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Back to full throttle on the turnpike in Boston
By adamg on Sun, 06/04/2017 - 9:13am
MassDOT reports it got all the data it needed from closing off half the lanes on the turnpike between Allston and Beacon Street yesterday and so at 7 a.m., it re-opened the two lanes it had shut on each side.
Around 9 a.m., DCR tweeted that it was still planning to shut Riverbend Park and open Memorial Drive in Cambridge to car traffic today.
Shortly after, MassDOT tweeted it was really due to part of the AIDS Walk going along Storrow Drive, which was not the reason DCR gave last week.
The state shut the lanes to gauge potential impact from the rebuilding project that begins later this year on the Comm. Ave. bridge over the turnpike and the Worcester Line/Lake Shore Limited tracks.
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Comments
DCR now in clear violation of state law
As pointed out earlier, statute dictates that
The DCR could have made a dubious case earlier that there was a threat to public safety (because people driving cars might be inconvenienced, or something). However, with the roads now open, this is not the case. It sure seems like DCR just wants to take a holiday and not show up and do its job. Someone from MassDOT is now tweeting that it's because of the AIDS walk, which requires the partial closure of Storrow Drive, except that partial closure is at the Hatch Shell, on the other side of the river, three miles away. This argument doesn't hold water, especially since the DCR's original email said nothing about the AIDS walk. Plus, the AIDS walk ends at noon and Mem Drive is "closed" from 11 to 7, so there's no reason the DCR couldn't close it off at 12 for the rest of the day.
Maybe it's time to ask our representatives to update that law to have an enforcement mechanism so DCR can't go mucking around with the park willy-nilly.
Give it a rest
It's not productive to work yourself into a lather over nothing. The original decision to open Memorial was a good one, and was done in order to benefit almost everyone and enable the flow of traffic with the Mass Pike lane closures. The revised decision might be a little questionable, but so what? The walkers and bicyclists can go elsewhere for one day. It's not the big deal you and others are making it out to be.
This is not nothing
No, we will not give it a rest. This is a blatant attempt by the DCR to get away with ignoring the laws, toward the end of no longer closing Memorial Drive on Sundays.
Perhaps you should look into long history of this agency (formerly MDC) and their historic disregard for laws that bind their operations before you "anonsplain" in such fashion.
The cars can go elsewhere - they have vastly more habitat to operate in, to the point of killing cities and killing people in them. This is a day where people can do errands and spend time training their kids to ride the roads and taking that away isn't taken lightly - particularly when it is illegal.
Take it to court. Show them
Take it to court. Show them what's right. Make sure you stop work on Comm Ave until this matter can be fully studied, brought to the ballot and then have the appropriate legislative steps taken. That's best for everyone in this region. After all, this primarily affects people not within walking/biking range of our great Boston and who cares about all of those people anyway.
OMG, the pedesttians lose their special privldge
to exclusively use a road INTENDED FOR CARS for one day. And you and all the other members of the "cars are totally evil" have a big hissy fit and incorrectly interpret some obscure state law to defend your indefensible position.
In a word -, pathetic.
It isn't a privilege
Driving is a privilege. Walking and biking are rights - particularly when the law clearly says that area will have no cars on Sunday.
Read the law and shut up.
Walking, jogging, etc. on a road that was
specifically designed for use by CARS is NOT a right. It IS a privilege. And the "close Memorial Drive to traffic on Sundays so others can use it for recreation" BS has NO BUSINESS being mandated through the law. Rather, it is yet another example of how the special interests in this state use the Legislature to unreasonably restrict how government agencies can conduct their business. Oh, but it benefits a few joggers and pedestrians and further restricts the evil cars - so it must be good? Not when the agency overseeing the roadway is not allowed to exercise reasonable discretion in suspending that restriction for the greater good of the area.
But I guess that's no different than the idiotic "rule of law" that gives a pedestrian ILLEGALLY walking in the road more rights than the unfortunate driver operating LEGALLY that winds up hitting them.
There is no need for cars to be there on Sundays
It entirely abuts property of Harvard University and Mount Auburn Hospital, and has no driveways or garages using it as their sole access road.
