Cambridge City Manager

This intersection has a raised brick "crosswalk" but no painted white stripe lines. The result is that cars driving down Albany rarely yield for pedestrians in an area with a large student population.

Double parking tickets are cheaper than hydrant tickets, so every person who feels like stopping for a while at Inman just double-parks, blocking one side of the road. Of course, tickets don't get issued, so people feel free to do it all the time.

Ignoring the safety problems of the reduced visibility and trying to navigate around cars and avoid pedestrians crossing between cars and so on, it causes knock-on traffic problems for the rest of the city.

During the afternoon and evening, this really slows down traffic, except when a truck unloads across from a double-parked car. Then Beacon St stops when people block intersections, and Hampshire, and Prospect, and Broadway... And so on. I've been stuck in hour-long gridlock in that area.

Parking is, admittedly, at a premium at Inman square, but can we at least have some enforcement from the police who stop there or drive by, so that it might be a little bit more under control?

the entire road is third world

Webster Avenue is a heavily trafficked road and has always been very frightening to bike down -- with two-way traffic including the 85 and CT2 bus lines, parallel parking on both sides, and heavy industrial use of the area, you often get cars, buses, bike, and trucks stacking up behind each other because there isn't enough room for everything to get through in both directions at the same time. There shouldn't be parallel parking on both sides of this street, or the street should be one way. Both Cambridge and Somerville should take a look at it.

The new traffic light at the corner of
Binney and Fulkerson seems to be
operating on a simple timer cycle,
with no sensing of whether anyone
is waiting for the red. So, drivers
traveling west on Binney with a green
light often see the light turn red even when no one is waiting on Fulkerson etc. Please add pavement sensors!

Drivers are continually swerving into the wrong lanes at this intersection because the lane markings are unclear.

Left lane: Some seem to believe this is a left-turn only lane.

Middle lane: Some do not bump right when cross Memorial Drive and instead veer into the left lane, possibly because of the "left lane" comment above. Other times, people turn left from the middle lane, cutting off people in the left lane who are continuing straight.

Right lane: Designated as a right turn only lane, but this is not clear as many drivers continue straight when in this lane.

There are no signs to help drivers understand which lanes have which rules, nor are there any signs indicating that the road they are approaching is Memorial Drive. This is a junction that many out-of-towners first approach when coming off the Mass Pike and it must be incredibly confusing for them.

The lane markings can be improved and start further back, perhaps toward the middle of the bridge.

Some signs need to be added, again perhaps need the middle or even beginning of the bridge, which will be helpful during times of busy traffic.

Oxford Street has taken the gold medal for crappy asphalt in Cambridge MA for as long as I can remember, and now that the thaw is upon us, it's worse than ever. The street needs an entire re-pave job, and fast.

Northbound of two-way (T station side) before one-way to Rte 2/Rte 16:

Cars constantly use the bike lane here. I'm in the designated car lane every day and I see cars coming down this street or pulling out of the T station parking lot into the bike lane.

The traffic is always awful here, especially now that there is construction on the one-way section going to the highway. HOWEVER, that is no excuse for cars to use the bike lane. I don't know how this can be fixed, but I really don't want a cyclist getting clipped -- or worse -- at this spot! Maybe some anchored flexible traffic delineators would do the trick?

Beacon Street from Cambridge right after Inman Sq to Somerville ave... all bad!