So I decided to go for a bike ride along GLX. From Tufts to East Somerville and back. I took roughly 43 photos. That might be too much to share by directly posting on forum (if at all). So I'm sharing it via Google Drive and posting directly a few chosen photos with written commentary on the rest.
Here's the gallery:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-5rd9pEAQz1Gi-2XdIxKcVR5yetyfNU7 (sort by name with arrow up for Chronological order with me starting from Tufts to East Somerville)
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That said here's a few directly posted here
Tufts Station itself looks pretty complete. The area around does have more work - namely the sidewalk has not been poured in yet. I also find it interesting the high curb thing and the wooden guard rail. I wonder why either exists. Well I can get the wooden guard rail exists to keep cars from going the ditch into the tracks, but I don't know the design principles behind it. Like if it's a complies with MASH 2016 Manual - but even if it is TL-1 rated, why does that spot needs it while other exposed areas don't? That said, I can totally imagine groups of Tuft students sitting on it just to chill - which is nice.
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Ball Sq Station itself looks pretty complete. But a huge area next to it remains a giant mess. Also the substation is so drably. I hope one day we get a movement to get a fake building façade for the structure. It costs money but I do
believe there is worthwhile good. Especially since the gray drab is probably not that cheap in the first place.
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I also want to rant about this. This seems like a waste. It seems the bridge could have been wider and I do think we could have find uses. Maybe there is significant savings to just made it as only wide as needed but would I would like to know the savings difference.
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I found this spot pretty interesting to me. I guess it's just a service access point, but I wonder if has potential for more uses in the future.
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Another spot I feel it's a waste of space. A giant hill of grass and dirt that is a pretty significant amount of space. Maybe there's a reason but my laymen's eye just see unused vacant land that makes me think if we flatten it, it can become more community greenspace. Or even just a private house, I don't know, anything is more useful than an inaccessible hill.
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Another angle of Sycamore St. I didn't know the curb cut just started.
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On the positive side, the narrow bi-directional painted bike lane isn't a bad as it looks. But noticing the big yellow thing (what is it?)... it tells me that there's enough space to not only cut into a the hill, but cutting into the hill can be done without compromising the building. A long enough retaining wall can create space to move the yellow thing to the left of the photo and the bike trail and just be an L-shape turn instead of this whole street thing. They built a retaining wall for most of it anyways (albeit it might be Somerville can it's contractors for the new High School and not the GLX).
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And finally I reached East Somerville. It seems access is through quite an alleyway. I rode around to see if there's other ways but found nothing.
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But riding around did found this - I think it's pretty neat. Interestingly, the last time they wrote in it says "306" with 5/12/2018 in the corner.
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Finally I also noticed this. This is at Charles E Ryan Rd and Cedar St bridge. I can't help but notice there's another empty area between the retaining wall and the DPW. I wonder if we one can fit short pedestrian/bike paths in areas like behind the DPW. Also I wonder if GLX will repave the end of Charles E Ryan Rd or that's it as it's the end of a dead end street. Plus it's possible Somerville prefer it that way for rainwater reasons.
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