Description
Cars, backed up on Walden St heading to Mass Ave. will turn into the on-coming traffic lane and drive down Walden and turn on Mead. Cars coming up Mead cannot see them and do not expect cars to be driving in the wrong lane. I have almost been hit several times and pedestrians are at grave risk.
43 Comments
Cambridge Public Works (Verified Official)
City Hall – DR (Verified Official)
GRScott (Registered User)
GRScott (Registered User)
GRScott (Registered User)
Ryan Frazer (Registered User)
Neighbor #9 (Registered User)
Skocpol (Registered User)
Cogswell Avenue Resident (Registered User)
Thank you, neighbors.
Once again we have taken the time to point out the egregiousness of this situation; the traffic worsens, the noise increases, the fuel exhaust spews and the blaring horns get ever shriller as does the imminent danger, especially to our elderly neighbors and young children.
I have been emailing and asking for feedback from Patrick Baxter as well as both the City Manager and the Assistant City Manager. It sometimes takes a month for a response. PB assures me he and his group (traffic engineers) are making observations and will determine next steps, but this is such a slow process (why?) and we are having to endure traffic noise and pollution unnecessarily in the meantime and worry about accidents.
I have been monitoring the situation independently for more than two years and have watched cars speed down Cogswell, and fly through the stop sign at corner of Mead and Cogswell-- putting all residents and especially kids at risk; furthermore, up near Mass Ave, every afternoon-evening the traffic jams and backs up all the way down Cogswell Ave, with its noise pollution and fuel exhaust pollution oppressing the neighborhood, not to mention the blaring radios from some cars as well as the car horns. These streets are not designed for cut-through traffic.
I'm willing to formalize our group as concerned neighbors and am willing to organize a meeting with the city. I believe this venue--while helpful for reporting and logging comments-- goes nowhere if the past is our test. If you look at the comments' history on this issue, it goes back a few years and the city has done zilch to date, and now here we are again with the congestion and danger increasing, putting residents at even more risk. As we all feel, this situation carries a certain gravity, an accident is bound to happen. The city knows this bc I've been explicit with this concern, and it's on the city to attend and triage this traffic debacle. It is not on the city to encourage cut through, and if that is its strategy, then we are being put at risk knowingly, so we, therefore, need to organize ourselves bc the city is not working to ensure our safety and quality of life, which means city government here in North Cambridge is not working for its people. If the city is not working for us, it is working against us, and then the concern is a legal one bc the city has chosen to expedite its need for traffic flow at our expense. I welcome your comments.
GRScott (Registered User)
GRScott (Registered User)
GRScott (Registered User)
Cogswell Avenue Resident (Registered User)
GRScott (Registered User)
Yes this is still an issue! One child almost got hit recently and I watched as a car raced down the oncoming traffic lane and make a fast turn onto Mead and then aggressively tailgate a car trying to pull into their house.
Will it really take someone getting killed or seriously injured for the city to take action ?
Skocpol (Registered User)
GRScott (Registered User)
GRScott (Registered User)
Cogswell Avenue Resident (Registered User)
GRScott (Registered User)
GRScott (Registered User)
Skocpol (Registered User)
GRScott (Registered User)
GRScott (Registered User)
GRScott (Registered User)
GRScott (Registered User)
Cogswell Avenue Resident (Registered User)
GRScott (Registered User)
GRScott (Registered User)
City Hall – DR (Verified Official)
Acknowledged Traffic - PB (Engineering) (Registered User)
We shared this with the Cambridge Police Traffic Enforcement Unit previously and continue to work with them on this. If you'd like to follow up with them directly about this or similar issues, you can call their office at 617-349-4365 or send an email here: www.cambridgema.gov/cpd/policeunits/operationsdivision/trafficenforcementunit
In addition, the Traffic, Parking, and Transportation Department has been working on this issue; a proposed solution will be presented and discussed with the community as part of an upcoming online public engagement process anticipated to take place in before the end of the year. Once that meeting is scheduled, we will share more information in this thread. Please email tpt@cambridgema.gov to share feedback.
City Hall – DR (Verified Official)
GRScott (Registered User)
GRScott (Registered User)
Cogswell Avenue Resident (Registered User)
GRScott (Registered User)
GRScott (Registered User)
GRScott (Registered User)
Skocpol (Registered User)
GRScott (Registered User)
GRScott (Registered User)
Cogswell Avenue Resident (Registered User)
GRScott (Registered User)
Concerned NC Neighbor (Registered User)
You need to rephrase this so that it sounds like a bicycling safety issue. That will get it resolved within just a few hours. Anything relating to pedestrian or automotive safety is blocked by a very strict yet unwritten policy.
It is a bit of a wonder why Cambridge PD has a similar strict policy banning all activity which might resemble traffic enforcement. According to CPD's own published data, the entire department, including the ironically named Traffic Enforcement Unit, spends a combined 1 man-hour on traffic enforcement per day. Meanwhile, it's never been more dangerous to be a pedestrian in Cambridge due to rampant disregard by drivers for basic traffic laws like stop signs and red lights. Go figure.
By anyway, you just need to restate your concerns as being around bicycle safety. They don't need to be true, and it's ok if all objective data shows that this has nothing to do with bicycle safety. Once you say the magic words, Heaven and Earth will be moved in order to appease the bike mob.