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Cambridge: traffic calming works!
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Whose designs for pedestrians enhance Bulfinch Square, Lechmere Canal Park, and whose traffic calming plans soon will benefit Lafayette Square & Cambridge Street
Sponsored by Carol R. Johnson Associates-Landscape Architects, Boston
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Cambridge: Traffic calming works!
Why traffic calming works
Neighborhoods in Cambridge are among the first in the metropolitan area to benefit from traffic calming. Installed after intensive meetings with residents, consultants and City staff, the new facilities slow traffic through handsome old neighborhoods, where narrow streets have been carrying major traffic flows. Traffic calming techniques have also been applied to a commercial district, to improve pedestrian safety.
Cambridge has high levels of transit service and a great deal of walking. Cambridge subway riders were found in 1999 to regularly walk an average of 2,000 feet to or from train stations, and 25% of these riders walked more than a half mile.
Traffic calming tools Traffic calming reduces traffic speeds in Cambridge by using the following physical improvements: 1 1 Curb extensions widen sidewalks, reduce pedestrian crossing distances, improve visibility of pedestrians and drivers, prevent illegal parking at corners, and slow the speed of turning vehicles. 2 2 Raised crosswalks make it safer to cross the street, slow vehicle speed, and make wheelchairs & strollers crossing easier. 3 3
Raised intersections make it safer to cross the street, and slow vehicle speed at intersections, where many conflicts occur. 4
4
5
Chicanes [alignment shifts] created by widening sidewalks or by alternating parking from one side of the street to the other, slow the speed of vehicles by breaking up straightaways and provide areas for increased landscaping. 5
Crossing islands make it safer to cross the street, slow speed of vehicles by breaking up straightaways, and allow pedestrians to cross one direction of traffic at a time.
Pedestrian safety is a major concern, and improving safety for walkers means reducing the speed of vehicles that might hit pedestrians. A 1991 study showed that 85% of pedestrians struck by a car traveling 40 mph are killed, but only 5% are killed at 20 mph.
The walk
7 Intersection of Prospect St. and Bishop Allen Dr. – Crosswalk with count down to inform pedestrians how much time is left on the “walk” phase.
bt Third Street Traffic Calming – Construction was
8 620 Massachusetts Avenue – This white terra cotta building, built in 1908, once housed the Cambridge Chronicle.
ck New Superior Court Building – A 22-story building replaced the former Middlesex County jail and power plant in 1982.
9 Odd Fellows Hall – Built in 1884, this prominent brick building has molded brick ornamentation and a raised sign with gold lettering.
cl Quality Row – Mansard roofs and high front stoops
bk Lafayette Square – The intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Columbia Street will be reconstructed to create a new plaza and to shorten and simplify pedestrian crossings.
bl Columbia Street Traffic Calming – This 1998 project includes all of Columbia Street between Massachusetts Avenue and Cambridge Street.
The walk begins in front of Cambridge City Hall, near the Red Line station in Central Square, and proceeds to East Cambridge and the Green Line station at Lechmere.
bm Market Street – One of the oldest streets in Cambridge has modest houses in a traffic-free setting.
1 The Central Square project – This project improved
bn Union Street – Residential buildings in this neigh-
Massachusetts Avenue from Cambridge City Hall at Inman Street to Columbia Street, by eliminating a travel lane and installing bicycle lanes, wider sidewalks and curb extensions.
borhood were constructed for workers when Cambridge became a major industrial center.
bo York/Berkshire Streets Traffic Calming – The area
2 City Hall – An architectural competition led to the
surrounding Donnelly Field and Harrington School was improved in 1997.
building of City Hall in 1888, with a grant from Frederick Rindge.
bp Cambridge Street – In the
3 Cambridge Mutual Fire Insurance Building – an 1888 building in Richardsonian style, with polychrome stonework and a cupola. 4 Central Square building – Cambridge’s first skyscraper was built in 1926, with cast stone panels.
5 First Baptist Church – The city’s first Baptist meeting house was built here, followed by a larger church in 1866. After a fire in 1881, this church with its tall copper steeple was built.
6 653 Massachusetts Avenue – One of the oldest buildings in the square, this 1814 house was built for Thomas Dowse, his leatherdressing shop and his art collection.
Craigie development of 1810, Cambridge Street led from Craigie’s Bridge, now replaced by the Science Park Dam, to Old Cambridge at Harvard Square.
recently finished on facilities between Cambridge and Binney Streets.
characterize these 1860 row houses with Holy Cross Polish Church (1827) at one end completing the streetscape.
cm Bulfinch Square – The Superior Court building of 1848 by Ammi Young surrounds the original 1814 Bulfinch Courthouse, now the centerpiece of Graham Gund’s 1986 restoration of the area.
cn Clerk of Courts Building – Built for the Probate Court in 1889 to add to the growing court complex, this building is sited where the British landed en route to Lexington in 1775.
co Registry of Deeds and Probate Court – A monumental building of 1896 with four giant brick-columned porticoes and steep flights of stairs on major facades. cp Davenport buildings – The furniture industry dominated East Cambridge in the 1860s, with 2 square blocks of buildings for just one company, known for a popular sofa design.
cq Lechmere Canal/Lechmere Triangle – Dramatic shopping, residences and offices focus on a pedestrian area around a canal originally built in 1874 to give access to industry.
bq Otis Street – In these two blocks a variety of architectural styles mingle with Greek Revival houses next to mansard Victorians.
br Fort Putnam – The 1887 3-story Putnam School, converted into residences in 1983, occupies the site of the north bastion of Revolutionary Fort Putnam, built by Washington in 1775 to bombard the British bulwarks in Boston. bs Thorndike Street – Greek revival houses of the 1840s predominate in this block. Note especially #74 - an unusual T-shaped house with 2-story openwork corner pillars. Map: Ken Dumas / Text: Bob Sloane / Design: Nina Garfinkle