Road-race related street closures, Sunday 12/18

[ron_newman]

An e-mail and robo-call I received today:

Hello, This is Jackie Rossetti from the City of Somerville with information about road-race related street closures this weekend. On Sunday, December 18th beginning at 9am, the Somerville Police Department and Traffic and Parking Department will be detouring vehicles in and around the Davis, Teele, and Ball Square areas to accommodate the running of the annual Jingle Bell Road Race. Secondary roads in these areas may also be closed to through traffic beginning at 9am, and major roadways including Holland Street, Broadway (from Holland Street to North Street), Powderhouse Boulevard, Broadway along the Ball Square corridor, Cedar Street, and Highland Ave into Davis Square will be closed from 11am to approximately 1pm.

Buses in the Davis Square area will be rerouted during this time, including Red Line shuttles between Alewife, Davis, and Harvard Stations. Please plan accordingly if you need alternate transportation.

Somerville Police personnel will be stationed throughout these areas to direct traffic and provide detour information. (CLICK HERE TO SEE RACE MAP). We apologize for this temporary inconvenience, and thank you for your patience. If you have any questions regarding this information, please feel free to call 311 during regular business hours.

Comments

[intuition-ist.livejournal.com]

...so, if I happen to need to drive from my place on Highland Ave to Rt. 2 around 11 am, how would you suggest I do that?

My only option seems to be to park on-street somewhere *outside* the streets enclosed by the race route, on an evening when there's a decent chance of snow. :(

[ron_newman]

I'm the wrong guy to ask, as I'm only passing on the message I got. I suggest you call 311 tomorrow morning.

That said, I'd suggest just moving the car one block south of Highland Saturday night, and then Sunday morning driving Cedar St -> Elm St -> Beech St -> Mass Ave -> Rindge Ave -> Route 2

(And I see no forecast of snow for tomorrow night)

[intuition-ist.livejournal.com]

http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/hdfForecast?query=somerville%2C+ma&searchType=WEATHER

[ron_newman]

Maybe I should start using that site instead of weather.com, whose forecast makes no mention of snow.

Still, I doubt that a 30% chance will result in the city declaring a snow emergency.

[turil.livejournal.com]

Wunderground is indeed the weather site of geeks, including geeks who fly airplanes, apparently. :-)

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

Yeah, our neighborhood is pretty much completely screwed during these. I like road races but I do wish the routes did not *entirely enclose* where I live.

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

I've spent most of the past decade-plus enclosed by the standard Davis race route and it's never been an issue for me. I think there might have been one time I had to wait a few minutes before I could drive across some road, but over all, the odds of it being problematic seem to be pretty small. The roads are never closed for as long as they say they might be.

[davelew.livejournal.com]

That was definitely not the case yesterday. We asked three different SPD officers how we could get home during our 55-minute circumnavigation of Davis, and none of them would let us through or give us any information.

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

What the hell! While it's true this one is probably the largest neighborhood race and takes longest to finish (it passed in front of my place close to the finish, so that took a very long time since it's quite spread out by then), there is no good reason you shouldn't have been able to, for example, cross Highland at least until the start of the race or cross Holland just after the runners took off.

I've usually found officers to be really good about letting people through when possible. That sucks that you had to do that. :(

[ron_newman]

I'm starting to agree with the people who say the course routes need to change. For instance, why not have the start line be east of Davis Square, and the finish line west of it, or vice versa? Then keep Day Street, Dover Street, and College Avenue open as the way in and out of the otherwise encircled neighborhood.

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

Note that the course line in the map above is listed as 3.25 miles, which is ~.15 miles longer than 5K. Sometimes the races do start just east of the Square. This one has so many participants, that they need a few blocks worth of space just to fit everyone in behind the start line.

[ron_newman]

If they had shifted the start line for this one over to, say, Dave's Fresh Pasta (leaving Day, Dover, and College open), they could have added back the needed mileage by jogging up to Conwell and Sawyer avenues instead of Powderhouse Blvd.

No kidding

[shana-lyons.livejournal.com]

We ran out to the grocery store this morning and then spent 55 minutes trying to find a way back to our house (Off Kidder Ave) today. We ended up trying from each side of the neighborhood (Ball Sq., Highland, sneaking in through back roads from the Arlington side, etc) before finally getting behind the runners and making it in through Powderhouse.

Like the previous poster said, I'm all for road races, but there's got to be a way to keep least one way into/out of to a neighborhood open. Maybe the races could start and end a block or so away from each other so there was a viable method of exit? Or, perhaps spread them around town a bit so that all of them don't basically follow the exact same path? (Davis, Powderhouse, Ball Square, Cedar, Path/Highland/Davis) Aren't there other areas of Somerville to run in? I feel like the Turkey Trot, the Jingle Run, Ras Na Heirann (sp?), M.O.M's run, etc are all on the exact same course.

[cowgrrl.livejournal.com]

Thank you!!! This is much needed info I wouldn't have had. I must get somewhere tomorrow morning (by 87 or 88 bus)