Closing Dover Street at Davis Square

[Christopher Beland]

I've been thinking a lot about alternative or interim improvements
short of full pedestrianization of Elm Street, and while waiting for
our next Elmway meeting to be announced, I wanted to share details and
solicit feedback on one quick-build option I'm starting to like: close
Dover Street at the main intersection with Davis Square/Holland Street.

Dover is one-way toward Mass Ave, so to keep parts of it from becoming
inaccessible, I think the one-way flow of at least some of Meacham Road
would need to be reversed. (It's two-way in Cambridge, which does not
work well.) This would enable trucks to service the rear of the
Somerville Theater and the side of the CVS by entering through Buena
Vista Road from Holland, and exit via Dover as they do now.

Reasons for doing this:

1.) Discourage vehicles from passing through Davis (and the residential
neighborhood to the southeast) on the way to Mass Ave if they aren't
stopping here. Vehicles coming from the north and east would be
diverted to Beech Street or Cameron Ave, or avoid Davis altogether by
using more car-centric roads via Porter or Alewife Brook Parkway.
(There's no left turn onto Mass Ave from Chester Street due to the
median.)

2.) Make Davis safer for pedestrians by turning one of the most
dangerous crosswalks into a sidewalk. Cars currently curve into this
crosswalk from three different directions, sometimes at high speed
trying to beat the long light. Jaywalking is very common, which can
cause minor gridlock if cars yield to pedestrians and then the light
changes. This crosswalk is heavily used and on a main path to the
western subway entrance.

3.) Improve throughput of the main intersection. Pedestrians get the
walk light when Holland does, meaning right-turning cars blocked by
pedestrians can block the bus lane for a full green light cycle.

If Dover is closed here, Holland Street could get a green light at the
same time as either Highland or College Ave. In the short term, this
involves a merge at the entrance to Elm Street. The 2018-2020 versions
of the Davis Square Neighborhood Plan show a long-term plan for the
intersection being squared off in all directions, opening a massive
amount of outdoor dining and performance space. That makes going from
Holland to Elm a right turn, with right on red possible. (Day Street
would still be connected to Elm but not the main intersection.) If Elm
is also pedestrianized, then Davis would become an efficient T-
intersection and stop being a traffic bottleneck for cars and buses due
to scarce green light time.

4.) Encourage mode shift to bikes. In cities that intentionally make
car routes longer and bike routes shorter, more people bike. Even
though cars go further, they have a smoother trip with less waiting in
pedestrian-heavy areas and fewer other cars on the road. This requires
separated, high-comfort bicycle infrastructure, which we now have on
Holland Street and College Ave, with the Somerville Community Path
paralleling Highland for those coming from that direction. Eliminating
Dover as a vehicle cut-through makes the neighborhood streets in that
direction more bike-friendly.

5.) Create a cozy new pedestrian plaza. Outdoor dining for Mr. Crepe
could expand, BSC could have an outdoor exercise zone, film festival
patrons would have a nicer place to line up, HONK! could have a new
performance area, or there could be new street vendors. Or it could
remain mostly on-street parking; simply closing the entrance at Davis
doesn't force pedestrianization of the full block. The CVS side is
currently signed as a loading zone only from 8am to noon.

To make up for whatever number of parking spots are lost, parking
meters could be added further down Dover in front of apartment
buildings that have underground garages. The private lot behind CVS is
also under-used, especially in the evening which is peak demand time
for restaurant and theater parking. It would be nice to see the city
make an arrangement for metered parking there in certain spots or at
certain times, regardless of what happens with Dover Street. Opening
the Dover Street driveway of that lot would also let drivers exit to
Mass Ave while bypassing Davis Square.


Presumably the city would want to do a traffic study before putting up
the sawhorses and electronic traffic diversion signs, but it's the sort
of thing that could be piloted for say, a month, and reversed if there
are too many unintended negative consequences. It could also be done
intermittently (e.g. high-pedestrian times like evenings and weekends),
but I think drivers would probably alter their behavior more if it were
continuously blocked. And having actual physical barriers seems
necessary for safety and to prevent people from just ignoring a hard-
to-read sign allowing passage only at certain times. That's also why
I'm leaning away from a "DO NOT ENTER (AUTHORIZED VEHICLES ONLY)" sign
or even a gate at the beginning or end of the block that delivery
trucks could activate.

What are your thoughts? Should we push the city to try this?

-B.

[Beth Kevles]

Some thoughts inlined.

--Beth Kevles

On Thu, Mar 13, 2025 at 4:08 AM 'Christopher Beland' via Davis Square Neighborhood Council <daviss...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

I've been thinking a lot about alternative or interim improvements
short of full pedestrianization of Elm Street, and while waiting for
our next Elmway meeting to be announced, I wanted to share details and
solicit feedback on one quick-build option I'm starting to like: close
Dover Street at the main intersection with Davis Square/Holland Street.

Dover is one-way toward Mass Ave, so to keep parts of it from becoming
inaccessible, I think the one-way flow of at least some of Meacham Road
would need to be reversed. (It's two-way in Cambridge, which does not
work well.) This would enable trucks to service the rear of the
Somerville Theater and the side of the CVS by entering through Buena
Vista Road from Holland, and exit via Dover as they do now.

2-way flow of a street is traffic calming. But that aside, have you thought through how residents of Meacham and Dover would get home from various directions? Also, would it increase traffic on Meacham?

Reasons for doing this:

1.) Discourage vehicles from passing through Davis (and the residential
neighborhood to the southeast) on the way to Mass Ave if they aren't
stopping here. Vehicles coming from the north and east would be
diverted to Beech Street or Cameron Ave, or avoid Davis altogether by
using more car-centric roads via Porter or Alewife Brook Parkway.
(There's no left turn onto Mass Ave from Chester Street due to the
median.)

How would this affect traffic closer to Porter or Alewife Brook? And how might this be integrated with the plans for Elm St? (See Elm-Beacon connector.) 

2.) Make Davis safer for pedestrians by turning one of the most
dangerous crosswalks into a sidewalk. Cars currently curve into this
crosswalk from three different directions, sometimes at high speed
trying to beat the long light. Jaywalking is very common, which can
cause minor gridlock if cars yield to pedestrians and then the light
changes. This crosswalk is heavily used and on a main path to the
western subway entrance.

I agree that Davis is a scary intersection where jaywalking is the norm. But have there been traffic accidents there? (I don't know the answer, BTW; just wondering.) Sometimes the perception of scary slows people down.

3.) Improve throughput of the main intersection. Pedestrians get the
walk light when Holland does, meaning right-turning cars blocked by
pedestrians can block the bus lane for a full green light cycle.

