Committee Proposes Traffic Redesign

A bike path from Johnston Gate to Cambridge Common is among the likely changes to traffic patterns in Harvard Square proposed by a city committee and presented to the public at a meeting last night.

Several preliminary proposals were submitted for public comment yesterday and have not been endorsed by the city council. But committee members said that in addition to the bike path, they have also reached consensus about a plan to extend pedestrian crosswalks at the intersection of JFK St. and Mass. Ave. and create one giant crosswalk from Curious George bookstore to Out of Town News.

The committee is also considering more drastic changes—including opening JFK and Brattle streets to two-way traffic to make them major arteries into and out of the Square and narrowing streets where possible to control traffic flow—but is still divided on those plans, said Kathy Watkins, a spokesperson for the committee said.

Brattle Street and JFK are currently one-way, requiring bicyclists and motorists to take “circuitous” and “uninviting” routes to enter the central area of Harvard Square, project consultant Jerry Friedman said during the presentation.

The Cambridge city government initiated the Harvard Square Design Project Committee last spring in response to suggestions from local businesses for structural changes to the streets to improve car and pedestrian traffic. Its members are local business owners, residents and city employees. There is one Harvard undergraduate on the committee, Rohit Chopra ’04, and one Harvard administrator, assistant director for campus design Nathalie Beauvais.

Because all the proposals the committee is considering were formulated in conjunction with the city, the plans the committee settles on are almost certain to be implemented, Watkins said.

The city of Cambridge has allocated $3.5 million to the infrastructure improvement project in next year’s budget, and construction could begin as soon as fall of 2003, Watkins said.

“The proposals were developed very much as a collaborative effort between the committee, the city and consultants from three consulting firms,” Watkins said.

Many Cambridge residents and business owners at the meeting called the plans for the bike path and crosswalk “no-brainer” improvements.

“This part of the improvements list is very logical,” Theresa Hamacher, an area homeowner, said of the crosswalk plan. “These are all things I’ve noticed as problems.”

Many community members at the meeting said they were concerned the committee wasn’t focusing enough energy on finding parking for Harvard Square’s numerous visitors.

“How many people driving around the Square are just looking for places to park?” community member Diane Nicholls said.

Watkins said the committee plans to focus on parking issues in the second phase of planning, along with rethinking signs and loading zones in the Square.

Next month, the committee will meet to consider the input it received last night, and may then choose which proposals to implement.

“A final decision would be the goal, but a lot of it is dependent on the comfort level of the committee in December,” Watkins said.

The committee has already replaced benches throughout the Square, replanted all of the grass in Winthrop Park and installed new street lamps.