Hey, there! Log in / Register

Jamaica Plain Speed Racers take out shrubs, trees and other cars along its parkways; sewer vent pipe is auto-circumcised

Aftermath of a crash at Murray Circle in Jamaica Plain

Residents along the Arborway and the parkway part of Centre Street in Jamaica Plain have long had to watch the aftermath of motorists taking out street-light poles. One reports on the latest carnage this weekend, to go with the photos she took.

Above is the result of a crash at Murray Circle (a.k.a. the Arboretum rotary, a.k.a. DCR's Best Attempt to Create a Traffic Black Hole) Saturday night. She reports:

Apparently someone came down Centre St. from the Faulkner/VFW Parkway direction, at a very high speed - and drove right across the center of the rotary (i.e. didn't go around on the pavement). Multiple vehicles were damaged. Ambulances, fire trucks & police were at the scene. A neighbor from Prince St. said he walked over to the circle and it looked like the car was airborne for ~40 to 50'. Then there are tire tracks in the green & across the pavement to where he landed (he took out some shrubs, the trees are still standing, but there’s some root damage & bark damage).

Below is the aftermath of an auto-circumcision of one of those vent pipes and a newly shorn tree limb at Jamaica Plain's other parkway donut of doom, Kelly Circle, near Jamaica Pond:

Destroyed vent pipe and tree limb

It's possible, the resident says, that two separate cars sought out the pipe and the tree, rather than a single need-for-speeder taking out the two in one fell swoop.

Neighborhoods: 
Topics: 


Ad:


Like the job UHub is doing? Consider a contribution. Thanks!

Comments

Way past time to get rid of the rotary and the speed encouraging 4 extra lanes in the middle between this rotary and Jamaica Pond. All they do is briefly let people speed between the two points. Even during rush hour (which I used to drive there during) the choke points above and below make the brief addition of 4 lanes useless.

up
Voting closed 0

While the parking along the Arboretum was needed based on how many people just parked in the travel lane anyways, everything else about the “redesign” is awful. There’s no forewarning of what lanes are assigned to which exits causing dangerous merging, nobody wants to take the center lanes to/from the Pond causing more dangerous merging, and people immediately accelerate to 40 mph toward VFW around a blind corner into a crosswalk where no car yields ever (if you’ve walked in it, you know). There’s already some signals negating the effect of the rotary anyways, it’s time to tear it out and add proper signals before somebody dies. Unfortunately since it’s DCR I won’t hold my breath it’ll happen before a tragedy does.

up
Voting closed 0

DCR is intending to do exactly what you suggest. Things move slowly as always but their proposed redesign gets rid of both Murray and Kelley Circles.

https://www.mass.gov/service-details/arborway-parkways-improvement-project

up
Voting closed 0

DCR sucks. They make Boston a worse place. They ruin parks by turning them into highways and they take toys out of playgrounds and throw them away(this happened just this week). Disband them and take this drivers license away.

up
Voting closed 0

HISSSSSSSSSS

up
Voting closed 0

they turned into a highway.

up
Voting closed 0

The ones built as "Parkways".

They were all parks until the evil Metropolitan District Commission came along.

Sorry, I am wrong. These roads were developed as a way to relieve congestion off of main streets in the neighborhoods and engender easy access to places like the Blue Hills and Middlesex Fells.

Somehow Dopey McBikeface thinks these roadways were cow pastures or native American hunting grounds up until about 1890-1925 when they were laid out across the area.

That being said, the area between the completely normal kettle hole and nothing special about it over any other body of water Jamaica Pond the the Poor Clares is a corridor of stupidity and needs lots of traffic calming.

up
Voting closed 0

The Jamaica Way, and it's extensions, was not built to relieve congestion from main roads. It was built as part of Olmstead's Emerald Necklace.

The lust for private transportation forced the conversion of a what was designed for much slower transportation to be used as a virtual in city highway.

up
Voting closed 0

The Emerald Necklace, at least the JP / Fenway part, was a sewer project at its heart.

The system was designed with roadways (Fenway / Jamaicaway / Fellsway, etc.)

Please clam up with the "lust for private transportation thing".

I don't want to be on a bus with you. Sorry, not sorry. I did my time on the 1, the 18, the 6, and the 7.

Also, be true to your beliefs, tell your local grocer you only want your lettuce brought in from the fields by the T. Tell your Uber that they may only take non-parkways not private transportation.

up
Voting closed 0

By just looking at the trees, you can see how the street is accident prone.

up
Voting closed 0