I keep thinking this intersection needs re-thinking, too. Are there other viable options besides closing off Dover? Perhaps a mini traffic circle with lights?

If Dover is closed here, Holland Street could get a green light at the
same time as either Highland or College Ave. In the short term, this
involves a merge at the entrance to Elm Street. The 2018-2020 versions
of the Davis Square Neighborhood Plan show a long-term plan for the
intersection being squared off in all directions, opening a massive
amount of outdoor dining and performance space. That makes going from
Holland to Elm a right turn, with right on red possible. (Day Street
would still be connected to Elm but not the main intersection.) If Elm
is also pedestrianized, then Davis would become an efficient T-
intersection and stop being a traffic bottleneck for cars and buses due
to scarce green light time.

Interesting idea. I wonder why it hasn't been implemented.  I assume there's a reason, but maybe not...

4.) Encourage mode shift to bikes. In cities that intentionally make
car routes longer and bike routes shorter, more people bike. Even
though cars go further, they have a smoother trip with less waiting in
pedestrian-heavy areas and fewer other cars on the road. This requires
separated, high-comfort bicycle infrastructure, which we now have on
Holland Street and College Ave, with the Somerville Community Path
paralleling Highland for those coming from that direction. Eliminating
Dover as a vehicle cut-through makes the neighborhood streets in that
direction more bike-friendly.

I like bikes, but want to be sure that handicapped people and deliveries still have good access to where they need to go. And I have to say, I find the neighborhood streets around there to be bike friendly already, but maybe that's just me.

5.) Create a cozy new pedestrian plaza. Outdoor dining for Mr. Crepe
could expand, BSC could have an outdoor exercise zone, film festival
patrons would have a nicer place to line up, HONK! could have a new
performance area, or there could be new street vendors. Or it could
remain mostly on-street parking; simply closing the entrance at Davis
doesn't force pedestrianization of the full block. The CVS side is
currently signed as a loading zone only from 8am to noon.

To make up for whatever number of parking spots are lost, parking
meters could be added further down Dover in front of apartment
buildings that have underground garages. The private lot behind CVS is
also under-used, especially in the evening which is peak demand time
for restaurant and theater parking. It would be nice to see the city
make an arrangement for metered parking there in certain spots or at
certain times, regardless of what happens with Dover Street. Opening
the Dover Street driveway of that lot would also let drivers exit to
Mass Ave while bypassing Davis Square.

It would also be nice if the city added handicapped parking. It's really hard to bring a handicapped person to Davis Square businesses.  I have other thoughts about parking, but don't want to get into that just now.

Presumably the city would want to do a traffic study before putting up
the sawhorses and electronic traffic diversion signs, but it's the sort
of thing that could be piloted for say, a month, and reversed if there
are too many unintended negative consequences. It could also be done
intermittently (e.g. high-pedestrian times like evenings and weekends),
but I think drivers would probably alter their behavior more if it were
continuously blocked. And having actual physical barriers seems
necessary for safety and to prevent people from just ignoring a hard-
to-read sign allowing passage only at certain times. That's also why
I'm leaning away from a "DO NOT ENTER (AUTHORIZED VEHICLES ONLY)" sign
or even a gate at the beginning or end of the block that delivery
trucks could activate.

What are your thoughts? Should we push the city to try this?

Some of the things you're suggesting might not require cutting off access to Dover. But I think that the residents of Dover and Meacham, along with side streets, should be consulted, and the Elm St changes, which will start at Russell, need to be taken into account.

Would cutting off Dover make it harder to access the farmer's market in the summer? I don't often go there by car, but I do when I need to make a large (heavy) purchase.

In general, I'm agnostic on the idea at the moment. I'd have to think about it a lot more to develop an actual opinion.

Interesting idea!

-B.

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[Christopher Beland]

On Thu, 2025-03-13 at 09:11 -0400, Roger Levy wrote:
> As someone raising young children on Meacham Road I have concerns
> about this idea. Meacham Road already has relatively heavy traffic
> for a residential street, and I would be concerned that closing off
> Dover would route even more traffic headed toward Mass Ave onto it,
> via Buena Vista Rd. That, not Cameron Ave, would be the way traffic
> coming from the Tufts area would get to Mass Ave.

Reversing the flow of the entire Somerville portion of Meacham Road
would prevent anyone from using Meacham to replace Dover as a cut-
through. Traffic would need to turn left at the end of Buena Vista and
go behind the Somerville Theatre, exiting the area via Dover.

This change would also divert onto Dover drivers who are currently
using Meacham as a cut-through to get from Holland to Mass Ave in order
to bypass the long light at Davis Square, which sometimes includes me.

-B.

[Christopher Beland]

Paul, I'm not sure what "bike way" you are referring to which would
require the city to "remove all street parking" from Meacham Road? I
was not thinking of adding any bike facilities to Meacham in connection
with the Dover closure or in general.

The closest thing I could find was that the official 2023 Somerville
Bike Network Plan designates Meacham as a "neighborway"? But that means
bikes would ride down the middle of the street co-mingled with cars, as
they do now, not in a separated bike lane. This works well on roads
where cars drive slowly and at low volume (i.e. not cut-throughs). The
plan does say that completed neighborways will be two-way for bikes
even if they are one-way for cars. I suppose one way to do that would
be to add a separated contra-flow bike lane, but I'm not sure making
the sidewalk slightly wider to fit that in would require removing any
parking. The plan does not show that as a neighborway contraflow
solution, though; it has a picture of a street that allows contra-flow
bike traffic without a dedicated lane that would displace parking. Cars
just need to expect oncoming bikes, and there is a short bike-only
contra-flow stretch near intersections (where parking already isn't
allowed). I'm not sure how I feel about that arrangement, but I would
definitely agree removing all the parking on Meacham would be extreme
and unwarranted.

I also definitely did not propose making the Somerville part of Meacham
two-way for cars. As I said, the two-way portion in Cambridge does not
work well. I have indeed experienced it, as it is my primary route to
bike home from the south or west. Even being on a relatively narrow
bike instead of in a full-lane-wide car, I often have to pull over
between parked cars to avoid oncoming traffic, and sometimes have to
ride on the sidewalk - also not great on garbage day with all the bins!
Cars coming behind me have even more trouble driving upstream. I think
it would probably be safer and easier to traverse as a one-way street
from end to end, even if that means I have to use a parallel street
sometimes.

What I do propose is making the Somerville part of Meacham one-way away
from Mass Ave instead of one-way toward Mass Ave. This would need to be
done between Dover and Buena Vista to prevent the end of Dover from
being cut off, though an alternative would be to open a connection from
Day to Dover. Reversing the direction of Meacham between Buena Vista
and the Cambridge border is optional; residents could decide if they
want to do that to prevent Meacham from being used as a replacement
cut-through, or not do that if they want to avoid going around the
block to get home via Dover when coming from Holland Street. The
closure by itself creates no need for any parking changes on Meacham,
unless there are other issues you would want to address.

