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Walsh: City could extend one-way experiment to other neighborhoods
By adamg on Sun, 02/15/2015 - 10:30am
Mayor Walsh said this morning city transportation officials are looking at extending the South Boston emergency one-way plan, in which a number of two-way streets become one way last night, to other neighborhoods.
But first, Walsh said at a press conference - people just need to stay off the streets. Even pedestrians. The high winds and drifting snow and low temperatures are making getting around too dangerous.
The idea of the one-way conversion is that our notoriously narrow streets have gotten so narrow with all the snow that emergency crews can no longer get down them safely as long as they stay officially two way.
Walsh said implementing the conversion was done first in South Boston because it's street grid and numbered streets made it easy to plan and implement - as opposed to much of the rest of the city, laid out in patterns that from the sky look like bowls of spaghetti.
Walsh said that overnight, police ticketed more than 300 cars - and had more than 200 towed - for parking on main thoroughfares.
He added that once people start driving again, it's vital they not block the box at intersections with their cars - or yachts.
Walsh noted the historic nature of our winter so far, added, "God knows how many more weeks after this we'll be doing this."
He said people should take plenty of breaks while shoveling in the extra frigid temperatures.
Walsh estimated the city will have spent $33 million on snow removal when the current storm is over - with more snow coming later in the week.
He said the snow melters the city has borrowed and rented have been keeping up with the snow, at least to the point the city doesn't yet need to dump snow directly into the harbor. He said the melters are now running 24 hours a day at snow farms in South Boston, Charlestown and Hyde Park.
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Comments
I nominate that single two
I nominate that single two-way block of Bird Street between Virginia/Monadnock and Columbia Road in Upham's Corner. It's been too narrow for two-way traffic for at least a week and a half, and the sight lines are bad thanks to the snow banks and a slight curve - you have to enter at one end without being able to see if anything is coming from the other end. Make it one-way out to Columbia Road - Glendale and Sayward are already one-way in from Columbia to Bird. Not that I like there thought of any extra traffic on Glendale or Sayward, but Bird must be one-way out to Columbia or else all the traffic in Uphams Corner west side will be dumped onto Dudley - it won't solve anything, and people will simply ignore it and drive the wrong way.
Obligatory
The comparison is a little
The comparison is a little unfair because grids work best when it's flat. NYC is very flat, while Mission Hill is, well, nonflat.
Yeah but they don't do much to help you around here
I've often felt that the opinion is "If you don't know where you're going, you don't belong here." Even if it's just a couple of neighborhoods over.
And then when they do it's worse. My favorite is always the gorilla sign on the corner of Beacon and Arlington for the Franklin Park Zoo. If you actually followed it until you see the next sign, you'd end up in Seattle. Or is there a Franklin Park Zoo there also?
yes, but..
they flattened a lot of manhattan to do the grid.
Sam Francisco
is what you get when you build a grid (actually, several of them) without regard to topography.
How many millions are being
How many millions are being spent so the entitled few can keep their free parking?
Ban street parking. Road width problem solved.
Public cost: $0.
Private cost: No the public's problem.
a few "One Way" and "Do Not Enter" signs
don't cost very much.
For people in Boston it's not
For people in Boston it's not just the "entitled few" parking on the street. I'm not sure what the ratio of residential parking lots and driveways are to people who live here, but there are many residential neighborhoods where most (if not all) people have to park on the street, and not necessarily in front of their building. They may have to walk around the block. The "entitled few" are those people who actually have someplace else to put their cars.
There are many businesses that rely on the availability of public street parking so that people can actually come in and do business. This isn't the land of strip malls.
Thanks for your post
I doubt the car owners in Mattapan, Hyde Park and Roslindale count as "entitled", just to name a few neighborhoods.
People rely on their cars to get to work. And yes, some of us in Boston work in the suburbs where there is no mass transit.
The businesses are hurting too. My neighborhood barber shop had no wait on a Saturday morning. That is unheard of. The barber said people try to come down to Rosi Square but can't find parking so they give up. Not all customers drive but a lot do.
I like the idea of making streets one-way on a temporary basis. These streets simply can't accommodate 2 way traffic right now.
You've made a huge mistake
You are incorrectly assuming that every person has a car. That is not a correct assumption when talking about the city of Boston.
Overall, more than a third of the residents of Boston do not have a car. In some portions of the city that percentage rises over to over half or more. If it weren't for the fact that a large proportion of residents do not own cars, you would never be able to find a parking space or drive without congestion, ever.
Although you may see a lot of cars parked on some streets, on-street parking does not provide that many spaces. On a typical block, you may be able to squeeze about 30 or so cars, even though it is easily possible that 200-400 people are living on that block, in some parts of Boston. Those 30 cars truly represent just a "few" of the people who live there. And since they are occupying public space, they are indeed the "entitled few." Literally.
Whenever the benefits of on-street parking outweigh the costs, it seems to be a reasonable privilege to allow. Short-term business district parking is a great example. But when the costs to the general public exceed the benefits to the few lucky car-owners, then it becomes unfair to the rest of us. On-street parking on public ways is not a right, however, travel on public ways is. If on-street parking is blocking travel then parking must give way.
All Bostonians depend upon emergency services to be able to respond. Most Bostonians depend on the ability of MBTA trains and buses to travel. It is also important for supply trucks to be able to make deliveries. If parking is blocking any of those services then it is doing a massive disservice to the city.
Let's see if Walsh's one-way plan helps, but he should not hesitate to institute parking bans wherever necessary.
Yet the BRB approved projects with inadequate parking
As if residents will only use a bike rack spot and not use free on-street parking so the developer makes more money from more units replacing off-street parking spots.
if the city charged for on
if the city charged for on-street parking, there would be incentives for developers to build off-street parking. As it stands, you regularly see real estate ads stating "free on-street parking" for condos and apartments.
Market prices for on-street parking incentivizes building appropriate levels of off-street parking. Using neighborhood groups and the BRA to set parking levels is just silly.