{"id":1006,"date":"2016-10-21T06:40:37","date_gmt":"2016-10-21T10:40:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.walkuproslindale.org\/weblog\/?p=1006"},"modified":"2016-10-20T21:42:44","modified_gmt":"2016-10-21T01:42:44","slug":"ruts-and-ridges-on-washington-street-walkup-coalition-letter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/walkuproslindale.org\/weblog\/2016\/10\/21\/ruts-and-ridges-on-washington-street-walkup-coalition-letter\/","title":{"rendered":"Ruts and Ridges on Washington Street – WalkUP Coalition Letter"},"content":{"rendered":"

WalkUP Roslindale is always on the lookout for opportunities to join forces with our friends at Rozzie Bikes<\/a> and Roslindale Village Main Street<\/a>\u00a0to improve the walkability, vitality, and livability of our neighborhood. This week, we put together a letter to the Public Works Commission<\/a> to raise the urgent need to improve paving conditions on Washington Street in Roslindale. The full letter appears below, and is also available in PDF form<\/a>. Let’s hope we see improvements in this critical and highly-trafficked corridor this year. Demand more!<\/p>\n

BY EMAIL ONLY<\/span>
\nOctober 17, 2016<\/p>\n

Michael Dennehy
\nCommissioner Public Works
\nCity of Boston
\n1 City Hall Square, Room 714
\nBoston, MA 02201-2024
\nEmail: michael.dennehy@boston.gov<\/a>, publicworks@boston.gov<\/a><\/p>\n

RE: Resurfacing bus stops on Washington Street in Roslindale<\/b><\/p>\n

Dear Commissioner Dennehy,<\/p>\n

I write on behalf of three neighborhood organizations in Roslindale. WalkUP Roslindale <\/a>seeks to Roslindale the most walkable neighborhood in Boston. RozzieBikes<\/a> is dedicated to making Roslindale a better place to bike, including by street improvements, bike parking, bike routes, bike lanes, and mixed-use paths. Roslindale Village Main Street<\/a>\u00a0is an independent non-profit 501(c)(3) organization that promotes Roslindale Village as an appealing destination and the dynamic center of our community.<\/p>\n

Thank you and your department for repaving the portion of Washington Street in Roslindale at the northbound Archdale Road bus stop earlier this summer. The 20,000 people who take the bus on this stretch of road (compromising 60% of roadway users) have a much less jarring ride. However, there are still areas where the paving at the bus stops on Washington Street have been damaged from the\u00a011 MBTA bus lines that use the corridor.<\/p>\n

The pavement on Washington Street in Roslindale from roughly Arboretum Road to South St\/Firth Street has been damaged by MBTA busses pulling into and braking as they enter their bus stops. We, the undersigned, ask the City of Boston to consider repairing the damaged approaches to the bus\u00a0stops and the bus stop pavement itself this paving season before the damage gets much worse. Already the ruts and ridges cause busses to bounce around as they pull into bus stops and has made portions of the bike lane very dangerous and difficult to ride. Additionally, the ruts and ridges make
\nsnow plowing and road salting less efficient and the ruts collect rain and melt water that can freeze overnight. See pictures of ruts and ridges at end of letter. Note that these pictures were taken this spring and the pavement has continued to degrade.<\/p>\n

Our preference would be to have this portion of Washington Street repaved in its entirety, but we do not see it on the Public Works Department\u2019s online list of streets scheduled to be repaved. This portion of Washington Street was not repaved six years ago when much of it was and while the\u00a0surface of the travel lanes is reasonable, it is however cut up from many utility repairs, some quite recent. We urge the Department to take advantage of the current low oil prices and warm weather and consider paving more streets than normal this road construction season.<\/p>\n

When portions of Washington street were ground up six years ago, much of the street still appeared to have a cobble base layer and we wonder if this may be a factor in the significant ridges, ruts and wash boarded surfaces that have occurred. We have talked informally to people at the MBTA, and they believe that the \u201cgold standard\u201d for bus stops and approaches is a cement concrete apron much like those installed on Washington Street in the South End for the Silver Line. If the concrete apron approach is selected, we suggest that the City of Boston and the MBTA consolidate the Whipple St\u00a0and Grandfield St stops into a single stop at Fawndale Street as recommended in the A Better City \u201dBus Priority Measures Corridor Case Study, Washington Street, Belgrade Avenue, and Center Street<\/a>\u201d March 2014.<\/p>\n

