Around Town

LETTER: Watertown’s Road Overhauls Should Include Bus Improvements

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The Watertown Square Redevelopment has provided us a once in a generation ability to reimage the core of our city and while what has been proposed has made great strides in helping meet our housing goal, in my opinion it has dropped the ball when it falls to transit. The current plan outlines a reduction of 3 lanes but does not do enough for those of us that use Public Transportation. I propose the creation of a true busway that would greatly improve ride times and thus encourage more citizens to us public transportation; I know others have suggested thus during the town meetings. Watertown doesn’t need water downed bus lanes that are ineffectual by being painted on the far-left lane only for cars to use it to turn. What we need is a bold vision of what it can and ought to do.

Around Town

Bus Stops Have Moved for 3 MTBA Routes at Watertown Yard

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Stops for three MBTA bus lines starting and ending at Watertown Yard have been moved to fit the new street configuration off of Galen Street. The 52, 57, and 504 buses have moved to a different area of the MBTA’s bus yard. The former stop near Nonantum Road has closed, and buses have new pick up and drop off areas. A picture of the old Watertown Yard bus stop exit onto Galen Street. It has been completely blocked off and stops have been moved.

Around Town

Options for Watertown Square Redesign Refined and Presented to the Public

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Residents gave input about the ideas for redesigning Watertown Square during a meeting on Thursday night. (Photo by Charlie Breitrose)

Designers gave some glimpses of what Watertown’s center could look like if the City adopts a plan to redesign and redevelop the area during Thursday night’s Watertown Square Area Plan meeting. Two main options for reworking the roadways in the Square were explored, both of which would add more open space to the area, and showed retail kiosks on the Delta. The scenarios also looked at how Watertown could meet the requirements to allow more housing to meet the MBTA Communities Act. Buildings with as much as six stories of residential units were shown in the illustrations.

Around Town

OP-ED: MBTA Service in Watertown Takes the Cake: Worst Service Ever!

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MBTA buses operating in Watertown Square. (Photo by Mark Pickering)

By Mark Pickering

When it comes to MBTA service, residents in numerous Boston neighborhoods and abutting communities would love to say they have the worst. They’d be wrong. Watertown “wins” hands down. A Boston Globe article (“Missed connections at Nubian,” Feb.

Government

First Drafts of Watertown Square Redesign, Changes to MBTA Discussed at Design Workshop

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Some of the preliminary sketches for a redesigned Watertown Square prepared by the consultants. (Photo by Charlie Breitrose)

All day, Wednesday, hundreds of residents gave their opinions about what they want Watertown Square to look like when it is redesigned, and the City of Watertown’s consultants showed some first efforts at ways to improve traffic flow, as well as the pedestrian experience in the area. Urban Designer Jeff Speck showed a packed room several options for ways to change the design of roadways in Watertown Square. Some included roundabouts, some opened the roadway around the Delta to all traffic (not just buses as it is now), and many altered the roadways leading into the Square. By eliminating some of the spokes going into the main intersection would make traffic lights simpler, said Ralph DeNisco, a traffic engineer from VHB.

Around Town

MBTA Holding Meeting on Bus Network Redesign, Breakout for Watertown Area

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Charlie BreitroseAn MBTA 71 bus. The following information was provided by the MBTA:

Due to overwhelming interest in the November 2 Bus Network Redesign meeting, we will be holding a subsequent meeting to accommodate those who were not able to attend. The additional public meeting will be Monday, November 14 at 6:00 PM. 

We encourage attendees to view the November 2 recordings in advance of the meeting as the breakout room presentations will be shortened to allow for more time for questions. You can view the main presentation here. Breakout room recordings are also available for the following regions:

Breakout 1: Beverly, Chelsea, Danvers, East Boston, Everett, Lynn, Lynnfield, Malden, Marblehead, Melrose, Nahant, Peabody, Reading, Revere, Salem, Saugus, Stoneham, Swampscott, Wakefield, Winthrop

Breakout 2: Arlington, Bedford, Burlington, Cambridge, Lexington, Medford, Somerville, Winchester, Woburn

Breakout 3: Boston, Brookline

Breakout 4: Belmont, Needham, Newton, Waltham, Watertown

Breakout 5: Avon, Braintree, Brockton, Canton, Dedham, Hingham, Holbrook, Hull, Milton, Norwood, Quincy, Randolph, Walpole, Westwood, Weymouth

The meeting will be held online, via Zoom.