-B.

[Roger Levy]

If the entire Somerville portion of Meacham Road had its traffic flow reversed, wouldn't Meacham still be a cut-through, just in the opposite direction, from Mass Ave to Holland Street?

Roger

[Christopher Beland]

On Thu, 2025-03-13 at 19:16 -0400, Roger Levy wrote:
> If the entire Somerville portion of Meacham Road had its traffic flow
> reversed, wouldn't Meacham still be a cut-through, just in the
> opposite direction, from Mass Ave to Holland Street?

That's a good point. There's a few ways I can think of to respond to
that, though perhaps there are others:

* Make Buena Vista one-way (away from Holland) south of the Somerville
Community Path. This would reduce the number of vehicles conflicting
with pedestrians and bikes, while still allowing vehicle access to the
parking garage and delivery/dumpster area behind the medical building.
The downside is that residents would also not be able to exit to the
north; the nearest exit would be Day Street, via Orchard. But I suppose
they are not able to use Buena Vista as an exit now anyway.

* Make part of Meacham one-way in the opposite direction, for example,
the Cambridge portion south of Locke Street.

* Add a "no trucks" restriction as there is on the Cambridge part of
Day Street.

* Add a "do not enter except residents" restriction for some or all
times. (I expect a lot of people ignore those signs, though I have seen
them in Somerville and actually seen the Cambridge police enforcing one
near Alewife Brook Parkway.)

* Do nothing, on the assumption that the number of cut-throughs on
Meacham will be roughly the same as they are now, if residents are
happy with that.

-B.

[Roger Levy]

On Thu, Mar 13, 2025 at 20:06 Christopher Beland <bel...@alum.mit.edu> wrote:

On Thu, 2025-03-13 at 19:16 -0400, Roger Levy wrote:
> If the entire Somerville portion of Meacham Road had its traffic flow
> reversed, wouldn't Meacham still be a cut-through, just in the
> opposite direction, from Mass Ave to Holland Street?

That's a good point. There's a few ways I can think of to respond to
that, though perhaps there are others:

* Make Buena Vista one-way (away from Holland) south of the Somerville
Community Path. This would reduce the number of vehicles conflicting
with pedestrians and bikes, while still allowing vehicle access to the
parking garage and delivery/dumpster area behind the medical building.
The downside is that residents would also not be able to exit to the
north; the nearest exit would be Day Street, via Orchard. But I suppose
they are not able to use Buena Vista as an exit now anyway.

* Make part of Meacham one-way in the opposite direction, for example,
the Cambridge portion south of Locke Street.

These are both interesting options. If Buena Vista stays two way, then even if a southern part of Meacham is part one way in the opposite direction, there will be a cut-through northbound from Mass Ave: Shea -> Kingston -> Meacham -> Buena Vista. Because that is more convoluted, it might attract less traffic than the current cut through but I imagine the people who live on Shea and Kingston would not be happy with this change. 

Reversing the one way part of Meacham and making Buena Vista southbound only seems better. The northbound direction is not really needed (and gets little traffic) as it stands, because the only thing to access on it by car is the Buena Vista lot, and that can easily be accessed in the southbound direction. The sidewalks are narrow on Buena Vista, and if it were made one way there would be room to widen them and/or add a bike lane, or street parking to compensate for the loss of parking on Dover.

* Add a "no trucks" restriction as there is on the Cambridge part of
Day Street.

* Add a "do not enter except residents" restriction for some or all
times. (I expect a lot of people ignore those signs, though I have seen
them in Somerville and actually seen the Cambridge police enforcing one
near Alewife Brook Parkway.)

* Do nothing, on the assumption that the number of cut-throughs on
Meacham will be roughly the same as they are now, if residents are
happy with that.

I'm not thrilled with any of these options. The first two don't sound likely to be effective, and as for the third, the amount of cut-through traffic is already uncomfortably high. I would note that closer to Mass Ave, on the Cambridge side of Meacham, there is already a raised-bump area which demonstrates the need for traffic calming. And I would worry that reversing the cut-through direction might have unforeseen consequences that would make things even worse. But of course I'm not an expert, and  a traffic study might turn out to assuage my concerns.

Roger

[gregn...@gmail.com]

I like it. 

 

It was included in the 2019 Davis Sq Neighborhood Plan.

 

 

The plan centered on a re-design of roads to reclaim non-car space and better regulate traffic.  At the time, there was discussion of doing a trial run, so some study of traffic flow most have been completed.

 

The plan should be updated.

 

Where are the City planners?

 

g.

--

[Roger Levy]

As someone raising young children on Meacham Road I have concerns about this idea. Meacham Road already has relatively heavy traffic for a residential street, and I would be concerned that closing off Dover would route even more traffic headed toward Mass Ave onto it, via Buena Vista Rd. That, not Cameron Ave, would be the way traffic coming from the Tufts area would get to Mass Ave.

Roger (he)

[Christopher Beland]

On Fri, 2025-03-14 at 12:35 -0500, Kathy Partridge wrote:
> I live on Orchard Street, between Meacham Road and Dover Street.
> Closing off the first block of Dover Street would make getting home
> for me, as well as residents of Kingston Street, Campbell Park, and
> Glover Circle a bit of a nightmare. I'm not in favor of this change.

If the "nightmare" is traveling on Mass Ave for 1-3 blocks when coming
home via Buena Vista, would reversing the flow of Orchard Street
between Meacham and Dover be a reasonable fix? That would mean circling
behind the Somerville Theatre when coming home from Mass Ave, but avoid
having to go onto Mass Ave when coming home via Buena Vista. (Assuming
Meacham is one-way eastbound only; alternatively it could be kept as a
westbound cut-through to allow residents the same access they have
now.)

-B.

[Chris Lahey]

I'm afraid this would actually increase traffic on Elm st. I actively try to avoid driving down Elm, but if I miss the turn at Buena Vista, I would now be forced to go down Elm.

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[Christopher Beland]

Good questions, Beth. I agree the preferences of local residents and
other projects on Elm Street need to be taken into account, and I'm
glad that some residents of would-be-affected streets have replied and
made some excellent points.

> I agree that Davis is a scary intersection where jaywalking is the
> norm. But have there been traffic accidents there? (I don't know the
> answer, BTW; just wondering.) Sometimes the perception of scary slows
> people down.

