Whittemore Avenue provides a very useful shortcut from 16 north to Mass Ave. Entering Whittemore used to be prohibited from 4-6 pm; a year or two ago Cambridge changed it to 3-7 pm. The cop guarding the street usually goes home around 6:30.
I literally shifted my working hours to go in slightly later and stay later at the office so that I will arrive at Alewife at exactly 7 pm from Rt. 2 East every day when they made this change. I am always careful to drive extremely slowly and respectfully on Whittemore since it is a residential street, but waiting 15 minutes at that one Rt. 16/Mass Ave light every day was driving me crazy. I would love it if the city could do something to relieve the congestion there and make it easier to get on or off of Rt. 2.