose very few, if any spaces, and the inbound bike lane would be made considerably safer.
 
The bridge over the Mass Pike is planned to be replaced next year under a separate project.
 
There will be a 10 day shutdown of Comm Ave in Aug 2015 to do partial overpass replacement. All that will be allowed are peds, bikes and Green Line shuttle buses.

The remainder of the overpass will be replaced in a 10 day shutdown during Aug 2016. That should not require shutting down the Green Line "B" though.
 
Yup. They are doing a Design-Build project and will replace the superstructure on the bridge with the same type of bridge panels used on I-93 in Medford.
 
Some visual reminders of how insane it is that even the new Comm Ave design privileges speeding traffic above pedestrians:
IMG_20140912_145428.jpg


IMG_20140912_145813.jpg
 
Matthew said:
Some visual reminders of how insane it is that even the new Comm Ave design privileges speeding traffic above pedestrians:
IMG_20140912_145428.jpg


IMG_20140912_145813.jpg
Click to expand...

Thats rather dramatic-- this is probably from when classes were changing and there is a ton of foot traffic.
 
Huntington @ NEU is an identical situation. It's not a big deal to wait for a walk signal. Everyone does it... all over the world. Why do you always jump to the extreme, Matthew?
 
Yes -- between classes Comm Ave is overwhelmed with pedestrians: about 15,000 people trying to "change places" within a span of ten minutes along the length of campus.

One day I also tried counting the number of people passing just one particular spot on the sidewalk in this scene. I got to about 400 within 5 minutes before giving up.

It takes about 3 minutes to cross Comm Ave if you follow the walk signals (unless you get really lucky with timing). Meanwhile, there are very few cars, generally, leaving plenty of gaps to cross.

I can hardly blame anyone for looking at the empty road, knowing the awful signal timing, and just ignoring the signals. You ought to know by now how Boston is, datadyne, with the signal timing. If you think that it is "extreme" to cross the street between gaps with the cars then you are going to think that nearly 100% of Bostonians are "extremists".
 
Matthew said:
Yes -- between classes Comm Ave is overwhelmed with pedestrians: about 15,000 people trying to "change places" within a span of ten minutes along the length of campus.

One day I also tried counting the number of people passing just one particular spot on the sidewalk in this scene. I got to about 400 within 5 minutes before giving up.

It takes about 3 minutes to cross Comm Ave if you follow the walk signals (unless you get really lucky with timing). Meanwhile, there are very few cars, generally, leaving plenty of gaps to cross.

I can hardly blame anyone for looking at the empty road, knowing the awful signal timing, and just ignoring the signals. You ought to know by now how Boston is, datadyne, with the signal timing. If you think that it is "extreme" to cross the street between gaps with the cars then you are going to think that nearly 100% of Bostonians are "extremists".
Click to expand...

I jaywalk all the time. I wasn't calling the act of jaywalking extreme. It's part of living in Boston. If there are cars coming/steady stream of traffic, you wait for the signal. If there are none, you cross whenever you want. I lived on Huntington. I know how large amounts of pedestrians move in Boston. I am one. I just fail to see your point about Comm Ave here.

This is your original comment:
"Some visual reminders of how insane it is that even the new Comm Ave design privileges speeding traffic above pedestrians:"
to which you posted pictures of people waiting at a crosswalk for a couple cars to go. Your point is entirely unclear and appears overblown (hence "extreme"), just as every other anti-car comment you make on this board. The people waiting for the cars to pass can just as easily jaywalk as soon as the cars pass.
 
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