Yes, on June 12, 2014, Helen Monagle was actually killed in this very
crosswalk by a FedEx truck taking a right from Holland onto Dover. She
was 90 years old, a resident of Medford, and library volunteer. Her
obituary read in part: "Prior to her death she lifted weights and
walked every day throughout Medford and Somerville. She enjoyed
shopping at local stores and specialty shops and had a great sense of
style and fashion. She often thought of one day opening a vintage
clothing store. She ate healthfully and was very proud of her
independence. One of her goals was to live happily to the age of 105."
From news reports and my memories of the time, it seems the city did
not make any long-term safety improvements in response, but Somerville
police did a sting operation and wrote a bunch of tickets for vehicles
not yielding to pedestrians in crosswalks.

Looking at the city's Vision Zero report, Davis Square (along with a
dozen other major intersections) is identified as a high-crash
intersection, with between 22 and 99 crashes from 2017 to 2021. The
only intersection in the city at a higher crash frequency tier is
McGrath and Mystic Ave (near I-93).

It does seem that empirically, narrow and curvy roads and traffic
circles increase safety by slowing cars, but having a large number of
cars coming through an intersection does not seem to scare pedestrians
into being careful enough to avoid getting killed, nor does even a
90-degree turn slow vehicles enough to avoid killing some pedestrians.

> 2-way flow of a street is traffic calming. But that aside, have you
> thought through how residents of Meacham and Dover would get home
> from various directions? Also, would it increase traffic on Meacham?

There's a few options depending on how strongly residents want to
prevent cut-throughs vs. preserve through access. If Meacham is
one-way northeastbound, and Dover is one way southwestbound and closed
at Holland, then cars would generally end up on Dover from
Holland/Buena Vista, and Meacham from Mass Ave. I think this
configuration plus making part of Buena Vista southbound only would
substantially reduce traffic on the residential part of Meacham.

I agree with Kathy that having to cross over from Dover to Meacham,
Woodbridge, or Shea by using Mass Ave is annoying. I drove it today at
PM rush hour just to see how it was; you have to go through two
traffic lights. To fix that, we can reverse the flow of Orchard
between Meacham and Dover.

So, cars wanting to go to Dover from Mass Ave could drive up Meacham
and cross over behind the Somerville Theatre. This direction would be
greatly improved for houses on Dover northeast of Orchard; currently
they need to go through Davis, most locally via Cameron -> Holland -> Dover
or Russell -> Cutter -> Highland -> Dover.

Cars wanting to go to Meacham from Holland could drive from Buena
Vista over to Dover and cross back at Orchard. Or they could take
another route to Mass Ave, like Cameron, Chester, or Beech, depending
on where they were coming from.

Taking a bit of a longer driving path doesn't bother me much; we have
to do that for our street all the time because the bike path prevents
a direct connection to Mass Ave. I like that being disconnected makes
our street quieter, and I can still take a direct route when I'm
biking or walking.

> How would this affect traffic closer to Porter or Alewife Brook? And
> how might this be integrated with the plans for Elm St? (See
> Elm-Beacon connector.)

Presumably the city would do some computer modeling that could give
better answers; it's hard for me to say what the net effect would
be. I would expect slightly more cars taking these roads instead of
going through Davis, but also slightly fewer cars taking these roads
to the degree people decide to bike instead. I expect these effects to
be weaker than more local effects on Cameron, Chester, and Beech, but
the magnitude and direction depend on how far away the cut-through
vehicles are coming from.

I expect the Elm-Beacon connector will help reduce car traffic
generally in the Alewife-Davis-Porter corridor by filling a major hole
in the bike network. I currently use Orchard to bike from Davis to
Porter, and I'll be much more likely to use Elm for at least part of
the journey. There's still a bike network gap between Davis and
Cutter, which the bike plan says should be filled with a
pedestrianized street. I also avoid biking through Davis Square from
Holland to Elm because the light is so long. With Dover closed, I
wonder if an intersection overhaul could allow a separated bike lane
to bypass the traffic light altogether. That would be great for
solidifying the Teele-Porter bike route and reducing car traffic even
further.

> I keep thinking this intersection needs re-thinking, too. Are there
> other viable options besides closing off Dover? Perhaps a mini
> traffic circle with lights?

Certainly! The 2020 version of the Davis Square Neighborhood Plan
sketched out several options. It has been removed from the city web
site, but I did a public information request and uploaded it to the
DSNC Google Drive:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1BMSG4AYb2r1J8l9NLrqQcyR_heGsgSyv

See pages 69-71.

The options there include:
* The previously-mentioned 4-way intersection which inherently closes
Dover but makes a huge plaza.
* Bumping out curbs to make Holland-to-Elm a 90-degree right turn but leaving
Dover open as a sharp right turn.
* Demolishing part of the first block between Highland and the busway (!),
creating a rectangular central block around which all traffic
circulates counter-clockwise, putting some car traffic on the busway.
* Eliminating Statue Park but creating a large central triangular island
around which all traffic flows counter-clockwise, close to the
surrounding buildings.
* Making the end of Highland curve left so going onto College is a U-turn and
going onto Holland is a 90-degree right turn.

The sketches have various options for making Elm and/or Highland
two-way, and some of them swap the one-way directions of Day and Dover.

We can certainly imagine other solutions, like the traffic circle you
propose. There are rules about signalizing them and calculations to be
done to determine whether they slow or speed traffic. I find the
Powderhouse rotary is working better after the rebuild that removed
the signals, but it has a much lower pedestrian volume.

These proposals would all involve massive rebuilds, but closing Dover
and pedestrianizing Elm Street are changes we can test cheaply and
quickly, and reverse if needed. If we do either of those things
permanently in the shorter term, that may change how we would design a
later overhaul. If an overhaul could fix Davis throughput without
closing Dover, we may want to disconnect Dover anyway just to reduce
cut-through traffic.

> Interesting idea. I wonder why it hasn't been implemented. I assume
> there's a reason, but maybe not...

I would love to hear from someone who was actually involved in
deciding that a six-way intersection was the best solution, but I have
an educated guess.

The underlying road network was laid out incrementally over the 1800s,
with alignments friendly to horses and streetcars. The redo in the
1980s when the steam railroad surface tracks were replaced by the Red
Line was planned in the 1970s when traffic engineers prioritized
high-speed travel. That shows up in gentle curves, slip lanes,
multi-lane one-way streets, and having as many roads as
possible. Modern planning prioritizes safety over speed, and favors
the sharp turns that show up in the proposed four-way 90-degree
intersection design.

I also wonder if traffic volumes were lower back then? Urban areas
were being depopulated by white flight, and there were a million fewer
people living in Massachusetts overall.

