Block Party 2008 Recap

The (mostly annual) Willow Ave block party was held on Oct 26th this year. We had a great turnout...many neighbors, family of neighbors, friends, and strangers showed up. I'd guess around 75 people in all.





Redbones BBQ was on hand. Donene and Michael brought folding tables. David manned the grill and served up burgers, dogs, and veggie burgers. (He also brought out a TV so that we could watch the game). Brad and family supplied warm apple cider as well as coffee. MaryLou, Jim and the triplets brought out huge bowls of popcorn. Somebody (shhhh!) brought a cooler of beers. Lots of cake and cookies were consumed. Zion brought lots and lots of soda which kept the kids plenty energized.




For activities, we didn't have too much structure. We had one neighbor show up with the biggest skateboard I've ever seen. Marisa and Ben wheeled their outdoor ping pong table over. Lots of kids buzzed around on their bicycles. Kelle painted faces for a good two hours, Bonnie took over and helped out for another couple hours. A couple of neighbors took advantage of the crowd and held yard sales. Suzanne provided a great set of music, including guest performances by some of the teens on Willow Ave.




The bouncy house was again a big hit with the kids. (Thanks for Anne-Marie and Paul for handling all bouncy house logistics!) Mayhem pretty much reigned, with lots of bouncing and only one (minor) injury.




We had lots of talk of pedestrian safety last year, and we've seen the addition of bike lanes this year, but strangely there wasn't much talk about traffic calming or ped safety at this years party. Everyone just seemed to be out, talking, enjoying the street, eating, drinking and having a good time.

We look forward to an even bigger block party next year, with more neighbors and friends coming out to join in the fun! If you have comments or want to be included in the planning stage, please leave your name and e-mail in the comments field.

Willow Ave Block Party! October 26th 1 - 4 pm

We're having another block party! The street will be blocked off to cars, we'll have food, drinks for kids and adults, and games. We're trying to get the moonwalk back as well.

If you can help set up or if you can bring a food/drink item, please e-mail kelle.shugrue@gmail.com.

Mayor Joe Curtatone Agrees to install bulb outs, raised intersections

Following is from Melora and David's letter to the editor of the Somerville Journal:

Dear Mayor Curtatone:

You met with Willow Avenue resident Dan Shugrue and me on June 2 to discuss the pedestrian safety recommendations of the Davis Square Transportation Design Group. We wish to thank you for your commitment to add bulb-out curb extensions to the intersection of Willow and Elm by fall 2008, and a speed table to the intersection of Willow and Summer when Willow is repaved in 2009, in accordance with the group's recommendations. We appreciate your commitment to improving pedestrian safety, and we hope these steps will serve as a model for cost-effective safety improvements throughout the city.

We also wish to thank the members of the Davis Square Transportation Design Group (Cassie Arnaud, Beatriz C. Gomez Mouakad, David Loutzenheiser, Brian Postlewaite, Dan Shugrue and several others) who spent many hours -- entirely volunteer -- over a 12-week period gathering input from Willow Avenue neighbors, devising a suitable and cost-effective plan, and documenting the resulting recommendations that were presented to Mayor Curtatone on June 2: http://willave.blogspot.com/

Finally, thanks to Dan Shugrue for preparing an excellent presentation and for going door-to-door with us last winter to discuss the issue with neighbors, and thanks to Ace Wheel Works for publicizing the proposed safety improvements in their store.

Melora Rush and David Booth
Elm Street

Striping of bike lanes on night of May 29th -- City will ticket and tow cars!

The good news: We are getting a bike lane and car lane striping on Willow Ave between Elm and Highland.

The bad news: The city only gave us 1 day notice-- and has told us they will ticket and tow cars parked on either side of Willow Ave tonight.

Please tell you neighbors not to park on the street tonight!

Group Recommendations

Intersection of Willow Ave and Elm Street

Deciding what to do was in some cases easy and in others more difficult. Here's what the group came up with. This intersection is really complicated in part because half the intersection is in Cambridge and in part because there's just a lot of pedestrian, bicycle and car traffic coming from every direction. We are focusing here on the two corners that are in Somerville (Northeast/ Northwest). We recommend:

Curb extensions on both curbs to narrow the distance that pedestrians have to walk and to slow traffic. In addition to the curb extensions we think there should be a raised crosswalk going from the corner with Ace Wheel works to the other side of Willow heading towards Davis Square.



Recognizing that curb extensions might be a budget buster for the City, a temporary alternative would be to put high quality/ attractive planters along the line of the proposed curb extension to achieve the same benefits until a permanent curb/ sidewalk can be installed.



Intersection of Willow Ave and Summer Street

Install a raised intersection with an all-way stop including blinking red stop lights. At the block party, people were firmly for a raised intersection and firmly against an all-way stop. We feel the raised intersection should not be coupled with a standard traffic signal (red-yellow-green) because the green light and the table create conflicting messages. The table is telling drivers to slow down to an "almost stop" while the signal is telling them to get going and make the light.



Alternatively, if the neighborhood wants to keep the current traffic signal, we recommend fully painting the intersection with a decorative colorful design (see the Portland in previous posting) or a simply cross-hatch the entire intersection with a "dutch crossing". If this option is chosen we recommend that curb extensions similar to those recommended on Elm and Summer be implemented on the Northeast and Southeast corners of the intersection.



Willow Ave/ The through street

We recommend that a bike lane be installed on Willow Ave to narrow the travel lane (slowing car traffic) and to encourage bicycle use. Most members of the group liked the idea of a contra-flow (against traffic) bike lane. Yet, residents at the block party, and those participating in our group strongly opposed a contra-flow lane, because it might cause additional conflicts with driveways on the street. In favor of a contra-flow bike lane, our traffic observations showed that 10 bikes per hour were traveling against traffic.

