Commonwealth Avenue Improvement Project

The main problem with parkways in the Boston area is that the DCR refuses to put any kind of bike accommodation on the roadway, and squeezes as many lanes of traffic on them as they can. If they eliminated some general lanes and put in some bike lanes, it would slow the traffic and make them much more pleasant. The DCR's position has typically been that bikes should be accommodated off the roadway, which is fine for some people, but you can't make all the connections you need that way, nor do all bicyclists want to ride on the paths all the time.
 
Some DCR parkways are pleasant places to ride a bike -- for instance, Mystic Valley Parkway from West Medford to Winchester. I'd like to see Alewife Brook Parkway restriped to look like this.
 
Riverworks, I am a big fan of driving along parkways myself. In fact, any time I drive down to New York City, I make sure I seek out the Merritt Parkway and I've driven a few around Long Island just for the hell of it. I don't disagree that as a driver, it's a pleasure to cruise along one of those roads.

I just think that in this day and age, we shouldn't contribute to the automobile dependency by building roads that encourage people to drive. Now, retrofitting inner-suburban parkways to easily accommodate bicycles; that's a good idea.

Didn't mean to join in on the attack, everyone's entitled to his own opinion.
 
The Taconic State Parkway (heads north from Westchester Co. up to near Albany) is also a great driving experience. The car nut in me loves how tight some of those old-design turns are (the closest thing we have to the Autobahn).
 
The Taconic is beautiful, but in bad weather, it's truly harrowing.
 
People drive @ highway speed. Lanes are narrow. Lots of "shallow" on- and off-ramps.
 
Sure, it requires a bit more attentiveness than the Thruway -- but I wish the entire Interstate system had been built to its standard, rather than 'modern highway' standards.

Anyway, we've gotten way off the topic of Comm. Ave. or Kenmore Square. Perhaps this should be broken off into a separate thread.
 
Here, here to the Taconic. My absolute favorite road to drive on bar none. The windy section around Bear Mountain is a lot of fun.
 
Theyre making new holes, march 26

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hmmmm this project is a lot like the one on the Rose Kennedy Greenway.
well just the sidewalk part.

lol ! !
 
Bike lanes are great in theory, but I fear they'll be useless here. People will use it as a turning lane or to double park (like Cambridge St from Lechmere to Inman), and that will be the end of it -- it'll still be a very unsafe road.
 
GOOD NEWS EVERYONE!

Something is being done right!

Blandford street T stop is finally evolving from concrete with yellow to an actual safe, usable stop!

Even more exciting is that a sidewalk is being added in the car return by Kenmore square which is frequently used by pedestrians to get from brookline or beacon street to comm ave. Previously, people would simply walk down the middle of the street.

Now the question is: Will the left turn lane at Blandford be forever removed (thus decreasing B line trip times by 30s-75s), or will the line be repainted

Taken today:

The platform is doubling in size
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Itll continue to the light
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The current platform is tiny
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Sidewalk going past the portal
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Allll the way down
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The girl is a perfect example of what MANY people do
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That is good news, but better would be the elimination of the stop entirely.
 
vanshnookenraggen said:
That is good news, but better would be the elimination of the stop entirely.
Click to expand...

No way. Blandford is so integral to the BU fabric. Don't really see the point in widening the platform though. It serves its purpose as is. I guess it will look nicer.
 
My first post...have always read the forums (I have always been very interested in Boston architecture/development) but am now finally joining, anyway, back on topic...

Good news with the widening of the platform. I like the above ground station as is, it just needs some maintenence, which will be addressed by this widening. Everything will depend on the final result, but I like what I see so far.
 
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