> I like bikes, but want to be sure that handicapped people and
> deliveries still have good access to where they need to go. And I
> have to say, I find the neighborhood streets around there to be bike
> friendly already, but maybe that's just me.

Agreed; I bike on those streets frequently. The times when I'm least
comfortable are when a bunch of cars are following me from Highland
onto Dover because we've all just gotten a green light (though
fortunately I usually turn onto Meacham) and when I have to ride in
front of cars a long way down Orchard. (I usually end up pulling over
to let them pass, but I specifically bought a rear-view mirror for my
bike to use on Orchard.) Speaking of Orchard, there's a lot of
cross-traffic on the cut-through streets of Russell, Dover, and
Day. Other than Wilson Square, I think those are probably the streets
I'm most worried about getting side-swiped by a driver running a stop
sign, which I do see now and again in those places. Which is all to
say that having fewer cut-through cars on Dover and Orchard would make
biking a bit less stressful and dangerous.

> It would also be nice if the city added handicapped parking. It's
> really hard to bring a handicapped person to Davis Square
> businesses. I have other thoughts about parking, but don't want to
> get into that just now.

I've heard other people complain about that as well. Where do you
think more HP spots are needed? Copper Mill has floated the idea of HP
spaces in its underground parking garage, with an elevator for people
to access Elm Street businesses.

> Would cutting off Dover make it harder to access the farmer's market
> in the summer? I don't often go there by car, but I do when I need to
> make a large (heavy) purchase.

Depends where you want to park. It's currently accessible from the
Davis side by going down Chester onto Herbert, and that wouldn't
change. If you want to park on the southwesterly parts of Day Street,
you would have to take a slight detour from Davis up Holland -> Buena
Vista -> behind Somerville Theatre -> Dover -> Orchard -> Day (instead
of Dover -> Orchard -> Day, if that's what you're doing today). Access
from Mass Ave via Day wouldn't change.

-B.

[Christopher Beland]

On Fri, 2025-03-14 at 22:46 -0400, Chris Lahey wrote:
> I'm afraid this would actually increase traffic on Elm st. I actively
> try to avoid driving down Elm, but if I miss the turn at Buena Vista,
> I would now be forced to go down Elm.

Missed turns can definitely cause major delays around here! My
grandfather once tried to go from the front door to the back door of
the very same building in The Fenway and disappeared for about an hour.
He missed a turn and somehow ended up trapped going the wrong direction
on Mass Ave until finally figuring out how to turn around in Harvard
Square, miles away.

I do agree disconnecting Dover without making any other changes will
probably cause *some* increase in car traffic on both Elm and Holland.
Due to mode shift and diversions to avoid Davis entirely it should be
less than the full burden Dover is bearing now. I think Elm and Holland
should be able to cope, but of course it's important to have a
professional engineer actually do the math and make sure.

I drove from Davis to Teele today at PM rush hour, and Holland was
backed up to Cameron. Which is fine for the Dover disconnection idea if
Cameron is one of two replacement cut-throughs to Mass Ave, but
something clearly needs to be done about the congestion we already have
on the rest of the road. I don't know of a good way to improve
throughput of Holland through the Teele intersection other than getting
more people on bikes and buses and shuttles, but I would be interested
to hear suggestions.

-B.

[Carol]

Mechanic is already a nightmare coming from Mass Ave.

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-B.

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[Carol]

Supposed to be Mecham .

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[Roger Levy]

Hi Carol, actually I think that Christopher's proposal could make Meacham Road much less of a nightmare coming from Mass Ave than it is at present, for residents who are trying to get home to nearby neighborhood streets between Mass Ave and Holland.

I've sketched out the version of Christopher's proposal that seems most compelling to me by (re)drawing street-direction arrows on top of a Google Maps screenshot of the area:

  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1R_T4x-GL1GiKMoRJTY9dZwSIHokEXjXo2FNnKz5eVS0/edit?usp=sharing

With reversal of traffic direction of the one-way part of Meacham Road, and making the part of Buena Vista south of the Somerville Community Path one-way southbound, there would be no cut-through traffic taking Meacham Road to get between Holland and Mass Ave.

Kathy Partridge noted concern about access to the block of Orchard between Meacham and Dover (when coming from Davis Square or further north, I think). As Christopher suggested, perhaps this could be alleviated by allowing northbound traffic on this block (Christopher suggested one-way, but perhaps two-way traffic could be considered for this one block).

Roger

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Roger (he)

[rebeccachase]

Thank you for sharing this careful thought. 

I have two questions.

How do you think this proposal would impact traffic on Day street? Do we know enough about the travel-patterns to predict? (I don't -- but there may be a study I haven't seen.)

Rebecca

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[Chris Lahey]

After looking at the map, I'm a little concerned that this would drive a lot of traffic onto Buena Vista, and thus across the community path at an intersection with no light. I know the current situation is untenable though.

Would the next step be getting the city to hire a professional to do a study? How does this sort of thing work?

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[Patil, Anand Y.]

Hello all,

Hope you are well. I just wanted to chime in here as an EMT/first responder in Somerville.

The Davis Sq intersection is far too complicated, which results in long wait times for vehicles from all approaches and pedestrians alike. The long wait times for pedestrians encourages jaywalking.

The long wait times for vehicles causes big backups and ultimately hinders emergency response through that intersection. We often have to use that road & intersection to get to the other side of the City, and this intersection alone can increase response times noticeably. Due to the intersection's complicated nature, the Opticom (emergency signal actuation) takes a long time to flip the light green for us, which makes it even more difficult to get through the Square. So for all the reasons already mentioned, and this one on top of that, I think it's critical to get this intersection improved sooner rather than later, so it can work better for everyone.

I feel like the simple solution here would be to convert Davis Sq intersection into a simple 4-way intersection. Cut off Dover & Day St from the intersection entirely. Maybe Day St can remain open but just not in the intersection anymore. I feel as though the little traffic that already uses those roads can find an alternative, whether that's through Buena Vista or Chester/Russel. The result would be a simplified phasing pattern that would allow everyone — especially pedestrians — to get across the intersection quicker, and hopefully, with reduced complexity, we could be able to speed up emergency response through there.

So, I suppose this picture is essentially what I support.

I think there should be a study commissioned if there already isn't one. The best way to go about this (I think) is hire a firm to independently do a Traffic Impact Study (TIS) and report the results to Somerville's DOT. This would speed up their decision-making and show them feasibility. That's, of course, if there's money or a grant that would help with that. If not, then it'd have to happen the normal way.

Chris, I think you bring up an important point about vehicles on the path. If this did happen, I think some strong pedestrian safety treatments like a sharp raised crosswalk or speed bumps leading up to the path's intersection would be a good idea. Also, maybe just consider putting a stop sign up for vehicles along with the other stuff I already mentioned.

