Worcester Kelley Square

[#bancars]

MassDOT Roundabout Design Guide calls for either bikes to share the travel lane through the roundabout or to provide wide sidewalks for bikes to use. Striping a bike lane through a roundabout is explicitly discouraged.

That just makes it worse if apparently MassDOT's own design guide doesn't provide for bike accommodations in roundabouts. There are plenty of international examples about how to design safer roundabouts for people walking, cycling, and driving:

 

[Highwayguy]

That just makes it worse if apparently MassDOT's own design guide doesn't provide for bike accommodations in roundabouts. There are plenty of international examples about how to design safer roundabouts for people walking, cycling, and driving:

Should have clarified to say on road bike lanes. The bike lane above would be kosher. Also instead of sidewalks, technically l should have said “shared use paths”, but the way they end up getting designed, 90% of the time they appear just as double wide sidewalks to the average road user.

Personally, l’m not a huge fan of the policy, but it is based off studies indicating it is the safest option.

 

[#bancars]

This is an interesting (take?) on Polar Park?

Rhode Islanders, don’t go to Polar Park - The Boston Globe

It’s never good for fans when their local team becomes a pawn in a political game. Guess who loses?

www.bostonglobe.com

 

[chmeeee]

There should be a ban at the Federal level on public funding for stadium construction that benefits privately owned teams. It's not in the public's best interest. A ban at the local or state level doesn't accomplish anything because the team can always find somebody on the other side of the line willing to pony up. It also results in a lot of waste when teams abandon perfectly functional facilities for shiny new thing paid for by the public in another place.

 

[Equilibria]

This is an interesting (take?) on Polar Park?

Rhode Islanders, don’t go to Polar Park - The Boston Globe

It’s never good for fans when their local team becomes a pawn in a political game. Guess who loses?

www.bostonglobe.com

To be fair, that was in direct response to a different take that had front-and-center placement on the Globe website earlier that same day. Not sure I've ever seen something like that outside side-by-side letters to the editor.

There should be a ban at the Federal level on public funding for stadium construction that benefits privately owned teams. It's not in the public's best interest. A ban at the local or state level doesn't accomplish anything because the team can always find somebody on the other side of the line willing to pony up. It also results in a lot of waste when teams abandon perfectly functional facilities for shiny new thing paid for by the public in another place.

I hear the "Field of Schemes" stadium-scam argument, but the economics of minor-league sports may simply not permit nice stadiums paid for solely by team revenues, and owners of minor league teams aren't typically billionaires. Cities like Worcester and Pawtucket may genuinely need to chip in if they want a nice ballpark.

Now at the major league level, I'm totally with you.

 

[DBM]

I'd just like to point out that this Google streetview perspective of Kelley Square is one of the most oddly poetic and beautiful urban street vignettes you'll ever see. The savage ballet, or something like that. On the one hand, it's sheer kinetic anarchy... on the other, it has this incredibly graceful equilibrium of suspended bodies--vectors, actually! MC Escher-esque, I suppose?

(if not him, then what other great artist to compare it to?)

 

[#bancars]

I'd just like to point out that this Google streetview perspective of Kelley Square is one of the most oddly poetic and beautiful urban street vignettes you'll ever see. The savage ballet, or something like that. On the one hand, it's sheer kinetic anarchy... on the other, it has this incredibly graceful equilibrium of suspended bodies--vectors, actually! MC Escher-esque, I suppose?

(if not him, then what other great artist to compare it to?)

I miss the old Kelley Square. I'm still not sold on the purported safety benefits of the peanut.

 

[#bancars]

Is it just me or does the corrugated steel siding on Polar Park look terrible?

Brand-new Polar Park is ready to go, but will it be a good deal for Worcester? - The Boston Globe

Development around the new Triple A ballpark will be key for the city, which ponied up 55 percent of the construction costs.

www.bostonglobe.com

 

[Equilibria]

Is it just me or does the corrugated steel siding on Polar Park look terrible?

