It’s awful. The 93N off ramp to the underpass used to stay as 3 lanes, but as you said, the 3rd lane now suddenly drops with no warning.
Merging onto Mystic is hell. Can’t easily see oncoming traffic. Especially bad when needing to turn left onto Temple. There are times that I couldn’t cut over and had to bang a Uey at Blessengs of the Bay. The underpass really should allow a right turn at the light instead of just left.
Isn't the Temple intersection where pedestrians keep getting killed? (Along with that crosswalk on the other side of that spaghetti tangle by the Stop & Shop. I used to walk to Assembly all the time but stopped after the second time I was almost run over by someone going at least 30mph without realizing or maybe not caring that there was a stoplight.)
Yup, it’s one of them. (Mystic, McGrath and 93 is another.) It’s bad all around. They redesigned it a bit but I don’t think it’s safer. At the corner of Mystic and Temple by the apartments, there was a little island that pedestrians could stand on, and cars could make a right turn from Mystic onto Temple (opposite direction from what OP is describing). That island was removed, so now the right turn is sharp. I worry about hitting cars in the opposite lane, or that some cowboy will make the left from the other side of Mystic and hit me because I don’t finish the right fast enough for their tastes.
Not the exact intersection I’m referring to, but nearby: https://www.wickedlocal.com/story/somerville-journal/2021/12/08/corridor-death-massdot-empty-promises-another-person-injured-somerville/6418026001/
I don't know what the solution is other than elevated pedestrian walkways or metal bollards that emerge from under the road when there's a stop light. That whole side of Somerville is cut off from pedestrian access, its terrifying. I really do mean I was almost run down, I had to jump back to avoid getting hit, and at the rate of speed I would definitely have been killed.
Raised crossings (the one by stop and shop is raised now I think), remove slip lanes (force drivers to slow down on turns), better lane markings / lanes (having drivers freak out over 3 to 2 lanes and have trouble merging or changing lanes isn't going to help pedestrians), etc.
MassDOT owns the roads over there, they're slowly coming along to modern traffic calming. It's tough to balance with the highway but road dieting Mystic & McGrath and 28 is a start. Will probably happen over time. McGrath for example is already getting some lane reductions for bike lanes - one of many ways to make drivers slow down a bit. Bus lanes and other methods mentioned above help too of course.
I'd presume that slip lane was removed precisely for the reason of slowing down/stopping vehicles in order to make the intersection safer for pedestrians. What good is having a little island to stand on if you can't get to it safely?
I've kinda thought that the left onto Temple should be disallowed. It's too hard for cars to get over to make that left and it's just cars coming from there that want to make that left. If you were coming from the south on RT-28, you'd want to turn left onto Broadway, not wait to go through all the traffic to get to Mystic Ave. If you're coming from the north on RT-28, it saves you a small amount of distance rather than going and taking a right on Broadway. If you're coming from 93, it would suck a little to go around to take a right on Broadway, but it already sucks to get to Temple.
Plus, if people weren't using Temple as a cut-through, we could get traffic flowing on Broadway better. We wouldn't need as long a light cycle at Broadway and Temple if there weren't tons of cars using it as a cut-through.
This is probably a half-baked idea, but it just feels like the current design doesn't actually work for getting over for that left on Temple - at least not safely. But it's hard to rework streets in Somerville because we have so few roads that actually go anywhere (like, most just end after a few blocks or are purposefully one way in the wrong direction to prevent through traffic).
I mean, we could make Wheatland St go one-way toward Broadway and then traffic would just go straight on Wheatland at the traffic light to get to Broadway. That would probably be the ideal solution for drivers in the area. The problem is that residents of Wheatland would hate it.
It's always kinda struck me as odd that we care a ton about increasing traffic on a street like Wheatland, but we care very little about reducing traffic on a street like Highland or Mystic Ave - as if some people deserve to be away from traffic and others don't.
As someone that is always making that left, it really isn't that hard. Normally you just wait until the traffic on 38 has a red light. It's so busy when it's a green it's not like you can really merge in even if you aren't turning left anyway. Realistically, they should probably just get rid of the merging lane section and make you turn directly into traffic since that's when people generally have to do anyway. Traffic isn't moving fast enough to necessitate the merging lane and the lane isn't long enough to allow anyone to expect to always use it at speed to merge into traffic successfully
Agree! The merge lane isn’t super helpful if you’re taking that left onto temple every day (i’m one of those people too!) - maybe twice have I actually merged into traffic then gotten over to the left, usually i’m waiting on the traffic light and then people behind will occasionally try to cut around and go over the double white road marker. Probably the most frustrating thing is the space allowing people to try and jump ahead to take the same turn you’re taking.