It may increase traffic flow on some surrounding roads, but I feel like at least when I'm in the Square I don't notice too many people using those streets? Again, something for a TIS to sort out and model the impact. Either way, in my head the positive externalities of getting this intersection simplified outweighs the potential negatives of slightly increased traffic on surrounding streets. I also think it's one of those things that we'll never really know until we try it!

Thanks,

Anand

--

Anand Y. Patil A'26

Major, Community Health | Minor, Urban Environmental Policy

Emergency Medical Technician - Cataldo/Somerville

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From: daviss...@googlegroups.com <daviss...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Chris Lahey <cla...@clahey.net>
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Cc: Roger Levy <sino...@gmail.com>; Carol <crego...@aol.com>; Christopher Beland <bel...@alum.mit.edu>; Beth Kevles <bethk...@gmail.com>; Davis Square Neighborhood Council <daviss...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [External] Re: [DSNC] Closing Dover Street at Davis Square

 

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[Zachary Yaro]

Hi all,

I was planning to watch this discussion from the sidelines, but Chris Beland and I ended up chatting about it earlier, and he reminded me one of the older Davis Square Neighborhood Plans did show part of the parking lot behind the CVS as a connection between Mecham Rd. and Herbert St.

Building that connection and two-waying Day St. could be a solution to this conundrum.  Personally, I would prefer a more direct extension of Mecham over to Day St. not aligned with Herbert, and two-waying Day just between there and the central Davis intersection, minimizing how much of Day needs to be two-way.  Not perfectly to scale, but the ideas are roughly these (the latter being my preference):

I think one of the issues with the designs in the 2020 plan is the emphasis on College ⇄ Elm.  If this can still be made possible, College ⇄ Day + Highland ⇄ Holland would:

• Keep Dover and Day as the parallel connections between Davis and Mass. Ave.
• Remove the issues with Buena Vista and potentially reversing Mecham
• Retain the possibility of blocking Buena Vista → Mecham (coming from Highland) for Community Path safety
• Not hamper Elm pedestrianization efforts by making it ¼ of the central Davis intersection
• Not send drivers who missed the Buena Vista turn down Elm
• Retain the connection to Elm for vehicles that need to go that way

Best,

Zachary Yaro

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[rebeccachase]

Hi Zachary,

In the past the owner of the lot behind CVS has not been interested in selling all or part, for either development or public use. Has that changed? 

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[Callie Wiser]

im also curious what outreach has been made to the owner of the rest of the triangle plot of Elm/Grove/Highland. 

Do the owners of Mike’s own the rest, or are there multiple landlords? It seems like there should be outreach to talk about how this development could be part of a larger thinking rather than just a singular tall building. 

Has @Lance Davis been working on this? 

Callie

“Shared joy is double joy. Shared sorrow is half sorrow.” - Swedish proverb

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From: 'rebeccachase' via Davis Square Neighborhood Council <daviss...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Monday, March 17, 2025 9:22:44 AM
To: Zachary Yaro <zmy...@zmyaro.com>; Patil, Anand Y. <Anand...@tufts.edu>
Cc: Chris Lahey <cla...@clahey.net>; Roger Levy <sino...@gmail.com>; Carol <crego...@aol.com>; Christopher Beland <bel...@alum.mit.edu>; Beth Kevles <bethk...@gmail.com>; Davis Square Neighborhood Council <daviss...@googlegroups.com>

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[Jeff Byrnes]

I’d rather see multiple redevelopments over time, than a single mega project that rebuilds the entire core of the square & displaces, even if temporarily, so many shops & restaurants.

 

I would like to see the City make better use of all the surface parking, esp. since it owns at least two of those lots itself & could partner with a builder to redevelop them into homes + retail (maybe even with underground parking if the finances work).

-- 
Jeff Byrnes
my.pronoun.is/he/him

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[Callie Wiser]

I hear that. But if there is no comprehensive plan, then it leaves everyone at a disadvantage for having a coherent vision of what the square could be. 

“Shared joy is double joy. Shared sorrow is half sorrow.” - Swedish proverb

---

From: Jeff Byrnes <je...@somervilleyimby.org>
Sent: Monday, March 17, 2025 10:14:19 AM
To: rebeccachase <rebecc...@comcast.net>; Zachary Yaro <zmy...@zmyaro.com>; Patil, Anand Y. <Anand...@tufts.edu>; Lance Davis <lanceda...@gmail.com>; Callie Wiser <callie...@gmail.com>

[Elizabeth Merrick]

I couldn't agree more about how it would be better to have multiple smaller projects rather than one outsize tower in the middle of Davis. Personally I believe this would be a much better way to address housing issue while still preserving something of the human scale and appeal of Davis Square. 

Also, if the developers are saying it's only financially viable if they get a 25-story, 500 unit building approved - that sounds like they either totally misjudged by paying too much on the assumption they would get their way, or are just using this proposal so when it's scaled back to, say, 20 stories it will seem like a good compromise. 

Somerville is obviously a very desirable place for developers now. Yet the city still has this mindset of beggars can't be choosers.

I believe this is a totally misguided project, and also it seems like people who support affordable housing but not this particular gigantic project are sometimes being viewed as anti-affordable housing. This is inaccurate in many cases. (Me, for instance!)

Elizabeth Merrick 

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[Jeff Byrnes]

I urge folks to consider that Copper Mill’s 25-storey project will:

• Have a Prevailing Labor Agreement (PLA)
• Have a Community Benefits Agreement (CBA)
• Have an agreement with The Burren and potentially other retailers to return at their current rents
• Have 20% Inclusionary Zoning subsidized homes, meaning 100 homes for a mix of folks at 50%, 80% and 100% Area Median Income (AMI)

With those things in mind, I hope it makes sense why the builders need a lot of revenue to pay for the building.

More is more, when it comes to what we want from builders.

At $600k a pop in Greater Boston, 500 apartments will cost something like $300M in hard costs, and that’s before you account for the four points I share above. Then there’s the razing of the current building, and the possibility of toxic materials hiding under the ground on-site (unfortunately common in Somerville, owing to our being a postindustrial place).

As a reference point, the City of Somerville’s entire FY2024 budget was $337M.

We don’t have another proposal in or near Davis Square that’s going to create 100 subsidized, low- and moderate-income homes.

The next closest building to Davis being built that I know of is at Warwick & Cedar, which I can see from my window right now. It’s 5 storeys tall and will be 46 total homes, 9 of them subsidized, if memory serves.

Still awaiting a zoning change is Just-A-Start’s 100% Affordable project at Medford & Walnut, which is aiming to be 7 storeys, with a total of 40–60 subsidized homes, still TBD. Please come out to Land Use Committee this Thursday 3/20 to support their zoning change!

