Elm St Pedestrian Concept
May. 24th, 2017 01:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skyyy posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
davis_squareWhat are your thoughts on this sketch of what Davis would look like with Elm St turned into a pedestrian-only area?
Deliveries could drive through during off peak hours. Buses would get a huge boost with the bus lane and better symmetry and turnarounds.
I'd especially like feedback on bikability. I didn't manage to fit bike lanes in anywhere, and we'd lose the door zone lane on Highland, but that'd be made up for by having a smaller slower intersection. Perhaps bikes could also share the bus lane? Would a 2-way cycletrack through the pedestrian area be too disruptive?
I'm also discussing it on twitter: https://twitter.com/skyqrose/status/867314846957801472
Deliveries could drive through during off peak hours. Buses would get a huge boost with the bus lane and better symmetry and turnarounds.
I'd especially like feedback on bikability. I didn't manage to fit bike lanes in anywhere, and we'd lose the door zone lane on Highland, but that'd be made up for by having a smaller slower intersection. Perhaps bikes could also share the bus lane? Would a 2-way cycletrack through the pedestrian area be too disruptive?
I'm also discussing it on twitter: https://twitter.com/skyqrose/status/867314846957801472
no subject
Date: 2017-06-04 05:09 pm (UTC)There was never a full account in any print outlet, though I do recall a brief notice in the Globe or Somerville Journal. I believe the consultant was named Veigh, first name possibly Bob. He came from a contract with Tufts for Chinatown planning around Tufts' Boston holdings. His contract with the City was a sole sourced negotiated contract, for which the required OMB documentation was not in the City's file prior to the time the citizen complaint was received by HUD. When, predictably in those days, the required materials were introduced and back-dated, the falsification of the record became the grounds for voiding the contract. None of this appeared in the press.
Josiah Lee Auspitz
17 Chapel Street
Somerville, MA 02144
phone: 617-628-6228, fax: -9441
Alternative email: JosiahLeeAuspitz@yahoo.com
From: skyyy - DW Comment [mailto:dw_null@dreamwidth.org] Sent: Monday, May 29, 2017 5:32 PM To: jlauspitz@comcast.net Subject: Reply to your comment. [ davis_square - 3616076 ]
skyyy http://skyyy.dreamwidth.org/profile replied to a comment you left in a Dreamwidth entry http://davis-square.dreamwidth.org/3616076.html "Elm St Pedestrian Concept". The comment they replied to was:
There was a similar plan in the late 1970s, when pedestrian malls enjoyed a vogue. The City under, one-term Mayor Tom August, hired as its consultant a former Deputy Mayor of Boston known for displacing neighborhoods. A group of Davis Square neighbors filed a multi-pronged complaint with HUD, from whose funds the $200K consulting fee was drawn. In the end the consultant had to leave Somerville in the middle of the contract.
It was a neighborhood busting idea then, and it would have a similar effect now by driving traffic onto residential streets, as many others have pointed out above.
The reply was:
I'm interested in reading more about that history, and wasn't able to find more information based on what you said. Do you know of good resources to use, or good keywords to search for?
From here you can: