Description

When cars turn onto Walden from Mass Ave, they hit over 40 mph speeding away from the intersection. There will be more traffic redirected onto our already busy, narrow street when the bike lanes are installed. There is senior housing on Walden and young families who pass through on their way to the playground or to Danehy Park. There have been more cyclists on our street, too.

We have been asking for some time now for traffic calming infrastructure on Walden, such as a speed bump, a "your speed is" sign, or at least more signage instructing drivers what the speed limit actually is (some people genuinely do not know if there is a lack of signage). Councilor Sobrinho-Wheeler was helpful achieving the "hill obstructs view sign" at the top of the hill on Walden nearish to Richdale but was not reelected. How are these interventions going now?

I have been tapped by a car bumper as a pedestrian crossing at Walden and Mass Ave and had some near misses crossing further up, such as at Mead and Walden. I have seen pedestrians nearly decked as cars turn left onto Walden from Mass Ave (cars have the blinky yellow light even though pedestrians across Walden have the walk light).

Trucks hit high speeds, sometimes very early in the morning, waking neighbors up (including myself, even with an AC on and a fan and a sound machine...I'm not proud of my overnight energy usage!). Trucks also turn left onto Walden despite signage instructing otherwise- I hope this will be further addressed when the protected lanes are installed to prevent even greater infractions?

When trucks are on Walden they block traffic if there are two trucks in opposite directions, or if they are behind trash trucks on trash day. They also shake our apartments basically every 5 minutes. Walden is a narrow street with triple-deckers and multifamilies built with very little setbacks. It is a residential street which was not built to handle these traffic flows, unlike the Mass Ave commercial corridor.

It sounds like there may be changes to Mead Street, but what about Walden? I am (hopefully wrongly!) assuming that the Mead Street change will send more traffic down Walden considering where the signs have been placed--between Mead and Walden--so, where is the Walden love? Traffic is back and back to its usual pattern of gridlock on Walden from Mass Ave. up to Richdale (who doesn't love an idling car?). The Assistant Commissioner at the DPW was helpful in providing me with an intern's email, but I honestly never received responses after emailing them. Thanks for your attention to this- North Cambridge is changing and we need to ensure that the narrow, residential streets absorbing more traffic flows for safety-guided interventions are safe, too.