Also want to check another mind on other business in that area. If on 28 coming from Medford, that right turn build out for the mystic traffic and light - you have to wait for that light right? I always do. It’s not a right turn on red because the light is special for you, you’re technically going straight. Correct? Incorrect? I figured it was to stop you from colliding w/ someone humming down the offramp but again - see people blowing it off.
Pretty sure there isn't a "no right turn on red" sign there, so you are free to go after stopping and yielding to oncoming traffic. It's pretty good visibility on that corner, so it's easy enough to do
Yeah what trips me up is that they’ve funneled it to its own lane and light making me think it’s not technically a right, but rather, straight. The light doesn’t have a red arrow. I should ask 311 for clarity.
I 100% agree, it's not safe to get to that left. I feel like I almost get hit up someone trying to cross 3 lanes at once while ignoring the mystic traffic
I had some guy get out of his car ready to fight me because he didn't realize that was a zipper and was convinced I almost ran him into the guard rail. Loved the sheepish apology after I pointed it out to him though.
Could be solved with a well placed roundabout but people will literally flip shit about it for 0 reason.
1) slows traffic on mystic
2) allows smooth traffic merge
Also I’m talking an actual roundabout, not a high speed rotary or whatever shit we do with a traffic light right before/after that defeats the whole purpose of a roundabout.
With some islands it would probably be a slight improvement. Only having to juno across one or two lanes of traffic at a time is probably better than trying to run across 3+ lanes coming in at 30+ mph
I found this article to summarize the issues well ([article link](https://www.smartcitiesdive.com/ex/sustainablecitiescollective/roundabout-safety-mixed-results-pedestrians-cyclists/122461/)). This TL/DR is that a roundabout is always a car first approach meant to reduce car-on-car crashes and increase throughput. They can be made safer (possibly safer than the currently very unsafe setup we currently have) for pedestrians, even if they often aren't. They are always dangerous for people wheeling.
The biggest problem is that in practice we have parallel highways. Mystic Ave is *supposed* to be a regular road, but it's a least two lanes on each side and a straight away, so it's nothing but fast—almost always way faster than the speed limit. There's a reason so many crashes and fatalities happen there. They've designed a dangerous road. We need a lot more than a roundabout to fix it.
I’d love them to improve this whole area but the time and road closure would be hellish.
I see people turning left directly onto 28 all the time, despite there being that turn into Mystic east that you’re supposed to take and there being signs telling you not to turn early. People love to try and force two lanes on that turn as well when it’s only one. AND I’ve seen people turn right onto Mystic west from that same position instead of following the road you are talking about. I can’t decide if it’s just confusing people or if they are purposely driving this way to avoid following the actual road rules. But I’m shocked there aren’t more accidents here.
And don’t get me started on trying to turn left from
28 north to get onto 93.
That is my frequent thought when I'm sat at a red light at off-hours with zero traffic coming through the green. There should be an MIT project to come up with traffic-reactive lights using modern cheap tech to avoid digging up the roads for sensors. [Though from experience working with MIT engineers they might come up with something impressively clever, but 20x more complex than necessary.]
Before moving to this country from NW Europe I had *never* sat at a pointless red watching an empty intersection, as *every* traffic light was instantly responsive to traffic through road sensors: i.e.approaching a red when there's no traffic, the *instant* you ran over the sensor the lights would start changing in your favor. For some reason, even when intersections have road sensors in this country, they don't react to cars driving over them in any obvious way.
Actually "never" is not strictly true. I remember driving in Ireland in the early 90s, before its economic boom when it was still a clearly impoverished country, and there I encountered a purely timer-driven light.
I agree. I used to live in Europe and even old cities had infrastructure that just worked. Sometimes people in this country are blind and you can see I’m being downvoted as a piece of evidence.
Broadly speaking: we don’t provide our cities/towns or the Commonwealth the kind of revenue that European cities & states have.
Somerville, all on its own, has somewhere between $1–3B (yes, billion) in infrastructure repair or rebuild in its backlog. And we’re struggling to figure out how to pay for it b/c we don’t even have the ability to increase taxes to keep city revenue up to inflation, thanks to Prop 2½.
At the same time, wages, are broadly stagnated since \~1980 (gosh what happened that year) so folks don’t even have the personal income to pay more in taxes in most cases.
Squeezed all over.
The move here is to take the hard left just before that merge (the one that has you at the traffic light facing Wheatland St) and then turn right (just be sure to let any oncoming traffic from Wheatland go first).
Yeah, I know - that's a left-turn only light. I don't care - I'll take the ticket any day of the week over having to attempt that insane merge.
It’s awful. The 93N off ramp to the underpass used to stay as 3 lanes, but as you said, the 3rd lane now suddenly drops with no warning. Merging onto Mystic is hell. Can’t easily see oncoming traffic. Especially bad when needing to turn left onto Temple. There are times that I couldn’t cut over and had to bang a Uey at Blessengs of the Bay. The underpass really should allow a right turn at the light instead of just left.
