I-90 Interchange Improvement Project & West Station | Allston

The EGE said:
I do see their point about private auto traffic, though. There is a huge amount of east-west pedestrian traffic - primarily BU students - through the Alcorn area. Dumping a whole lot of through traffic on those streets would indeed be bad for BU students; even a well-designed street is harder to cross than an empty street.
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What's your opinion on the current state of Linden St and Harvard Ave? Is BU students having a "safe" walk more important than the only feasable way to alleviate that horrendous congestion?
 
whighlander said:
If anyone sent such a letter -- they wasted the effort of both themselves [who cares]

and the opportunity to contribute something useful toward something which will be here long after the letter writer goes to Aspen or Portland Oregon, etc.

It's important to separate your underlying beliefs from the reality of the situation
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What are you talking about?
 
The EGE said:
The BU administration is also hilariously anti-transit - the current Transportation Master Plan actually claims that the 57 and the B are under capacity at rush hour, and the BU Bus is only ever used to travel to/from the med campus. So it's not surprising that they're opposed to buses.

I do see their point about private auto traffic, though. There is a huge amount of east-west pedestrian traffic - primarily BU students - through the Alcorn area. Dumping a whole lot of through traffic on those streets would indeed be bad for BU students; even a well-designed street is harder to cross than an empty street.
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I go across Alcorn Street every day. It's pretty quiet. I guess there might be students walking to the 120 Ashford Street track & field facility. The numbers in the BU transportation master plan are fairly small.

I know they claim that the "B" line is "under capacity" but their raw data numbers say otherwise. I think they just interpreted them ridiculously. The raw data in that report has been quite useful, however.
 
If anyone would like to share their thoughts more publicly about West Station & BU, the Globe story (BU had agreed to help pay for Allston station, March 16) is a good opportunity to write a Letter to the Editor.

letter@globe.com
Include name, address, and daytime number
200 words or fewer
 
Malvern currently ends at a terrible side of Packard's Corner; I can't imagine that being useful for anything but right turns onto Brighton. Alcorn doesn't currently have a signalized intersection, so you'd be slowing down all Comm Ave traffic for the light. Babcock is potentially wide enough for two-way traffic plus traffic calming, though I'm sure not Brookline would be happy having a lot of the traffic continue down Babcock which is fairly quiet south of Comm.

So...eh. There's no good way to do it, and no good way not to do it.
 
Babcock has some important role. That's why the City/BU removed the parking and striped a block of bike lanes.
 
I'm open to the idea of creating an intersection at Alcorn Street on Comm Ave. We would like to see a crosswalk installed at that point, actually. It's very heavily used by people trying to get to the supermarket. Right now they cut through the small MBTA switching area.

Slowing down Comm Ave is a feature. Anything that can be done to cut down the reckless speeding on Comm Ave is a benefit to the neighborhood. More connectivity, slower speeds.
 
This pdf popped up on rr.net. It has a nice street grid for the redeveloped yards area, provisions for airrights development over the retained yard tracks with room for 14 9 car consists, and bus layover room in the station with several different configurations from no connections to limited connections to BU, which I presume is to allay BU's concerns of buses idling on 'their' streets.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0Mv_n6nNyOTWm5vanlGUTJsdUk/edit

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Seems to correspond with Option 3J-3 from the ENF
 
Yes, also I should mention that there will be a public hearing on June 17th, 6pm, Jackson-Mann. This is the next in the series of public hearings promised by MassDOT on the project.
 
Interesting they also included a plan for consolidating Green Line B stations (Babcock+Pleasant) and (St Paul+BU West).
 
I used to live near the River St. Bridge on the Cambridge side and I used to walk over there all the time. I really hope this goes through because it always felt like a wasteland to me.
 
Matthew said:
Yes, also I should mention that there will be a public hearing on June 17th, 6pm, Jackson-Mann. This is the next in the series of public hearings promised by MassDOT on the project.
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Matt, has there been any discussion on closing the Soldier's Field EB ramps to Cambridge St. with two alternate access points in place? That seems like it would make a huge difference to traffic over that bridge.
 
There is a comment deadline on Wednesday for this project. It would be a great help to have everyone in this group and all of the creative ideas that have been discussed here sent to MassDOT by as many people as possible.

A sample letter is below. Sending it "as is" with your name at the bottom is good. Personalizing it with why this is so important to you is even better.

