Brattle and Garden Streets Projects
There are currently two separated bike lane projects which are set to be completed by the end of the street construction period, November 2022. A separated bicycle lane is separated from motor vehicle traffic by a permanent vertical barrier (white flex posts are typically used) that remain in place year-round and can include granite or concrete barriers and raised curbs. The Brattle Street project is not required under the Cycling Safety Ordinance but the street was selected as the city claims it is an important link in the city’s envisioned network of bike lanes. The Garden Street project is included in the Cycling Safety Ordinance as a mandated installation.
Information on both these projects and meeting summaries are below.
Lack of Transparency- Although the loss of residential and, in some cases, metered parking will happen as part of both the Brattle and Garden St projects, the City’s notices do not contain that important information. Ultimately, 50 residential spaces will be removed from Garden Street. The city still has not disclosed the total number of spaces to be removed from Brattle Street.
This pattern of not fully disclosing the projects impact is standard operating procedure for the Traffic, Parking and Transportation Department. No where in its notices does the possibility of parking removal or the possibility that loading zones could be moved to side streets or downsized is mentioned.. It is easy to understand why residents and businesses are surprised when they learn more about the projects. The lack of transparency surrounding the CSO continues and is one of the many concerns CSA has about how it is being implemented. Lack of transparency is an issue we all should be concerned about. We deserve full disclosure of a project’s impact and the budget allocated for these projects.
Brattle Street Project
The City will be installing separated bike lanes on the entire length of Brattle Street in two phases, making improvements to pedestrian crossings, and interim improvements to the Sparks St/Craigie St intersection as part of the project. Phase 1 ( Mason to Sparks St) is expected to be completed late summer 2022. The design for Phase 1 will be side by side continuing the design in Harvard Square. Phase 2 (Sparks St to Mount Auburn Street) will be completed in 2023 after completion of the Eversouce gas main replacement project. A link to the Traffic Parking and Transportation presentations from all three community meetings can be found on the project webpage. At the September 8th Cambridge Historical Commission meeting, Phase 1 the project was given a temporary certificate of appropriate for a 3 year period.
Meeting Overviews
Cambridge Historical Commission- At the September 8th meeting, the review of the project continued. Despite being asked to consider materials more appropriate to the historic nature of Brattle Street, the city made no changes to the plan previously submitted. They claimed they could not find other suitable materials and would use as few white flex posts as possible., the Commission approved a temporary installation of the separated bike lanes for a 3 year period. The city promised to use as few white flex posts as possible.
Third Community Zoom meeting Summary: The final community meeting before implementation was held Tuesday August 2, 2022. The final design for Phase 1 was reviewed and remained unchanged which is the side by side two way directional bike lane. Pedestrian sidewalk and details of the Sparks/Craigie/Brattle Street intersection improvement were also reviewed. The Phase2 design was previewed which is a continuation of the Phase 1 design. There will be additional Phase 2 community meetings starting in September. Phase 2 installation will happen in spring 2023. On August 4th, the project was reviewed for appropriateness by the Cambridge Historical Commission. The discussion was continued until the September 8th meeting as the city was asked to explore other materials that would be consistent with the historic character of the street instead of using white flex posts.
Second Community Zoom Meeting Summary: A project scope change was announced at the second meting. The separated lanes will now be installed only from Mason St to Sparks St (Phase 1) as a result of the gas line replacement project along Brattle Street. Phase 2 will include Sparks St to Mount Auburn Street at the completion of the gas line replacement project in 2023. An update to Phase 2 design will be discussed at the third meeting on August 3. Another important change to the project is the use of both white flex posts and precast concrete curbs to reduce the visual clutter as fewer, more strategically placed flex posts will be installed. The two way bike lane configuration is the option selected and it will be installed on the north side of the street and metered parking on the south side will be maintained. The city was unable to tell participants how many parking spaces are being removed during Phase 1. A loading zone ( 8am-4pm) has been added across from the Longfellow House (north side) to accommodate tour buses. This space can be used for overnight resident permit parking (4pm-8am). The project will also include interim improvements to the Brattle St/Sparks St/Craigie St intersection. The long term solution for this intersection remains the installation of a roundabout however no funding source has been identified.