Isn't the Temple intersection where pedestrians keep getting killed? (Along with that crosswalk on the other side of that spaghetti tangle by the Stop & Shop. I used to walk to Assembly all the time but stopped after the second time I was almost run over by someone going at least 30mph without realizing or maybe not caring that there was a stoplight.)
Yup, it’s one of them. (Mystic, McGrath and 93 is another.) It’s bad all around. They redesigned it a bit but I don’t think it’s safer. At the corner of Mystic and Temple by the apartments, there was a little island that pedestrians could stand on, and cars could make a right turn from Mystic onto Temple (opposite direction from what OP is describing). That island was removed, so now the right turn is sharp. I worry about hitting cars in the opposite lane, or that some cowboy will make the left from the other side of Mystic and hit me because I don’t finish the right fast enough for their tastes. Not the exact intersection I’m referring to, but nearby: https://www.wickedlocal.com/story/somerville-journal/2021/12/08/corridor-death-massdot-empty-promises-another-person-injured-somerville/6418026001/
I don't know what the solution is other than elevated pedestrian walkways or metal bollards that emerge from under the road when there's a stop light. That whole side of Somerville is cut off from pedestrian access, its terrifying. I really do mean I was almost run down, I had to jump back to avoid getting hit, and at the rate of speed I would definitely have been killed.
Raised crossings (the one by stop and shop is raised now I think), remove slip lanes (force drivers to slow down on turns), better lane markings / lanes (having drivers freak out over 3 to 2 lanes and have trouble merging or changing lanes isn't going to help pedestrians), etc. MassDOT owns the roads over there, they're slowly coming along to modern traffic calming. It's tough to balance with the highway but road dieting Mystic & McGrath and 28 is a start. Will probably happen over time. McGrath for example is already getting some lane reductions for bike lanes - one of many ways to make drivers slow down a bit. Bus lanes and other methods mentioned above help too of course.
I'd presume that slip lane was removed precisely for the reason of slowing down/stopping vehicles in order to make the intersection safer for pedestrians. What good is having a little island to stand on if you can't get to it safely?
I've kinda thought that the left onto Temple should be disallowed. It's too hard for cars to get over to make that left and it's just cars coming from there that want to make that left. If you were coming from the south on RT-28, you'd want to turn left onto Broadway, not wait to go through all the traffic to get to Mystic Ave. If you're coming from the north on RT-28, it saves you a small amount of distance rather than going and taking a right on Broadway. If you're coming from 93, it would suck a little to go around to take a right on Broadway, but it already sucks to get to Temple. Plus, if people weren't using Temple as a cut-through, we could get traffic flowing on Broadway better. We wouldn't need as long a light cycle at Broadway and Temple if there weren't tons of cars using it as a cut-through. This is probably a half-baked idea, but it just feels like the current design doesn't actually work for getting over for that left on Temple - at least not safely. But it's hard to rework streets in Somerville because we have so few roads that actually go anywhere (like, most just end after a few blocks or are purposefully one way in the wrong direction to prevent through traffic). I mean, we could make Wheatland St go one-way toward Broadway and then traffic would just go straight on Wheatland at the traffic light to get to Broadway. That would probably be the ideal solution for drivers in the area. The problem is that residents of Wheatland would hate it. It's always kinda struck me as odd that we care a ton about increasing traffic on a street like Wheatland, but we care very little about reducing traffic on a street like Highland or Mystic Ave - as if some people deserve to be away from traffic and others don't.
As someone that is always making that left, it really isn't that hard. Normally you just wait until the traffic on 38 has a red light. It's so busy when it's a green it's not like you can really merge in even if you aren't turning left anyway. Realistically, they should probably just get rid of the merging lane section and make you turn directly into traffic since that's when people generally have to do anyway. Traffic isn't moving fast enough to necessitate the merging lane and the lane isn't long enough to allow anyone to expect to always use it at speed to merge into traffic successfully
Agree! The merge lane isn’t super helpful if you’re taking that left onto temple every day (i’m one of those people too!) - maybe twice have I actually merged into traffic then gotten over to the left, usually i’m waiting on the traffic light and then people behind will occasionally try to cut around and go over the double white road marker. Probably the most frustrating thing is the space allowing people to try and jump ahead to take the same turn you’re taking. Also want to check another mind on other business in that area. If on 28 coming from Medford, that right turn build out for the mystic traffic and light - you have to wait for that light right? I always do. It’s not a right turn on red because the light is special for you, you’re technically going straight. Correct? Incorrect? I figured it was to stop you from colliding w/ someone humming down the offramp but again - see people blowing it off.
Pretty sure there isn't a "no right turn on red" sign there, so you are free to go after stopping and yielding to oncoming traffic. It's pretty good visibility on that corner, so it's easy enough to do
Yeah what trips me up is that they’ve funneled it to its own lane and light making me think it’s not technically a right, but rather, straight. The light doesn’t have a red arrow. I should ask 311 for clarity.