Also, was it originally designed for cars, or for horses and carriages?
DCR
Memorial Drive makes me think that DCR loves cars, and hates nature and everyone who is not currently inside of a car.
The waterfront, which should be very nice, is a highway median strip of shit.
Joggers must be really desperate for actual CONSERVATION AND RECREATION space, if they're willing to run alongside the nerve-wracking speeding traffic, and be breathing heavily of so much up-close auto exhaust.
Dept. of Cars and Raceways
Next up in 3.. 2... 1..
"And I ride a bike to work every day, up hill both ways, hip deep in snow both Winter and Summer. So my virtue and rectitude trump any and all arguments here. And if perhaps you counter them with a better argument, then I'll go to Plan B: ad hominem personal attacks..."
Jeez, put a sock in it, will you?
Who said this?
Let's take away some legally required thing that you like - such as highways without tolls - and tell you to shove a sock in it when you whhhiiiinnnnn about being inconvenienced?
Next up
We pour raw sewage into your water, just like the old days of the MDC!
and call you a whiner when you get sick and complain.
Benefit Everyone?
Not the people who enjoy using the road for recreation only to have it closed to them for absolutely no reason.
So the DCR is in violation of an idiotic state law
that probably never should have been enacted in the first place.
Don't like it. The why don't YOU take them to court?
DCR has been taken to court
Repeatedly. They got smacked hard and repeatedly when they tried to harass cyclists on the Longfellow bridge. To the point where the court fined the individuals responsible out of their own pockets.
But then wipers like you whine about the cost of them being taken to court when they decide to ignore some law requiring them to do their job - or make up their own "laws" because their are "special".
Please know that cyclists
Please know that cyclists have the legal right to use the full lane of the road.
Riverbend Park is open as usual on any Sunday
I am there right now. It is barricaded off to cars and full of bikes and pedestrians and strollers and dog walkers, like it should be. The DCR tweet was simply wrong. Come down here and enjoy it.
Excellent
Hey Anon, maybe it was worth complaining about.
It looks like DCR backed off..
Per this tweet..
Adam, this may be on you
Adam, I think you made a mistake. The DCR tweet saying that Memorial Drive will be open to traffic appears to be from around 6:00 AM. The 9:05 AM tweet states that Memorial Drive is closed and Park open
If the temporary turnpike
If the temporary turnpike lane closing was a study to gauge traffic flow during actual lane closings, then they skewed their results by also opening Memorial Drive - unless they planned all along to also keep Memorial Drive open on Sundays when the turnpike work is ongoing. This kooky excuse sounds like a frog boil. No conservation, no recreation, no thanks.
Agreed. If they were trying
Agreed. If they were trying to make the case that the I-90 lane restrictions required Mem Drive to not be closed to cars on Sunday, they should have left Mem Drive closed as usual, and then if traffic around Mem Drive was exceptionally bad, made the case to leave it open during the actual construction coming up.
Ok great, so if the proposed
Ok great, so if the proposed but later backed out of plan for not closing Mem Drive to cars on Sunday was actually due to the AIDS walk closing parts of Storrow and not because of the I-90 test, than I presume that DCR will have no reason to not close it during the actual Comm Ave bridge construction when the I-90 lanes are restricted once again, right?!
Probably wrong.
Probably wrong.
If I understand correctly, this past weekend was to test-run the lane changes on the Pike for logistics, snags, etc...
The actual work period this summer is lane changes on the Pike to work underneath Commonwealth Avenue. If you look on the project information page, Commonwealth Avenue (and BU Bridge) will be closed to thru traffic (cars and trucks) in that area. All that surface traffic needs to go somewhere, and their map has detours using Beacon Street, Storrow Drive, and Memorial Drive.
http://www.massdot.state.ma.us/highway/HighlightedProjects/CommonwealthA...
http://www.massdot.state.ma.us/Portals/8/docs/HighlightedProjects/CommAv...
The stretch of Memorial Drive shown as a detour
does not include any of the area that is traditionally closed as Riverbend Park on Sundays.