Brand-new Polar Park is ready to go, but will it be a good deal for Worcester? - The Boston Globe

Development around the new Triple A ballpark will be key for the city, which ponied up 55 percent of the construction costs.

www.bostonglobe.com

It's not just you. I get what they were trying to do and I think it's okay, but if you want you ballparks to look like brick jewel boxes (which is absolutely the best look), this looks cheap.

It's worth remembering that the development across the street is supposed to be red brick (I think) so the idea is to create some architectural diversity that looks organic and respects the industrial heritage of the site (I have no inside knowledge, but it seems obvious enough) When everything is done the corner may look nice in a 360 view. But for the most money ever paid for a minor league stadium, people want pretty, and this ain't.

 

[found5dollar]

Streetsblog take on the peanut:

Eyes On the Street: I Survived Worcester's New Kelley Square - Streetsblog Massachusetts

MassDOT's project upgraded several connecting streets in the Canal District with improved sidewalks and dedicated bike infrastructure.

mass.streetsblog.org

 

[393b40]

Key takeaway from that article:

Lighter-than-usual pandemic traffic may have helped

I've driven through it a few times now and my experience is when traffic is light it works really well. When traffic is jammed up, and it jams up frequently due to the nature of that intersection it is really really bad. It's incredibly difficult to merge into the peanut because Worcester drivers are assholes. I have no idea how this area is going to handle WooSox traffic on top of that. The inner lane of the peanut adds to the complications.

I'm worried that the planners for the peanut did their design based off of the wrong traffic observations.

 

[found5dollar]

Key takeaway from that article:



I've driven through it a few times now and my experience is when traffic is light it works really well. When traffic is jammed up, and it jams up frequently due to the nature of that intersection it is really really bad. It's incredibly difficult to merge into the peanut because Worcester drivers are assholes. I have no idea how this area is going to handle WooSox traffic on top of that. The inner lane of the peanut adds to the complications.

I'm worried that the planners for the peanut did their design based off of the wrong traffic observations.

I don't think the point of the peanut is to make things easier, it is to make things safer. For pedestrians and bicycles it seems to be doing that in spades. I haven't heard about car accident rates with the new design but from purely anecdotal evidence it seems to work for cars too.

 

[cubalibre]

Worcester drivers are assholes.

There is no way to civil engineer our way out of that truth.

 

[chmeeee]

I have no idea how this area is going to handle WooSox traffic on top of that.

One should accept that if you put in a new large capacity venue that traffic will be shite on event days.

 

[Arenacale]

I don't think the point of the peanut is to make things easier, it is to make things safer. For pedestrians and bicycles it seems to be doing that in spades. I haven't heard about car accident rates with the new design but from purely anecdotal evidence it seems to work for cars too.

That I don't have to say a prayer heading through there anymore is a big win.

 

[Arlington]

MassDOT Roundabout Design Guide calls for either bikes to share the travel lane through the roundabout or to provide wide sidewalks for bikes to use. Striping a bike lane through a roundabout is explicitly discouraged.

main lanes work well for experienced cyclists doing 10-15mph, And sidewalks and crosswalks should work well for inexperienced cyclists particularly if the sidewalks are wide enough.

For crossings, I like a super-bright, highly targeted (using cutoff louvers) box of light: As long as the distance between the tactile strips and as wide as the distance between the reflective white stripes.

Andover MA does this really well on the Phillips Andover campus

 

[cubalibre]

Some renovations on the beige office building that used to be a silent movie theater.
Also, the gas station next to Burger King disappeared and the site is prepped. I have no info on what is planned there.

Plot of the former gas station:

 

[cubalibre]

This new gas station is replacing the old one. Apparently there will be a drive through.

 

[cubalibre]

External renovations on the old silent movie theater are completed:

Before:

 

[citydweller]

The billboards detract from the nicely done restoration.