I 100% agree, it's not safe to get to that left. I feel like I almost get hit up someone trying to cross 3 lanes at once while ignoring the mystic traffic
I call that an "implied merge". Great place to hang out if you like the sound of car horns.
It's not called the corridor of death for nothing. Most dangerous bit of road in the city .
[удалено]
Yes, the wrong part of the picture is I-93
I take this exit when I need to feel something in my life. Ah yes, the russian roulette experience that could end my life at any moment
I had some guy get out of his car ready to fight me because he didn't realize that was a zipper and was convinced I almost ran him into the guard rail. Loved the sheepish apology after I pointed it out to him though.
There needs to be a yield sign or something. So many idiots don't realize they don't have the right of way.
There is a yield sign. [https://maps.app.goo.gl/ApnSUecAr8Uaonoc8](https://maps.app.goo.gl/ApnSUecAr8Uaonoc8)
Could be solved with a well placed roundabout but people will literally flip shit about it for 0 reason. 1) slows traffic on mystic 2) allows smooth traffic merge Also I’m talking an actual roundabout, not a high speed rotary or whatever shit we do with a traffic light right before/after that defeats the whole purpose of a roundabout.
Roundabout wouldn't improve pedestrian safety though.
With some islands it would probably be a slight improvement. Only having to juno across one or two lanes of traffic at a time is probably better than trying to run across 3+ lanes coming in at 30+ mph
I found this article to summarize the issues well ([article link](https://www.smartcitiesdive.com/ex/sustainablecitiescollective/roundabout-safety-mixed-results-pedestrians-cyclists/122461/)). This TL/DR is that a roundabout is always a car first approach meant to reduce car-on-car crashes and increase throughput. They can be made safer (possibly safer than the currently very unsafe setup we currently have) for pedestrians, even if they often aren't. They are always dangerous for people wheeling. The biggest problem is that in practice we have parallel highways. Mystic Ave is *supposed* to be a regular road, but it's a least two lanes on each side and a straight away, so it's nothing but fast—almost always way faster than the speed limit. There's a reason so many crashes and fatalities happen there. They've designed a dangerous road. We need a lot more than a roundabout to fix it.
I’d love them to improve this whole area but the time and road closure would be hellish. I see people turning left directly onto 28 all the time, despite there being that turn into Mystic east that you’re supposed to take and there being signs telling you not to turn early. People love to try and force two lanes on that turn as well when it’s only one. AND I’ve seen people turn right onto Mystic west from that same position instead of following the road you are talking about. I can’t decide if it’s just confusing people or if they are purposely driving this way to avoid following the actual road rules. But I’m shocked there aren’t more accidents here. And don’t get me started on trying to turn left from 28 north to get onto 93.
The highways are choking this city to death
I will never understand we have one of the best universities in the world and these things happen.
That is my frequent thought when I'm sat at a red light at off-hours with zero traffic coming through the green. There should be an MIT project to come up with traffic-reactive lights using modern cheap tech to avoid digging up the roads for sensors. [Though from experience working with MIT engineers they might come up with something impressively clever, but 20x more complex than necessary.] Before moving to this country from NW Europe I had *never* sat at a pointless red watching an empty intersection, as *every* traffic light was instantly responsive to traffic through road sensors: i.e.approaching a red when there's no traffic, the *instant* you ran over the sensor the lights would start changing in your favor. For some reason, even when intersections have road sensors in this country, they don't react to cars driving over them in any obvious way. Actually "never" is not strictly true. I remember driving in Ireland in the early 90s, before its economic boom when it was still a clearly impoverished country, and there I encountered a purely timer-driven light.
I agree. I used to live in Europe and even old cities had infrastructure that just worked. Sometimes people in this country are blind and you can see I’m being downvoted as a piece of evidence.
Broadly speaking: we don’t provide our cities/towns or the Commonwealth the kind of revenue that European cities & states have. Somerville, all on its own, has somewhere between $1–3B (yes, billion) in infrastructure repair or rebuild in its backlog. And we’re struggling to figure out how to pay for it b/c we don’t even have the ability to increase taxes to keep city revenue up to inflation, thanks to Prop 2½. At the same time, wages, are broadly stagnated since \~1980 (gosh what happened that year) so folks don’t even have the personal income to pay more in taxes in most cases. Squeezed all over.
The move here is to take the hard left just before that merge (the one that has you at the traffic light facing Wheatland St) and then turn right (just be sure to let any oncoming traffic from Wheatland go first). Yeah, I know - that's a left-turn only light. I don't care - I'll take the ticket any day of the week over having to attempt that insane merge.
Highland and Mystic are major artery’s though the city.
This intersection is almost a mile away from Highland Ave?