Meanwhile, Assembly Row and the “Bacon Building” represent almost all of the subsidized homes we’ve built in the last decade.

I say all of this to make it clear that, if you’re in favor of subsidized affordable homes for low- and moderate-income folks, the very best way we get lots more of them is with high-rise buildings.

Once again, when it comes to building homes, more is more.

So, if you are struggling with the idea of a tall building, please try to bear all of this in mind.

-- 
Jeff Byrnes
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Building that connection and two-waying Day St. could be a solution to this conundrum.  Personally, I would prefer a more direct extension of Mecham over to Day St. not aligned with Herbert, and two-waying Day just between there and the central Davis intersection, minimizing how much of Day needs to be two-way.  Not perfectly to scale, but the ideas are roughly these (the latter being my preference):

<><>

[Carol]

Thank you 

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[Kathy Partridge]

I live on Orchard Street, between Meacham Road and Dover Street. Closing off the first block of Dover Street would make getting home for me, as well as residents of Kingston Street, Campbell Park, and Glover Circle a bit of a nightmare. I'm not in favor of this change.

Kathy Partridge

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Life is a lot like jazz . . . It's best when you improvise."

           --George Gershwin

Kathy Partridge

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[Robert Collins]

Hi Jeff I think my biggest concern isn’t even the size of the building per se it is more of how I envision this building to look when it is finished. As I have stated many times and I may sound like a broken record but I am not in favor of what I perceive to be cheap boxy apartment buildings that they constantly keep building and I want to push my city council and everyone that I can to demand more from these builders. I understand it is a big world and construction costs are high but that is more of a reason for them to find solutions because to me the thought of having our area filled with more of these buildings drives me crazy. 

And again if they cant find a way to make the building nicer with brick stone and nice design then me personally I would prefer them not do anything until they can figure it out. And I know different people have different style preferences but these are my preferences and I hope people can respect that. I want the best building possible for my city and I am uncompromising in that

Sent from my iPhone

On Mar 17, 2025, at 5:41 PM, 'Carol' via Davis Square Neighborhood Council <daviss...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

On Mar 17, 2025, at 11:45 AM, 'Elizabeth Merrick' via Davis Square Neighborhood Council <daviss...@googlegroups.com> wrote:



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[PJ Santos]

Hi Robert, 

It's certainly worthwhile to voice that concern at Copper Mill's info sessions. I do appreciate they're trying to engage with the community, and I'm at least cautiously optimistic they'll listen to some of what we have to say! 

On the boxy buildings, I'm not an architect, but from what I understand there's two big forces that are encouraging that style. First, our building code has a bunch of rules that make it tough to build apartments that don't look like that (https://better-cities.org/community-growth-housing/how-single-stair-reform-can-help-unlock-incremental-housing/). Lots of the better-looking buildings in Somerville got built before our current building code got adopted... But unfortunately it's out of the developer's hands. 

Second, a bunch of building choices are made because it's the least expensive way to do things. Here, we have some room to ask the developer to spend more money to make the building look better! However, there are limits to how much we can ask for. Money we ask for to beautify the building is money that can't go towards more green space, affordable housing, infrastructure improvements, and anything else we'd want to get out of this project. Hopefully the DSNC can help us sort out what our collective priorities are. 

Beyond that, I feel pretty uncomfortable letting aesthetic preferences be too big of a factor, since as you said everyone has a different opinion. If someone came to my house, said it was ugly, and told me I had to tear it down and leave Somerville, I'd be pretty upset! The current situation is different, but if we say no, it's still the case that 500 people won't be able to live here. 

Cheers, 

PJ Kim-Santos 

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[Benny Knoblauch]

Robert - I would encourage you reach out to Copper Mill directly if you have these types of stylistic preferences.  I know they are working with architects right now on drawing up potential exterior options, so now would be the best/easiest time to accommodate community feedback.  From renderings and messages at previous meetings, I think the lead guy shares your same disdain for the tall glass boxes that are popping up all over Seaport, Kendall and Assembly.

For some of the previous concerns, I really hope that as a community we can work with them, the city and potentially others to bring some much needed development to the square.  As much as I wish Davis was the thriving area it was even 5 years ago, the cracks of complacency and neglect are starting to show.  I am in the square every day because of my commute and it is painfully obvious businesses are hurting due to reduced foot traffic (MBTA ridership through Davis is down thousands of passengers/day compared to 2019 according to their website data).  This affects all the local businesses we are trying so hard to save.  Close housing density would help supplement that loss of foot traffic to virtual work and green line migration.

I really think that we have an amazing opportunity with a company local to the area who is wanting to do things the right way.  From last meeting: agreeing to union labor, signing agreements with the Burren and Dragon Pizza up front at below market rates, pulling height away from sidewalks to mitigate visual impact, incorporating public civic space, etc are all core values we all seem to agree on.  I’m sure if they didn’t do these or got a chain bank to be ground floor retail they could make a much shorter building work but that would for sure be detrimental to the area.

At the next public meeting, I really hope that we can offer realistic compromises that not just protects what we love but also ensures Davis is a neighborhood we continue to love for many years to come.

Benny

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[Jeff Byrnes]

Benny, PJ,

 

Love the way you frame this, thanks for sharing!

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[Christopher Beland]

On Sun, 2025-03-16 at 17:42 -0400, rebeccachase wrote:
> How do you think this proposal would impact traffic on Day street? Do
> we know enough about the travel-patterns to predict? (I don't -- but
> there may be a study I haven't seen.)

I don't know of any traffic studies of this particular change;
presumably the city would want to do one before implementing it.

I'm having troubling thinking of a circumstance where cars unable to
enter Dover from Davis would be re-routed to Day Street. Maybe a few
that would normally enter Day Street from Orchard Street would enter
from Mass Ave instead? Trucks are already banned at the Cambridge end,
so Day is not a very good alternative to Dover for deliveries to CVS
and BSC (and their loading door and elevator are on Dover anyway, so it
seems they would have little reason to want to use Day Street).

-B.

[Christopher Beland]

On Mon, 2025-03-17 at 09:22 -0400, rebeccachase wrote:
> In the past the owner of the lot behind CVS has not been interested
> in selling all or part, for either development or public use. Has
> that changed?

If anyone has contact info for the owner, I think we should invite them
to a DSNC meeting to chat. It would be interesting to know if upzoning
would be needed to make development of their land worthwhile, if they
have any interest in renting out some parking spots to the city for
metered use, and to generally listen to their thoughts about how Davis
is doing and what it needs for the future.

-B.

