A communication transmitted from Louis A. DePasquale, City Manager, relative to Awaiting Report Item Number 17-60, regarding a report on traffic direction on Kinnaird Street

CITY OF CAMBRIDGE Traffic, Parking, and Transportation 344 Broadway Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 www.cambridgema.gov/traffic Joseph E. Barr, Director Phone: [phone removed] Stephanie McAuliffe, Assistant Director for Parking Management Fax: [phone removed] Brooke McKenna, Assistant Director for Street Management MEMORANDUM TO: Louis A. DePasquale, City Manager FROM: Joseph E. Barr, Director DATE: October 22, 2018 RE: Awaiting Report 17-60 – Traffic Direction on Kinnaird Street This memo is in response to Policy Order Number 4 from the August 7th, 2017 City Council Meeting (Awaiting Report 17-60) requesting an evaluation of converting the section of Kinnaird Street between River Street and Western Avenue to one-way operation. The original response to the Policy Order was referred back to City staff for further evaluation and discussion. Based on this response, staff from the Traffic, Parking, and Transportation Department and the Community Development Department met with a group of neighbors from Kinnaird Street on the evening of Monday, October 1, 2018. Staff proposed the possibility of converting Kinnaird Street into a one-way street in the northbound direction, since more than 80% of the traffic currently travels in that direction during evening peak hour. This option was intended to address the concern during the evening peak, when volumes are highest and southbound drivers can sometimes find it difficult to get through given the yield street configuration. During the meeting, local residents expressed their desire to have the street be one-way in the southbound direction, which could generate a significant disruption to traffic patterns in the neighborhood and create significantly more circuitous routings. Such a change would require discussions with the larger neighborhood, given that a number of parallel streets that would likely be impacted. Based on this discussion, both City staff and local residents agreed to put the topic on hold and consider side street circulation pattern changes on a larger scale as part of the River Street capital reconstruction project. This project will create an opportunity for a larger discussion with more residents and stakeholders, and provide a forum to discuss options based on a more holistic discussion of circulation patterns and potential impacts.