The Manager's report back on amending the Do Not Enter sign at the entrance of Whittemore Avenue from Alewife Brook Parkway to include an exception for abutters

Date: September 11, 2024

Subject: Awaiting Report No. 24-042: Amend the Do Not Enter sign at the entrance of Whittemore Avenue from Alewife Brook Parkway to include an exception for abutters ___________________________________________________________________________ In response to Awaiting Report No. 24-042 of 8/5/24 requesting that the City amend the Do Not Enter sign at the entrance of Whittemore Avenue from Alewife Brook Parkway to include an exception for abutters, we report the following:

Background and Context

The Traffic Director has established regulations restricting vehicular access at dozens of intersections citywide (see Article VI of the Traffic Rules and Regulations). These include No Left Turn, No Right Turn, and Do Not Enter restrictions. Often the purpose of these regulations is to substantially reduce or eliminate regional trips (commonly called cut-through traffic) on a segment of street.

Commuters and other drivers making a regional trip are drawn to local street (or directed to by a route planning app) when a major street is congested. Access restrictions protect residents from the noise, queuing, and annoyance of additional trips that have no destination on the street. “Residents Only” The unintended consequence of access restrictions is that they apply to every motor vehicle without exception. When receiving requests for new access restrictions, TP+T staff are careful to

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explain this tradeoff to the requestor, who often decide to subsequently withdraw the petition to avoid losing their own access. We routinely receive requests to make exceptions for residents of the street. However, any city or town that receives funds from the Commonwealth’s Chapter 90 program – including Cambridge – must make its public ways available to all citizens of the Commonwealth. Accordingly, our Traffic Rules and Regulations do not allow for a “residents only” exception for any regulation, nor is there a definition of “resident.” In summary, the Traffic Director does not have the authority to enact a “residents only” exception to any regulation.

Whittemore Avenue

Regarding the specific restrictions on Whittemore Avenue, the restriction was originally put in place in order to stop regional traffic from cutting through the neighborhood to avoid the traffic signal at Alewife Brook Parkway and Massachusetts Avenue. We could remove the restriction, but that would apply to all vehicles, and we would likely see significant cut-through traffic on local streets.

We have heard from some residents that the inconvenience of remaining on Alewife Brook Parkway in traffic outweighs the benefits of restricting cut-through traffic. If we receive a petition from neighbors who support removing the restriction fully, we will conduct a formal neighborhood survey to determine if there is significant support for removing the restriction.