[Christopher Beland]

On Sun, 2025-03-16 at 23:16 -0400, Chris Lahey wrote:
> Would the next step be getting the city to hire a professional to do
> a study? How does this sort of thing work?

I was wondering about next steps, too. I'll bring this question to the
Elmway meeting on Monday.

Anand's idea of funding a traffic study is interesting, though I don't
know who would be willing to pay for that, the city seems pretty
willing to look into these things on its own, and the city may prefer
to do the work in-house so it can trust the results and have them
conform to other city policies and plans.

There are a few other possible steps:
* Discuss at a monthly DSNC meeting and get broader opinions
* Invite city Mobility staff to a DSNC meeting to discuss
* Go door-to-door with Roger's excellent map and a concrete proposal;
quantify how the neighborhood actually feels about this and gather any
additional suggestions and concerns
* Take a DSNC vote on asking the city to do a traffic study so we can
make a more informed decision
* Take a DSNC vote on asking the city to implement the proposal

I'm not sure what "ask the city" means - if that's the mayor or city
council or a specific department or what. Talking to staff about how
they determine what to work on might be helpful, unless someone in the
DSNC or on this list can fill us in.

> After looking at the map, I'm a little concerned that this would
> drive a lot of traffic onto Buena Vista, and thus across the
> community path at an intersection with no light. I know the current
> situation is untenable though.

I agree. I think Anand's suggestion of raised pavement, combined with
cutting the width of the road in half will make a big difference to
pedestrian safety, and we should do those things regardless of Dover
Disconnect. STOP signs and even red lights at pedestrian-only crossings
are sadly often ignored.

As for mitigating the volume of cut-through traffic, maybe some
additional signage would help - how about "NOT A THRU STREET" at the
entrance to Buena Vista, with "RESIDENTS AND DELIVERIES ONLY" after the
medical center parking garage entrance? We could also add "MASS AVE VIA
CAMERON" and "MASS AVE VIA BEECH" signs in or before Davis to encourage
routing along car-centric streets.

-B.

[Jeff Byrnes]

I recall a convo with Councilor Lance Davis maybe a year-ish ago, and he shared that the owner of that parcel (old Rite Aid, now Republic Fitness) was waiting on Scape & Asana to finish their redevelopments on Elm St. He also almost certainly needs more entitlements (i.e., upzoning) to raze the building & redevelop. 

 

As we know, both of those other projects fell apart b/c of finances, and Copper Mill has stepped in with their new high-rise proposal. Asana appears to be sitting tight.

 

So now Republic has moved in, and I suspect they’ve signed a typical commercial lease (10 years) based on the buildout they’ve done. It’s an extensive renovation they’ve done!

 

As great as it is to have a business in that building again, it’s definitely a miss that it’ll remain one storey w/ surface parking.

-- 
Jeff Byrnes
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[Christopher Beland]

The old Rite Aid/Republic Fitness parcel is between Highland and the
bike path. We were talking about the parking lot behind the current
CVS/BSC, between Day and Dover (through which Meacham Road could be
extended).

Though it's fascinating to hear background on the other building! I was
going to say scheduling redevelopment is kind of up to the owners, so
it's interesting to hear they sometimes wait for each other to see what
the consequences will be rather than rush to get their own rebuild done
first or jump in at the same time.

-B.

[Jeff Byrnes]

Oops! My bad 🤦🏻‍♂️ 

 

I don’t know anything about that lot, though it’d be brilliant to have it transformed into a building with homes & retail 🤞🏻 

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[Roger Levy]

On Sat, Mar 29, 2025 at 5:57 PM Christopher Beland <bel...@alum.mit.edu> wrote:

On Sun, 2025-03-16 at 23:16 -0400, Chris Lahey wrote:
> Would the next step be getting the city to hire a professional to do
> a study? How does this sort of thing work?

I was wondering about next steps, too. I'll bring this question to the
Elmway meeting on Monday.

Anand's idea of funding a traffic study is interesting, though I don't
know who would be willing to pay for that, the city seems pretty
willing to look into these things on its own, and the city may prefer
to do the work in-house so it can trust the results and have them
conform to other city policies and plans.

There are a few other possible steps:
* Discuss at a monthly DSNC meeting and get broader opinions
* Invite city Mobility staff to a DSNC meeting to discuss
* Go door-to-door with Roger's excellent map and a concrete proposal;
quantify how the neighborhood actually feels about this and gather any
additional suggestions and concerns
* Take a DSNC vote on asking the city to do a traffic study so we can
make a more informed decision
* Take a DSNC vote on asking the city to implement the proposal

I'm not sure what "ask the city" means - if that's the mayor or city
council or a specific department or what. Talking to staff about how
they determine what to work on might be helpful, unless someone in the
DSNC or on this list can fill us in.

This is excellent brainstorming of potential next steps. For getting a sense of what the neighborhood thinks, as well as for establishing common ground about the current version of the proposal and refining it, nothing beats door-to-door. It'd require some time and energy, but if we had enough people involved I think it'd be manageable. It'd probably be a useful awareness-raising exercise for DSNC more broadly, too. I'd be glad to volunteer to participate.

Relatedly, before Christopher brought up the idea of Dover and concomitant changes, I had been thinking of bringing up the idea of raised pavement and a crosswalk on the Somerville side of Meacham, maybe somewhere around the midpoint of the one-way section between Buena Vista Rd and Orchard road. Traffic on that section is uncomfortably fast and heavy for a residential street. As I noted before there is already raised pavement+crosswalk on the Cambridge side, demonstrating a need for traffic calming on Meacham, but much of the traffic coming from Davis Square blasts through the Somerville part of Meacham as fast as it can. Some versions of the current proposal would obviate the need for this, I think, but perhaps we could bring this possibility into the overall alternative space.

> After looking at the map, I'm a little concerned that this would
> drive a lot of traffic onto Buena Vista, and thus across the
> community path at an intersection with no light. I know the current
> situation is untenable though.

I agree. I think Anand's suggestion of raised pavement, combined with
cutting the width of the road in half will make a big difference to
pedestrian safety, and we should do those things regardless of Dover
Disconnect. STOP signs and even red lights at pedestrian-only crossings
are sadly often ignored.

I fully agree. However, I doubt the width of any part of Buena Vista Road could be cut in half without making it one-way.

 

As for mitigating the volume of cut-through traffic, maybe some
additional signage would help - how about "NOT A THRU STREET" at the
entrance to Buena Vista, with "RESIDENTS AND DELIVERIES ONLY" after the
medical center parking garage entrance? We could also add "MASS AVE VIA
CAMERON" and "MASS AVE VIA BEECH" signs in or before Davis to encourage
routing along car-centric streets.

These are good ideas too!

Best

Roger (he)