We, in Roslindale, look forward to having a better, smoother, and safer Washington street.<\/p>\n

Sincerely,<\/p>\n

For Roslindale Village Main Streets
\nAlia Hamada Forrest, Executive Director<\/p>\n

For Rozzie Bikes
\nMark Tedrow<\/p>\n

For WalkUP Roslindale
\nMatt Lawlor, Resident @ 15 Basto Terrace, Roslindale
\nOn behalf of WalkUP Roslindale Steering Group, including
\nRicardo Austrich, Resident @ 843 South Street, Roslindale
\nLisa Beatman, Resident @ 180 Mount Hope Street, Roslindale
\nDarlene Donovan, Resident @ 143 Cummins Highway, Roslindale
\nSteven Gag, Resident @ 631 South Street, Roslindale
\nLiz Graham-Meredith, Resident @ 6 Crandall Street, Roslindale
\nRob Guptill, Resident @ 44 Birch Street, Roslindale
\nDiane Johnson, Resident @ 3 Ramsdell Avenue, Roslindale
\nAdam Kessel, Resident @ 36 Taft Hill Terrace, Roslindale
\nSarah Kurpiel Lee, Resident @ 65 Cornell Street, Roslindale
\nMatt Lawlor, Resident @ 15 Basto Terrace, Roslindale
\nMandana Moshtaghi, Resident @ 12 Arborough Road, Roslindale
\nRobert Orthman, Resident @ 69 Walter Street, Roslindale
\nRebeca Phillips, Resident @ 10 Tappan Street, Roslindale
\nAdam Rogoff, Resident @ 28 Ashfield Street, Roslindale
\nRachele Rosi-Kessel, Resident @ 36 Taft Hill Terrace, Roslindale
\nMark Tedrow, Resident @ 169 Sycamore Street, Roslindale
\nMarc Theiss, Resident @ 55 Prospect Avenue, Roslindale
\nGreg Tobin, Resident @ 1 Sheldon Street, Roslindale
\nAlan Wright, Resident @ 98 Birch Street, Roslindale
\nRick Yoder, Resident @ 180 Mount Hope Street, Roslindale<\/p>\n

Copy to:
\nCity Councilor Michael Flaherty (michael.flaherty@boston.gov)
\nCity Councilor Annissa Essaibi George (a.e.george@boston.gov)
\nCity Councilor Tim McCarthy (matthew.omalley@boston.gov)
\nCity Councilor Ayanna Pressley (ayanna.pressley@boston.gov)
\nCity Councilor Michelle Wu (michelle.wu@boston.gov)
\nMayor Martin Walsh (mayor@boston.gov)
\nChief of Streets Chris Osgood (chris.osgood@boston.gov)
\nCommissioner of Transportation Gina Fiandaca (gina.fiandaca@boston.gov)
\nDirector of Planning Vineet Gupta (vineet.gupta@boston.gov)
\nSenior Transportation Planner Charlotte Fleetwood (charlotte.fleetwood@boston.gov)
\nActive Transportation Director Stefanie Seskin (stefanie.seskin@boston.gov)
\nCo-Chair, Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics Kris Carter (kristopher.carter@boston.gov)<\/p>\n

\n
\"Washington<\/a>
Washington Street Northbound near Firth Street (March 2016)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Washington<\/a>
Washington Street Southbound near Granfield Avenue March 2016)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Washington<\/a>
Washington Street Southbound near South Street (March 2016)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WalkUP Roslindale is always on the lookout for opportunities to join forces with our friends at Rozzie Bikes and Roslindale Village Main Street\u00a0to improve the walkability, vitality, and livability of our neighborhood. This week, we put together a letter to the Public Works Commission to raise the urgent need to improve paving conditions on Washington […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[13],"tags":[263,166,296,297,149,92,183,50,186,12],"class_list":["post-1006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-safety","tag-boston-public-works-department","tag-comment-letters","tag-michael-dennehy","tag-pavement","tag-public-comment","tag-roslindale-village-main-street","tag-rozzie-bikes","tag-rozziebikes","tag-rvms","tag-washington-street"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6X5no-ge","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/walkuproslindale.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/walkuproslindale.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/walkuproslindale.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/walkuproslindale.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/walkuproslindale.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1006"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/walkuproslindale.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1006\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1011,"href":"https:\/\/walkuproslindale.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1006\/revisions\/1011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/walkuproslindale.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/walkuproslindale.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/walkuproslindale.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}