While MassDOT has long stopped responding to my emails, I have multiple Gmail accounts at my disposal, and after the team released its latest design for the Reid Overpass in Cambridgeport, I returned to an earlier response to see if I could square it.
As you might guess, I’m still not a fan of the new designs, presented in August, but there’s not much more I can say about them. What I do want to discuss is creativity.
My email to the state Department of Transportation mentioned several of the designs that community members put forward that are clever and solve many of the problems the team is analyzing. First, a Europe-style pedestrian-bike roundabout bridge as an alternative to a car-only overpass. While admittedly a pipe dream, it removes the slowdowns engineers dread from having to accommodate pedestrians. It also makes geographic sense, as bikers already incur a “height penalty” from having to go uphill to go downriver or up the Boston University Bridge. Second is a slimmed-down roundabout featuring a genuinely novel approach to fixing the 47 bus route and a persuasive argument for fewer lanes…