Neighbors,
I forward this so you will know what is going on at
Walden/Richdale and Walden/Raymond (Marjorie Decker’s typo of “Upland”
is ironic, as we can get none of this attention for Upland). Keep in mind
Walden also has a permanent truck ban…..
Anyway, I hope it all works.
Ruth
From:
richdale-ave-community@googlegroups.com
[mailto:richdale-ave-community@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of marjorie
Decker
Sent: Wednesday, May 27, 2009 10:14 AM
To: Richdale Ave Community
Subject: [Richdale Ave] traffic/pedestrian updates for walden richdale
and upland
Dear Neighbors,
I wanted to provide you an update regarding traffic flow and
pedestrian safety for the intersections of Walden/Richdale and Walden and
Upland.
I met with the Police Commissioner, head of the police
traffic enforcement, the City manager and the city's traffic engineer to
discuss the interesections.
Walden/Richdale
I discovered at this meeting the delay for the painting of
our Walden and Richdale cross walks was due to Mass Highway's delays.
Mass Highway contracted out to a business that uses a specialized paint and
finally scheduled them to paint out crosswalks. We discussed in our
meeting and agreed on the following
1. Only three pedestrian walks would be painted. The
reason to not paint the fourth-was to discourage pedestrians from crossing
Walden on the bridge. Given the steep the incline over the bridge toward
Richdale it was decided it was best not to chance cars rolling over the bridge
and not stopping in time for the pedestrian walk.
2. The Stop signs on Walden will eventually be taken
down and replaced with barrels at the crosswalk holding yellow signs that
remind drivers of pedestrian right of way rules. Given, that I advocated
for one of the stop signs on Walden, I was very reluctant to agree to
this....until I listened to both the police and the city engineer lay out their
concerns and logic. The primary reason for eventually removing the stop
signs is to avoid a collision of cars who drive over the bridge from Mass Ave.
The police spent several days observing the traffic patterns. Their conclusion
is that cars coming over the bridge may not see other cars at the stop sign in
time to fully stop--causing a rear end collision. To address the
pedestrian safety issues this raises-it is believed along with the painted
walks-the barrels will help yield the cars to pedestrians
crossing.
Everyone at the meeting (and I am sure many of you)
agreed this is a tricky intersection--the combination of the bridge, a major
cut through, and that the intersection itself is not a perfect square--all
add up to the need use caution when crossing and driving. When
the signs are taken down, unlike the last time, the police will be around to
help guide cars and pedestrians through the transition.
Walden/Upland
For many of you who like to use the park and
or tend the community garden; there has been deep concern
regarding the removal of the traffic lights. As you know the city
replaced the traffic lights with a raised walk in hopes of slowing traffic
down. The following observations were based on the police, the
city traffice engineer, the city manager and myself---all of us have
stood at the corner and counted cars to see if the changes have improved
the intersections. Cars are moving through the
intersection more slowly but many continue to drive through the stop
signs.
In order to address the continued pedestrian
safety issues the city is going to install a beta pedestrian cross
light. This pedestrian cross light will be the second to be erected in
the city. The first one is near the police station on Binney
Street. This cross light will signal cars to stop when a pedestrian
pushes the button. Since they removed the original light--I had been
advocating for a pedestrian light. It was finally explained to me that
the challenge of putting in a typical pedestrian cross light-would require a
traffic light to be installed (again) The light would remain green until
someone pushed the pedestrian light----A green light encourages car to drive
quickly through the light-in hopes of avoiding the yellow and the
red. The conclusion is that removing the lights has indeed
slowed cars down--again, not making it perfectly safe--just
safer. It is my hope that once the city installs the beta testing
pedestrian light--we will have a more safer intersection--cars are slower and
pedestrians have more tools to cross over to the park.
A couple of footnotes-After city engineers reviewed a
variety of other pedestrian lights (that have just come on the market) they
decided to design their own--believing this will be even safer than what is
offered. Commissioner Hass has been tremendously helpful and involved in
trying to help us improved both of these intersections. Lastly, had the
head of the City's traffic department taken the time to explain some of her
decisions this probably would have been resolved much sooner.
I realize some individuals might still feel frustrated or
disappointed with some of the changes. I hope folks at least find some relief
in knowing these issues are of great concerns to me and the city. It is a
work in progress.
Happy Rainy Day
Marjorie
Marjorie C. Decker
Cambridge City Councillor
mdecker@cambridgema.gov
www.marjoriedecker.com
617-349-4276 (office)
--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
"Richdale Ave Community" group.
To post to this group, send email to richdale-ave-community@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
richdale-ave-community+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/richdale-ave-community?hl=en
-~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---