--------------------------------

July 1, 2015

Patricia Leavenworth, P.E.
Chief Engineer
MassDOT
10 Park Plaza, Boston, MA 02116
dot.feedback.highway@state.ma.us

ATTN: Bridge Project Management, Project File No. 606475

Dear Ms. Leavenworth,

This half billion-dollar project is too important to be little more than a massive highway project based on inflated future traffic predictions.

Neighbors and advocates have had clear, reasonable, and progressive goals since this project started in 2013:

  1. Reuniting Allston’s North & South neighborhoods by connecting Cambridge Street and Commonwealth Ave.
  2. A new “People’s Pike” off-road, multi-use path for walking and biking to the Charles River, Memorial Drive via the Grand Junction railroad bridge, and Comm Ave.
  3. The transformation of Cambridge Street from an overbuilt speedway into a vibrant neighborhood street with protected bike lanes from Harvard Ave to the River.
  4. Safe and inviting access from all directions to a new West Station transit stop.
  5. Decking over the highway and railyards to reduce noise and air pollution & create a place for buildings, parks, and better travel connections (like the Prudential over the Mass Pike and the Rose Kennedy Greenway over I-93).

MassDOT has said that you are listening, but your current design does not show it. Instead, MassDOT proposes:

  1. Overbuilt roads that encourage more traffic in the neighborhood.
  2. No bus routes connecting Cambridge St and Comm Ave.
  3. Circuitous and unwelcoming routes for people walking and biking to the Charles River and West Station.
  4. A slightly wider sidewalk instead of a real People’s Pike.
  5. A sliver of parkland instead of a true “Allston Esplanade.”
  6. No plan to deck over the highway, but instead, a three-level West Station design that is incompatible with decking.
  7. An extension of Seattle Street that will dramatically increase traffic on neighborhood streets.

I hope that as this project progresses, you will place greater emphasis on the following four priorities:

Fix the Pike AND Allston
If we do this right, we will have a better highway, a better neighborhood for current and future residents, and safer streets for everyone. We only have one chance to make this a community building, environmental restoration, public health, and economic development project--not just a highway project.

Fix the Charles River parkland
The narrowest section of the Charles River path is next to this project. This project presents an opportunity to create a new “Allston Esplanade” riverfront park (much grander than the 20’ path widening currently proposed by MassDOT) connected to Allston by a “People’s Pike” for pedestrians and cyclists comparable to the Commonwealth Avenue Mall in the Back Bay.

New administration, new start
Governor Baker’s team should take a fresh look at this project and its potential impact and benefits. That means including top-level officials from MassDOT, Housing and Economic Development, DCR, and the City of Boston.

Value for taxpaying citizens
Fixing the Pike is necessary and expensive -- the current estimate is $460 million. We owe it to ourselves to maximize economic development that can help pay for the project. If this project is not creating Boston’s next great neighborhood for people to live, work, and play, we're leaving money on the table and making problems that will be more expensive or impossible to fix in the future.

Thank you for your attention to these important issues.

Sincerely,
<name>
<address>
 
Harry Mattison said:
and here's a summary of the meeting on June 17
https://storify.com/PeoplesPike/massdot-meeting-for-a-new-mass-pike-in-allston
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Harry

From what I can see the usual suspects are out and about and have convinced themselves that cars will be gone well before they depart to Portland, Boulder, Austin, etc.

What they miss in their well intentioned naivety -- is that despite their desire for walking and biking everywhere -- i.e. People's Highway -- you can always make excess roads into bike paths, transit lines, parks, even strips of development of shops and housing

However, the reality is that what you can't do is 50 years from now tear down blocks filled with housing or community centers, etc., to remedy the failure to allocate enough ROW for transportation [of whatever mode] -- the last person to have that power was Baron Haussmann*1

By the way -- the DOT is now led by Stephanie Polock -- an original True Believer -- if you can't trust her CLF upbringing then you might as well start peddling west right now

*1 OK Comrade Stalin
 
^^I want to echo Harry's sentiments and also encourage each of you to send a response in. He has been working on this for many months with local advocates.
 
whighlander said:
From what I can see the usual suspects are out and about and have convinced themselves that cars will be gone well before they depart to Portland, Boulder, Austin, etc.
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Really? I've never heard anyone talking about when cars will be gone. Do you want to discuss what's actually being considered?
 
Do you want to discuss what's actually being considered?
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Please don't prompt him to elaborate on his straw man argument. Because he will. Ad nauseum.
 
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