After successfully piloting a Neighborhood Slow Streets program in the Talbot-Norfolk Triangle in Dorchester’s Codman Square and Stonybrook in Jamaica Plain, the Boston Transportation Department is accepting applications for the next round of its Neighborhood Slow Streets program to improve roadway safety.
North Allston is home to schools, churches, a library, parks, and senior housing. There is also a significant amount of cut-through traffic that too often drives at high speeds through the residential neighborhood. This combination could make it a great candidate for this program. The application process does not include specific recommendations, it is more a general expression of interest and willingness to collaborate with Boston Transportation and Public Works Departments through a series of public meetings.
If you’d like to support this application, please send a letter of support to slowstreetsallston@gmail.com by March 1. You can use this template if you’d like: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZjGde2MFBQ1i6_Cz28f7cBSy4XOXUMV6yMT_XhvT62Q/copy
More info at: https://www.boston.gov/news/transportation-department-accepting-applications-neighborhood-slow-streets-program
Program application: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B0Mv_n6nNyOTNVcwRFVUNTBfdXM
From Will:
Harry asked me to sign a letter of support for the proposal. It makes sense to me, but I asked him to put up this post so that I could get broader feedback on it before weighing in. It seems like a very positive approach — oriented to safety and very collaborative with the community.
Your thoughts?
North Allston already faces major challenges from the heavy commuting routes that surround it. Continued expansion from Harvard, New Balance, and other developers will intensify the particular problem of through traffic using local shortcuts, and of North Harvard St., a residential street, carrying unbearable traffic loads. The new configuration of I-90 will pose a whole new level of threat–every effort must be made to keep access routes out of the neighborhood. For all these reasons the slow streets proposal is crucial, and I greatly appreciate your willingness, Senator, to support it.
I am very much in favor of the Slow Streets proposal.
Dear Senator Brownsberger,
I am a homeowner and lifelong resident of North Harvard Street, Allston. I write in support of the Neighborhood Slow Streets Program proposed by Harry Mattison. We are desperate for relief from around the clock heavy trucks and construction vehicles driving past our residential homes to various sites in the surrounding neighborhoods at all hours of the day and night. In addition there are large tankers hauling hazardous materials, UPS delivery trucks, oversized-dump trucks going back and forth from the City Maintenance Yard on the corner of Everett Street for salt, large buses going to Harvard University events, Boston Public School buses going to neighborhood schools, garbage trucks, etc. The MBTA Route 66 bus also travels this street and during commuter rush hour, they get backed up 2, 3 or 4 buses all together (the first bus is packed full with riders and the rest are empty). North Harvard Street has parked cars on both sides of the street, bicycle lanes (used by joggers, skateboarders, kids on scooters) which makes for a dangerous accident waiting to happen. A few years ago a large auto carrier accidentally caught and pulled down utility lines from a pole on North Harvard Street resulting in a serious head injury to a pedestrian walking to the Honan-Library to vote. Pedestrians such as grammar school age children, seniors from the McNamara House, and library patrons visiting the Honan-Allston Library need to be safe. North Harvard Street is single lane traffic in both directions, so close to our residential homes that we can reach out from our porch and touch them. The air quality from diesel fumes, noise pollution is horrific and your help is needed to alleviate the bad effects of this heavy traffic. Thank you for any assistance you are able to give to us residents, Paula Alexander, President, Friends of the Honan-Allston Library and resident of North Harvard Street, Allston