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Weekend Mem Drive shutdowns begin April 10
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Comments
Nice.
Nice.
Saturday is only a tradition
Saturday is only a tradition since last year.
This is fine with me. Though I wish they'd improve the signage, so people could avoid the area before it's too late and they're stuck in the jam. Too many people come off the Pike, turn left on Mem Drive, and hit the closure at Western Avenue and have to go around the box again.
It would be really helpful to have signage back at the Pike exit telling people to turn left on Soldiers Field Road as a detour for Mem Drive westbound.
Does Google Maps reflect this closure? That would solve the problem for people following their GPS even if there's no signage.
Yes the closure is shown on
Yes the closure is shown on google maps.
I got stuck in that on one of
I got stuck in that on one of the Saturdays last December when it appeared to closed for some type of Harvard-related thing (?)- No signage/ warning and about a 45-minute jam on a route with few alternatives once you're past a certain point
Riverbend Park continued through the end of December last year
and for the final (Christmas) weekend, they just closed the road on Thursday evening and kept it that way through Monday morning.
If you want to use the word "traditional"
With respect to Riverbend Park, the closure of Memorial Drive on Saturdays only started last year. It would be more accurate to say "the traditional Sunday ban on cars on part of Memorial Drive in Cambridge will extend to Saturday again this year." (The road is only closed from Western Ave. to the Eliot Bridge.)
Extended two weeks in both directions
Traditionally, Riverbend Park has started on the last Sunday in April and ended on the second Sunday in November. I am happy to see the extensions.
Imagine how much nicer the
Imagine how much nicer the esplanade would be if they closed storrow on the weekends. Or never put the damn thing there in the first place.
It used to be a swamp.
It used to be a swamp.
I'd rather have the esplanade.
Imagine the Public Garden as a morass.
It used to be a swamp.
It used to be a swamp.
I'd rather have the esplanade.
Imagine the Public Garden as a morass.
Should be 7 days a week
and year-round.
I take it you don’t live on
I take it you don’t live on Putnam Avenue.
I do live near there...
And I have a car. And I still think ALL of Memorial Drive should be closed every weekend. It's not that hard to get to the other parkway a few hundred feet across the river.
Part of the reason Putnam Ave is sometimes backed up is people (like me) forget that Memorial Drive is shut down and don't plan ahead. Better signage might help.
I have lived near there actually
and never had any problem with the Memorial Drive shutdown. The secret? Realizing that you're an easy walk or bike ride to pretty much anywhere you want to go, and an easy walk or bike ride to the T to pretty much everywhere else, and an easy drive to the highway if you have to get out of town. And that's all even easier if you don't have to worry about car traffic on one chunk of your route!
You have to worry about much
You have to worry about much worse car traffic on Putnam Ave, with no adjacent bike path to help get past it.
In this hypothetical
Riverbend Park is your adjacent bike path
Which is fine?
Putnam is a much smaller road where vehicles travel at slower speeds. I'm ok with more car traffic there while I'm on my bicycle.
And to provide a little
And to provide a little historical context:the MDC and their predecessors did not agree to close it on Sundays out of the goodness of their hearts. The early developers of East Cambridge wanted to take a crupton of parkland for buildings, and they could only do it by this compromise.
Which buildings was this?
Which buildings was this?
Where were these lost parks?
Do you have a map that can show us?