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

[reverend-jim.livejournal.com]

The cops can and will do heavy enforcement on Cedar St. I remember from my cab driving days ('03'-'06) that Cedar was *by far* the residential street most likely to have a speed trap. (Well, Powder House Blvd. was actually the worst, but that was just one asshole with a hard-on for college kids.) Your observations aren't wrong, cars really do haul ass down Cedar between Broad & Highland. Not that they don't speed on other streets, but I think Cedar is slightly worse than average.

Anyway, given how often I saw cops working that street, I'd strongly advise you to advocate for traffic calming devices over increased enforcement. Giving out more tickets obviously hasn't worked - you're going to have to get something that physically stops cars from screaming down that street.