traffic issues

[jh78.livejournal.com]

My wife and I live on Cedar Street and we are becoming increasingly disturbed by the speed that cars pass through this corridor between Broadway and the bike path.  If you have ever been down Cedar, you will notice that the center yellow line has been painted over, thus giving evidence that the street was not engineered for the two way traffic PLUS parking that exists today.  We have emailed the police department to see if we could get increased patrols in the area for speeding, but we only got one of those signs that tells you how fast you are going.  Yes, we know that we live on a busy street and should deal with it, but the minute someone gets injured crossing the street it will be too late. We are interested to see if anyone has suggestions on how we can get the city to add traffic calming measures here and elsewhere in the city.  Cambridge does it (especially around school zones), but Somerville seems to be lacking in this area.  Any thoughts?

Comments

[heliograph.livejournal.com]

"it would be easier for the road to handle two-way traffic"

And the result would be that people could speed down that street at 40 or 50 mph.

[grapefruiteater.livejournal.com]

Like I said, that's a separate problem, and anyone trying to "fix" Cedar Street needs to isolate the factors contributing to it being dangerous. I think the width of Cedar Street is a bigger problem than speeding. If it's going to remain a two-way street (and let's face it, we can't make that decision here), it's probably safer to ban parking on the blocks closest to Broadway. If the city is entertaining the idea of turning it into a one-way street, that's a different story.

[heliograph.livejournal.com]

It doesn't have any stoplights, stop signs, or curvy bits, and it has two steep hills on either side of it. That's why people drive fast on it, and that's what makes it dangerous. The width doesn't make it dangerous, if anything it makes it safer: if drivers feel like they have to go slow and pay attention while driving down it, they're less likely to have an accident.