A new measure passed by the Watertown Town Council hopes to address the traffic and pollution burdens imposed by new buildings in Watertown by reducing the number of single-occupancy vehicle trips in town, Wicked Local Watertown reports.
Under the ordinance, the owners of any new building or new addition containing at least 10,000 square feet or 10 or more residential units would have to submit a Transportation Demand Management (TDM) plan to the Watertown Department of Community Development and Planning. New construction generating more than 150 trips per day on average, or 15 or more trips over current levels during peak hours, will also be subject to the new terms. Several types of buildings will be exempt from the standards, including child care facilities, state owned properties, or buildings whose increased trips were created by retail customers.
They should focus on why people feel the need to drive. If there were affordable and reliable modes of public transport, people would use that instead.
Most people in NYC do not drive because its more convenient and faster by subway. The opposite is true in Boston area, the T from Newton takes over 40 mins to downtown, the commuter rail frequency is not practical, express buses are only an option during rush hour times..
How about each city (Newton, Waltham) operate several ‘uber’ buses which each resident can hail from their phone. Each student/adult resident gets $50-$100 free credits each month to use, buy more if they need to…
This is what happens in a community when you allow HUNDREDS of apartments to be built in a community and townhouses in areas where barely one home fit. It is a no brainer that Traffic will increase. The problem is that probably 500+ Apartments are not even finished being built and they are already noticing a traffic issue. Wait till they are all built! This is not going fix the issue. The only thing it will do is make Athena Health think about moving some place else.
I’m sure all the employees at the government red tape factory are thrilled.
Or when you charge $360/year/kid to take a school bus when the school is out of walking distance. I know many families who drive their kid to/from school because of the bus fee or the bus schedule. You can get that feel if you drive down Parker Street at the start of school day or the end of the school day.
Or when every newly minted teenager gets a car of his/her own. Instead of using public transportation, we are teaching them to be a solo driver.
I would take public transportation if it went up and down the 128 belt, but I work 8 miles north of Newton on 128 and there is no real option. Takes me 15 min to drive there and 30 to drive home. If I took two busses I could do alot of reading – 90 minutes in each direction with two bus changes.
Density is the problem.
Address that problem by limiting density and population and you will reduce traffic, reduce school overcrowding, reduce the loss of green space, reduce long shadows on neighboring properties , reduce stress on infrastructure and services, etc etc.
The issue Folks is NOT the cars – it is that the Town Of Watertown – let an overabundance of Housing to go up in areas of single family homes or where there was businesses. Just drive down Pleasant Street, Howard and Bacon Street and Arsenal Street and you will see the issue. The Town Should have thought about this before they allowed HUNDREDS of Apartments to be built. As I stated above many are not even finished and the traffic is already a MESS. So by Penalizing the future developers is NOT solving the problem – I guess the Councilors think they are doing a good thing. And the schools are already getting overcrowded. And yes if I were Athena Health – I would be looking for someplace else to move my company, and this restriction will be an issue for the developer trying to put those extra 500 apartments where the Arsenal Mall is located.
Anyone know the state of Watertown finances?
With all the construction, one would assume they have diversified their tax base and are able to invest back to the community (schools, outdoor spaces, resident programs)…. ie. was it all worth it?
Based on Newton’s aging demographics, older folks will almost certainly be replaced with younger folks with kids, what is Newton doing to ensure we have the tax base to support expanding school system. Restricting growth is not leadership, leadership is figuring out how to have growth and manage it
Parking and transportation demand management has been implemented by law successfully in Cambridge for more than twenty years. It is responsible for the region-leading bicycle and pedestrian facilities in that city, as well as effective corporate shuttles and other services. TDM forces businesses to think about how to get people to and from their facility, and to provide reasonable accommodations from a checklist of items (e.g bike parking, subsidized T passes or Zipcar memberships, guaranteed ride home in case a person can’t use transit, etc). The items are tailored to the site and the community.
TDM is sensible policy. And it certainly hasn’t scared businesses/developers away from Cambridge (see Kendall Square, which would be an even crazier transportation mess if not for TDM).
Too little, too late. They’re already letting various developers worm their way out of commitments or get away with dumb stuff like painting 6 feet of the sidewalk green and calling it a bike lane. The Pleasant-Arsenal corridor is going to be gridlocked at most times within 5 years.
The good news is that most of those apartment buildings are well under capacity since they’re overcharging so much for rent.