A broader vision: Davis to Union Square by bike:

We suggest that the Somerville Bike Committee study the possibility of creating bike lanes or a bike boulevard on Hancock and/or Cedar Street to accommodate the desire of bicyclists to travel south-bound towards Elm Street near Porter Square. In addition we suggest that the Somerville Bike Committee study bicycle accommodations for Elm Street to provide continuous bicycle access from Davis Square to Union Square via Willow Ave, the Community Bike Path, Elm Street and the bike lanes on Somerville Avenue (under construction).

Block Party!

We set up a display at the Willow Avenue Block Party today. We had a large poster of the street with some sample traffic calming devices. We also had a print out of the blog.



People were able to learn about the range of solutions (previously mentioned in the blog) and rate them as desirable or not. We also had a pad out for general comments.

It was an amazingly beautiful day and as soon as the City closed the street the kids took over.



Here are what people said they liked and didn't like for options at each intersection and the corridor as a whole. We're using shorthand here-- the first number is those who liked the idea, the second, those who were neutral and the third those who really didn't like the idea at all--hated it! So for example if the measure is a raised crosswalk and 23 people loved it, one didn't care and one hated it, it would be marked at (23/1/1).

If you are confused about what some of the terms mean, hopefully you will find some good definitions in earlier entries (further down). I tried to put the most popular first and the least popular last. But sometimes it wasn't totally clear.

Elm and Willow Intersection

Curb extensions:
Extending the sidewalk out to the curb (18/0/2)
Colorful paint-- force cars to take a wide turn (9/0/2)
Planters-- see earlier entry for examples (7/1/1)
Planters and paint combined (2/1/0)

Raised Crosswalk 23/1/1

Traffic Signal Changes
All Way Stop (14/0/5)
Roundabout (6/0/6)
Put in traffic lights (2/0/5)
Willow and Summer Intersection

Intersection Treatment
Raised Intersection/ Speed Table (18/0/2)
Dutch crossing -- paint the whole intersection (13/0/2)

Raised Crosswalk (13/0/2)

Curb Extensions
Paint (10/0/2)
Planters (5/2/1)
Planters and Paint (5/2/0)
Extend the sidewalk/ bump out curb (13/0/6)

Traffic Signal Changes (3/0/2)
Pedestrian Walk Lights (11/0/1)
All Way Stop (2/0/5)
No right on red (1/0/11)

Willow: the through street (treatments between the intersections)
Narrowing the travel lane by:
Adding Bike Lanes (19/0/5)
Adding Shared Lane Markings (3/0/3)
Both Bike lanes and shared lane markings (0/0/6)
Consider bike lanes up against the curb (inside parked cars) (1/1/9)

Change the Street back to two way (2/0/17)

People were encouraged to write their comments on flip chart paper. Here's what they had to say. This is unedited from the sheet, so if it makes no sense, I probably can't help you.

Comments on the Flip Chart

• Bike Lane on Elm- Parking one side only
• Trim back trees blocking signal at summer
• More trees
• Wider Sidewalks
• Bury the utility wires
• If contra-flow lane is implemented, the parking spaces on Elm (maybe 1 space on either side of Willow) would have to be made "no pkg" areas.
• Any traffic pattern changes on Willow must consider the surrounding streets
• Trees at corners = slow down cars
• Traffic Lights at intersection of Elm and Policeman
• Additional crosswalk mid block between Elm and Summer
• Raised Crosswalk on Holland Street in Davis Square
• Make Willow 2 way
• Square of Beach Street Intersection (Make cars turn right then left instead of straight through)
• Speed Tables
• Two Way!

If you couldn't make the block party today and would like to comment or vote on the measures (or even if you did make it today and have something more to say), please comment on the blog!



Thank you residents of Willow Avenue!

Some Examples of Traffic Calming Devices

A traditional and inexpensive way of slowing traffic are speed cushions. These are rubber speed bumps that are bolted to the street. Here they are spaced to let a fire engine through:




Bike Lanes Calm Traffic too:

One idea is to put down a bicycle lane, shared bike lane or both. A narrower car travel lane will slow cars down. Also, just having bicycles in the street will slow cars down. Here are some pictures of "contra flow" (against the traffic bike lanes) that could be paired with a "shared lane marking" (stencil in the street where the cars and bikes share the same lane) going with the direction of traffic

Contra-flow bike lane in Cambridge, MA


A shared lane marking in Toronto Canada



The lane width on Willow Ave is 33'. Reserving 8.5 feet for parking on both sides of the street, there would still be enough room for a 10' travel lane and a 6' bike lane. The 10' travel lane could have a shared lane marking in it. If no bicycles were coming in the "contra flow" bike lane a car would pass a bike going in it's direction by pulling in to the bike lane.

Curb extensions

These can be done with paint and planters (low cost) or by moving the curb physically in to the road. Below are some photos of planters:

This one is too big to see around, but of nice quality:



Here are lower cost planters that could be further defined with creative paint:




Here's a really nicely landscaped curb extension of the expensive kind:


For Intersections there are also many options, some cheap and some expensive. On the cheap side... here is a creative use of paint that really makes a statement:





And more expensive... a roundabout:



These are just a few of the many ways that traffic can be calmed. For more ideas and to give us yours, come to the Willow Avenue Block Party on Sunday October 14, 2007-- from 12 noon to 5PM