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

But to answer your actual question...

[heliograph.livejournal.com]

Step One: Complain to your Alderman. You're probably in Ward Five, so that's Sean O'Donovan:

http://www.somervillema.gov/Section.cfm?org=aldermen&page=77

If that doesn't, go to

Step Two: Attend Board meetings

In addition to understanding how Somerville government works, you can put in new agenda items, like "Do something about Cedar Street! Think of the children!"

Step Three: Form a litigious citizens' group. I recommend using the name "Cedar Street Task Force." Using "Task Force" in the name tells folks you're serious about lawsuits. Then you sue them to make them do what you want.

I'm not a traffic engineer, but I don't know what they could do on that kind of grade that would slow down traffic without creating problems. You don't want to look for solutions that have been used on flat streets (like the Cambridge schools solutions you mention): you're looking for solutions that work on steep hills.

Removing parking or making it one way would actually increase car speeds.