Transforming the Longfellow Bridge

There’s a new world order out there.

London charges drivers for entering its central core and is building bicycle superhighways—protected, dedicated lanes for cyclists. The mayor of Paris has announced that the city will permanently close the expressway on the left bank of the Seine and replace it with a park. They will also convert the expressway on the right bank to a parkway. That’s on top of the bike-share program.

And lest one think these examples are European ploys to show Americans how behind the times we are, American cities are cutting out cars too. New York has closed streets for pedestrians. Milwaukee demolished a freeway.

By contrast, Boston—hoped by some to be a world-class city— looks pretty provincial right now.We did bury the Central Artery, but rather than reducing the number of cars, we encouraged them by widening the underground road. Our bike-share program is stalled. And our efforts to install a few bike lanes here and there look pretty timid when you compare them to London’s bike superhighways. As far as I can tell, no pedestrian improvements have been made in the city since 1911 when Arthur Shurcliffe installed paths on the Boston Common.

But we will soon have a chance to change conditions in Boston. We’re about to spend gazillions re-making the Longfellow Bridge. It would be a shame to spend all that money and not have something that served us better.

So WalkBoston and other environmental and planning organizations are promoting a plan that would reconfigure the bridge to take account of all transportation modes, not just vehicles. I’m not a disinterested party since I serve on WalkBoston’s board of directors. But the reason I’m presenting this plan to you is not because I’m on the board; instead, I’m on the board because WalkBoston promotes ingenious solutions like this.

Here’s the plan: Reduce traffic on the bridge to one lane in each direction. Widen the Red Line right of way to bring the emergency evacuation space up to safety standards. Change the surface of the roadway next to the sidewalks, marking a six-foot right of way for bikes that is separated from cars with a three-foot buffer strip. Allow emergency vehicles to use the bike lane and buffer strip in an emergency.

Finally, expand the sidewalks to 12 feet. Right now friends can’t walk two abreast on this blasted thing.

Changes in the bridge’s use support this proposal. Vehicle traffic has declined on the bridge in the past ten years. When officials closed one lane a couple of years ago for several months, no one noticed. Red Line, pedestrian and bike use has increased. At certain times of the day there are more pedestrians on the bridge than there are cars.

Amazingly, the federal government is calling for changes like this. In a March 11 policy statement, Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood instructed the people overseeing projects using federal funds to consider “walking and bicycling as equals with other transportation modes.” The complete document is available on the U.S. Department of Transportation website.

So what’s holding us back? Attitudes.

There are those who, if they see any traffic backups, want to design roads to relieve those backups, even though they occur only rarely or at one time of day. There are those who just don’t understand the benefits of city living without cars. There are those who still think we need to plan for MORE cars, when it is clear that traffic jams significantly reduce the quality of life, and we have to find other ways of getting around if we’re going to be happy. There are those who are stuck in the mindset of 1950s, maybe just because they like cars. Need I tell you that some people holding these outmoded attitudes work in the Boston Transportation Department and in what used to be called Mass Highway? I bet you could have guessed.

WalkBoston has been presenting the proposal to various groups on both sides of the Charles River. To highlight the value of the Longfellow Bridge to our city, they will sponsor a poetry walk featuring parts of Longfellow’s poem, “The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere,” on the sidewalk. (Revere didn’t have the bridge, but he did cross down river before his famous ride.) The poem will be in place for a celebratory walk planned for July. Watch for more info.

I love my car. But the only way I enjoy driving is getting other cars off the road so that when I have to drive, I can sail up the Interstate without a traffic tie-up. We’ve learned that building more roads and making them wider doesn’t help reduce traffic jams. The only thing that works is giving people other options for getting around.

This plan for the Longfellow Bridge begins that process in Boston.