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Thank you to the many community members who took time out of their busy days to discuss solutions for traffic concerns in the vicinity of Appleton Street.
Based on the feedback we've received and a review of the traffic data collected, we've decided to implement the "No Left Turn" regulation at the intersection of Brattle Street and Appleton Street. New "No Left Turn" signs will restrict left turns from Brattle Street eastbound onto Appleton Street northbound at all times. We anticipate installing permanent metal signage for this change on or about Wednesday, August 14, 2024. Later this fall, we will also perform additional data collection to gauge the impact of the change.
In addition to sending this email to the project's email list, we will notify the community of this change through laminated signs posted on sign posts in the neighborhood, door-to-door flyers in the immediate vicinity, variable message boards on Brattle Street and Mt Auburn Street, and a news item in the city's Daily Email Update. We also plan to alert navigation apps of this change so that those using apps are directed to alternative routes before entering the neighborhood.
Coming soon, we will also:
- Add a speed feedback sign in each direction on Appleton Street.
- Restrict additional parking at the crest of the hill on Appleton Street and add a short section of yellow centerline to keep drivers on the correct side of the road.
- Repaint the yellow centerline at each end of Appleton Street (Huron Avenue and Brattle Street) to further emphasize that the street is two-way.
Background:
We held a community meeting to discuss traffic concerns on Appleton Street and the surrounding neighborhood between Brattle Street and Huron Avenue on May 23, 2024 at History Cambridge. Due to venue capacity, staff were unable to present the slide deck during the meeting. The slides included data regarding the speeds, volumes, and classifications of vehicles on area roadways, as well as a summary of reported crashes along Appleton Street between Huron Avenue and Brattle Street. We have posted it online for folks to explore independently. Click here to see the slides. Please reach out to staff directly if you need assistance interpreting the data presented in the slides.
Some main takeaways from the data included in the presentation are:
- Appleton Street has significantly more northbound traffic than the other streets that are seen as alternatives. For example, it has over four times as much as Lakeview Avenue, which is the next highest in terms of northbound volumes: 3,318 vs 838. In 2017, Appleton Street was only about twice as much: 2,381 vs 1,117.
- The other ladder streets that are alternatives (Reservoir, Fayerweather, Lakeview, Lexington, Buckingham, etc.) have all had notable decreases in northbound volumes over the last few years as more and more drivers are funneled to Appleton Street, likely by navigation apps.
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As a whole, northbound volumes are down by about 50 cars per day since 2017 over all ladder streets combined (essentially no change). This means we aren’t seeing any regional travel pattern changes that are causing more drivers to come through the neighborhood; the routine trips are just distributed differently amongst the streets.
- We did not find an increase in crashes as a result of the increased volume of vehicles on Appleton Street.
Feedback Summary:
We heard many verbal comments at the meeting and received many comments by email and online feedback form. A summary of the feedback received to date can be found at this link. We have updated the summary to include the additional feedback we've received since June 25.
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