Garden Street Project
The City will be installing quick build separated bike lanes, removing 50 residential parking spaces, and making improvements to pedestrian crossings on Garden Street from Huron Avenue to Mason Street near Cambridge Common. In the fourth community meeting, the preferred option to convert Garden Street one-way from Huron Ave to Concord Ave was confirmed. One way separated bike lanes is the design selected for this project which will be completed by Fall 2022. Of all the options presented by the city, this Option (Option 3) removed the least amount of parking.
Fourth community meeting was held September 20 to review and discuss the preferred option which was introduced in August. The city had previously presented three design options for new separated bike lanes on Garden St. All three reduced on-street parking spaces on Garden St.: in Option 1, 91 spaces are lost, in Option 2 76 spaces are lost, and 50 spaces are lost in Option 3, the preferred design. Option 3 allows for one way separated bike lanes on each side of the street to be installed on Garden Street and the preservation of more on street parking than other options. There will still be considerable spillover effect on Concord Ave and neighboring side streets due to parking removal. Outbound traffic on Concord will increase.
The third community meeting was held August 9th. During this meeting another option called Option 3 was reviewed and discussed. Impacts of all the options on parking were provided.
The second Community Zoom Meeting was held Tuesday July 12. At this meeting, the City presented its complicated design approach for Garden St which involves plans for 3 sections. The 3 section approach does not result in a uniform consistent design for Garden St (which was a concern of some participants) and could result in significant traffic flow changes. The proposals result in a loss of spaces between 76 (68 % of available parking) to 91 (81% of available parking) along the entire stretch of Garden from Mason to Huron. The first, Section A, is Huron to Linnaean. In this section, the street is narrow and the only design option is a two way separated bike lane despite cycling community input that prefers one way bike lanes. Parking for 26 cars will be removed. In Section B (Linnaean to Chauncy) the options presented were: Continue the two way separated bike lane from Section A on the south side of the street reducing parking by 59 spaces or convert Garden St to one way east-bound traffic from Shepard to Concord and have separated bike lanes on both sides reducing parking by 44 spaces. The city will be studying the impact of the one way traffic flow on other streets as part of the final decision making process. The city has asked for feedback on which option is preferred for Section B. The preferred layout for Section C is one way separated bike lanes on both sides of the street from Mason to Concord removing 6 of the 19 parking spaces. Pedestrian crosswalks in a couple of areas will be redone. The biggest enhancement for pedestrians is the installation of a flashing crosswalk at Waterhouse St.
The first Community Zoom Meeting was held Tuesday May 24. The May presentation slides are posted. You can view a PDF of the presentation; or watch, listen to, or read a recording of the meeting.
In the first community meeting, some participants were curious how Garden St was selected for a `safety improvement’ project as residents did not consider the street unsafe, and therefore the need for separate bike lanes was unclear. The city presented information that there were 7 accidents involving driver and pedestrians (3) and driver and cyclist (4) in the 2019 to early 2022 period. The city views Garden St. as an important connection to other sections of the city including Danehy Park . The two options for the design are the typical one way or two way separated bike lanes. The amount of residential and metered parking to be removed will be less with the two way separated bike lane option. Residents on Garden St and Waterhouse expressed concern about the loss of parking noting that parking is already difficult and the side streets will not be able to adsorb the amount of parking to be lost. Many residents have no option for off street parking and rely on their cars. It is unclear how the space in front of the Sheraton Commander including taxi drop off the pick up will be impacted. Improvements to certain cross walks will be made as part of this project. Many participants felt that pedestrian safety could also be improved if cyclists obeyed the current rules of the road.
Please visit https://www.cambridgema.gov/StreetsAndTransportation/ProjectsAndPrograms/GardenStSafetyImprovementProject for the meeting presentations and information from all community meetings.