April 9, 2015
ETR’s Blanket Approach Won’t Fix Southie Traffic Boston is notorious for its traffic flow problems. In fact, it’s purported that many of the streets in downtown Boston evolved from hundreds year old cow paths that led to Boston Common. And despite the Big Dig and other efforts by past administrations, traffic has only gotten worse as the years have passed. So when Mayor Walsh announced the South Boston Emergency Transportation Reconfiguration (ETR) in February, it was understandably met with quite a few raised eyebrows. South Boston had seen a record amount of snow (around 80 inches at that time) in just a few short weeks – causing the neighborhood to go into almost complete gridlock. Something had to be done to alleviate the congestion. And making two way streets into one ways turned out to be a quick and easy fix – a simple yet effective way to get traffic flowing again. Now that the snow has largely melted, cars are no longer forced to park halfway out into travel lanes and there are no more nine foot tall snow mounds creating visibility issues around every corner. Things have started to get back to normal on South Boston’s roadways. Residents were expecting their side streets to go back to they way they had been before the storms – until last week’s announcement that the ETR will be extended until June with an eye towards possibly making the changes permanent. As anyone who has driven through South Boston can attest, navigating its side streets can be a daunting and at times frustrating task on the best of days. But the ETR has not been a universal remedy for these traffic woes. Conversely, the argument can be made that for every issue that the ETR has solved, it seems to have created a new one. Try driving around the Telegraph Hill area these days if you disagree. This is not meant to be a full-on condemnation of the ETR as some of the changes have had a positive effect on traffic flow. Mayor Walsh and his administration should be commended for taking decisive action to fix traffic flow issues that, at the time, caused serious delays for drivers and created a public safety issue. They should also be commended for the extension as they are working to help fix the long festering issues that South Boston residents have had with traffic and parking. But switching the way traffic runs on side streets is not the only answer. It is time for Southie’s streets to go back to the way the way they were – at least for now. Of all of Boston’s neighborhoods, South Boston is perhaps the best candidate for thorough transportation reform. Most of Southie’s streets are laid out on a grid – unlike the paved cow paths of downtown Boston. And through a long term and thorough transportation study, it would be possible to alleviate traffic and parking issues.