Washington St. Pilot (updated)
UPDATE
This project is now (as of May 15, 2024) at 75% design, which means that 75% of the design is complete.
I am compelled to restate that I want the city to end up with a successful pilot; I beleive this is an important statement to make as I have been critical of the process that Newton has undertaken to this point. That includes a memo written to the project team underscoring and clarifying missing information, unanswered questions and 1 or 2 instances of conflicting information from our latest presentation at Public Facilities (a link to the meeting recording will be posted here).
My concerns so far have focused on ensuring that we conduct a pilot that is measuring all of the impacts (intended and unintended) from the road reconfigurations.
I suggest that anyone interested in this project, including anyone who uses Washington St to read the proposal. If you have any questions, I will be happy to help get them answered. There is an updated project summary from the city’s consultants.
Since this project is utilizing ARPA resources to fund the project, Newton will be pressing ahead to get the pilot RFP out to bid shortly, and designs will be implemented shortly thereafter.
ORIGINAL POST (March, 2024)
Washington St. is one of the busiest roads in Newton and is one of a few (including Rte 9, Beacon St., Commonwealth Ave) that run through the entirety of Newton from east-west.
The city intends to run a long-term pilot (3 years) to “Create a more safe, attractive, friendly, and welcoming environment for residents, visitors, and businesses”. This is a $3.2MM pilot (including both design and build-out) that will run between Lowell Ave and Chestnut St, and
Create an entirely new traffic pattern including reducing traffic lanes to one lane in each direction, plus a ‘turn lane’ to reverse direction
Add a two-way buffered shared use lane (bicycles and pedestrians) on the South side of the street
Accommodate estimated parking requirements for existing businesses along Washington St.
The traffic planning department has a dedicated page to this project - with a lot of information, including a comprehensive presentation from the consultant (HSH) hired to design the changes to Washington St.
I was one of only a few councilors who did not vote for this project. Again, while I support improving the safety of our roads, I believe that too many questions are unanswered. These include how much traffic do we think will be displaced onto side streets (eg., Watertown St.), how are we measuring the pilot, what does success (or failure) look like.
The 75% complete design is being shared at a Public Meeting on April 11th. No location for this meeting has been announced, but there is a Zoom Link available already.
I will be looking forward to the further definition of the program details, which, in my opinion should have been defined BEFORE spending the time and resources we already have.
