Tremont Steet @ Boston Common

C

Commuting Boston Student

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I've been hanging around downtown more recently, and this is something that I've recently noticed that bothers the hell out of me.

Where Tremont Street runs next to Boston Common, between Park and Stuart Streets. it opens up to a gigantic four lanes... all moving one way.

Why is Tremont Street configured this way? There's several stop lights and crosswalks down that street, so it's hardly a high-speed arterial. My own 'eyeballing' of the traffic patterns makes me believe it's not a volume usage issue, I don't see any reason why the prevailing traffic direction needs to be southbound, and four lanes of all general traffic seems to me to be incredibly inefficient.

Why haven't two of those lanes been taken for other direction traffic, one of them taken as a bus lane, hell, I've made my opinion of bike lanes very clear but even one of those would be a better 'cost of paint only' modification to that road.
 
Seems like Tremont and Washington used to form a complimentary pair of one-ways before Washington was closed to vehicular traffic at DTX. Completely agree, though - Tremont should be made into a two-way from at least Boylston connecting all the way to Court/Cambridge.

In a similar vein, the set of Arlington/Beacon/Charles around the Common has always annoyed me. Charles is one-way northbound until Beacon where it slams into the section that is one-way southbound through Beacon Hill. And if Beacon is meant to be the compliment to Boylston, then Tremont ought to be one-way northbound and all south/west traffic should be diverted onto Beacon reconfigured from Charles east to be one-way westbound. Makes no sense why both Tremont and Beacon are oriented away from Downtown.

There's a LOT of room for improvement in terms of street set up all around the Common.
 
Agreed, those streets dont make any sense
 
I'm glad to see that others think the traffic flow around the Common is absolutely absurd. It makes getting to certain places an absolute nightmare.
 
^ Moving toward tangent territory here, but someone—I don't know if it's one of you guys from these boards—once posted on my blog an anecdote that I quite enjoyed:

Charles Street story: When I first lived on Beacon Hill, it was one-way outbound. Early one morning I walked down to Charles and saw work crews rotating all the signs 180 degrees. Watching them, in his trenchcoat, was Mayor Kevin White."You're just turning the street around, without warning?," I asked. He smiled and replied, "That's one of the fun things about being mayor."
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datadyne007 said:
I'm glad to see that others think the traffic flow around the Common is absolutely absurd. It makes getting to certain places an absolute nightmare.
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It almost looks like it's possible for a wayward tourist to get trapped in a never-ending circle of one way roads around the Public Garden. Forever.
 
I think the worst thing for the bridge-and-tunnel-set must be the bizarre Boylston Street split after Arlington... with no signage and no warning one side of the street takes you unstoppably towards South Station and the other side catapults you via Charles St into Beacon Hill, forcing on you about ten turns to get back to where you started to try again.

Some other peeves:

Charles Street one way through Beacon Hill is bad for the traffic flow and bad for the neighborhood, acting as it does like a high speed freeway for anyone coming off the Longfellow.

Charles Street between the parks is the most overbuilt piece of shit ever. Five lanes and street parking and a garage ramp for a go-nowhere road between two of the most visited parks in the city? Can you say "induced demand"...? This could be a one lane path and still handle the volume of traffic that truly needs to use it.

Tremont Street - the sidewalk on the retail side needs to eat a lane.

Beacon Street - totally illogical that it becomes one way just before hitting Tremont/Cambridge

Who taught these people about traffic flow? One way streets only work as sets on a grid, IF there's a grid. It makes no sense around the core meeting point of multiple windy-curvy neighborhoods like Beacon Hill, Downtown, Chinatown, etc. I'd say that in these neighborhoods, except for the smallest of streets that can only handle one lane of traffic, every other street should be two way without exception.
 
datadyne007 said:
I've done it before! It's so frustrating!
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I've done it... a lot. Especially confusing is that the common is five sided, but large enough that you don't notice so you think you've come full circle when really you haven't.

The other one-way hell is coming up Washington and getting forced onto Tremont southbound, then thrown into the spiral around the common for ever. I bet half the traffic down there are people who don't drive often (but know the area, like me) or out of towners endlessly looping around.

I wonder if a lot of the traffic on storrow is people avoiding the moderately efficient Comm Ave just because its such a pain in the ass to get around the common. Sometimes I'm not in a rush and wouldn't mind a leisurely drive through downtown but avoid it because its a hellhole.

/rant
 
Maybe we have an opportunity here where we could correct some of these terrible traffic patterns at the same time as adding in more/better sidewalks and getting rid of some parking and be able to actually have a road project that benefits people other than drivers?

Or at least, a pedestrian project with enough road elements that the 'War on Cars' crowd doesn't get riled up?
 
Have you noticed how during many evening rush hours, the Bridge Over Troubled Waters health care RV is taking up a lane on Tremont? WTF? Could they move the stupid thing out of the way please?
 
Tremont Street facing the Common used to have parking on both sides of the street. When was that removed, maybe 5-10 years ago?

I work on that block now. It would improve things to have a bus lane furthest to the right, two lanes, then a "local" lane, perhaps (for cars coming on from West and other streets), and parking furthest to the left.

Regarding the one-wayness, I have often thought recently about a post, "How one-way streets harm cities." There are so many one-way streets now that do nothing but allow cars to speed at the expense of the urban experience.
 
JohnAKeith said:
Regarding the one-wayness, I have often thought recently about a post, "How one-way streets harm cities." There are so many one-way streets now that do nothing but allow cars to speed at the expense of the urban experience.
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I presume you've read Death & Life? That's in there.
 
Tremont should be a two-way street from Marginal to Park. No reason not too, it's basically a 4-lane one-way that whole length.
 
Just regard it as assurance that you're on the right track. The pitfalls of one-way streets is a point that bears repeating.
 
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