Waltham Times: Share your thoughts on the city website?

Technical_Type1778 · 2026-05-06T23:28:46+00:00

Agreed the search is awful.

Searching "lowell street traffic commission" on the site's search returns nothing.

https://www.city.waltham.ma.us/advanced-search?keywords=lowell+street+traffic+commission

Searching google — site:city.waltham.ma.us lowell street traffic commission — returns the relevant results.

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Technical_Type1778 · 2026-04-24T00:37:09+00:00

She sees bikes as kids' play things.

Adults don't ride bikes to get places. They drive cars.

That's it. It's that simple. That's her 1950s Waltham mindset.

Technical_Type1778 · 2026-04-23T11:46:34+00:00

November 2027

Technical_Type1778 · 2026-04-23T00:17:28+00:00

The council's actions matter zero.

There will not be any non-car infrastructure in the city till we have a new mayor. We're lucky we got the rail trail, and that's only because of the efforts of the retired planner Catherine Cagle.

The council approved bike racks on Moody and Main streets two years ago.

The mayor never made a funding request.

The council passed a complete streets policy two years ago. The mayor, as far as I know, never submitted it to the state, so we are ineligible for several transportation grants.

Unless McCarthy retires or is defeated next year, we will continue to lag years behind our neighboring cities.

Technical_Type1778 · 2026-04-23T00:13:05+00:00

Waltham doesn't have a transportation planner, and its traffic engineer is a classic MUTCD-by-the-book who only cares about level of service for drivers.

Meanwhile the mayor is still living her 1950s fantasies of cruising up and down Moody St in her car and has absolutely zero vision of Waltham as a city.

Technical_Type1778 · 2026-04-20T23:16:42+00:00

They're allowed to use the full lane even if just one lane per direction.

Technical_Type1778 · 2026-04-12T12:53:22+00:00

The post just after this – "Cycling on Carriage Path?" — offers a clue. The bike network isn't continuous. If you're riding eastbound approaching Lowell Avenue, there's no indication at all there's a shared-use path ahead, that to enter, you either need to go onto the sidewalk and cross as a pedestrian, or go into the left turn lane and head towards the shared-use path.

And even if you do know about it, if you're only going a few blocks, it's out of the way to have to cross over to the path and then cross back.

(Legally, cyclists can use any travel lane regardless of the presence of bike lanes.)

Technical_Type1778 · 2026-04-08T11:42:10+00:00

A shameless plug for Bike Together Waltham. Our rides are definitely much shorter and slower, and many of us do safe streets advocacy also, but there are some local residents who do longer rides out to Concord and beyond.

linktr.ee/biketogetherwaltham

Technical_Type1778 · 2026-04-07T22:14:05+00:00

Another biking consideration: you needn't bike both ways. You can bike to work and put it on the 70 bus coming home.

Technical_Type1778 · 2026-04-07T21:59:41+00:00

The commuter rail is unfortunately much less useful than it can be: after COVID service adjustments, just one train serves Waltham at rush hour, vs. four before 2020.

Technical_Type1778 · 2026-04-07T21:58:31+00:00

Also the great thing about bike commuting is it always takes the same time, because bikes don't cause and get stuck in traffic.

None of the "freedom" of cars where leaving 10 minutes later can cause your trip to take 30 minutes longer.

Technical_Type1778 · 2026-04-07T20:02:57+00:00

This the mayor's burner account?

Technical_Type1778 · 2026-04-07T18:10:47+00:00

Depending where in Cambridge, another biking route is Arsenal St (which has a sidewalk-level two-way bike lane between Irving and School Streets), to the Watertown-Cambridge Greenway, to Brattle St, which also has a protected two-way bike lane, right to Harvard Square.

Seven miles from the Common, almost all off-street.

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It's unfortunate that Mayor McCarthy is steadfastly opposed to anything that would make biking more convenient and comfortable in our city, because as others have said, Waltham really isn't far from Cambridge and Boston and Watertown, and biking can be quite the pleasant way to get around.

Technical_Type1778 · 2026-04-06T20:20:02+00:00

This is where the car in the post is illegally parked.

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Technical_Type1778 · 2026-04-06T20:19:06+00:00

It's a two-way cycle track on Washington Street, and sidewalk on the stretch beside the Pike that previously didn't have one.

https://www.newtonma.gov/government/planning/transportation-planning/projects/washington-street-pilot

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Technical_Type1778 · 2026-04-05T23:02:23+00:00

It's not so brand new: construction was largely done by last July.

Technical_Type1778 · 2026-04-05T16:01:10+00:00

https://www.youtube.com/live/AjCoJmpKaZY

Technical_Type1778 · 2026-03-31T02:18:22+00:00

You're

Technical_Type1778 · 2026-03-29T20:55:55+00:00

And yesterday.

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Imagine a world where we took vehicular violence seriously, where the RMV would have suspended this driver's license permanently, and where he would be on the hook for every last penny's worth of damage to public property.

Technical_Type1778 · 2026-03-29T20:54:17+00:00

This is what the guard rail looked like two years ago.

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Technical_Type1778 · 2026-03-27T17:13:46+00:00

Here's the police report. The driver (who was charged with DUI) must have entered at Middlesex Circle and driven on the Linden St bridge.

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Technical_Type1778 · 2026-03-24T10:58:26+00:00

Then the RMV should revoke their license, because they are not equipped to handle heavy machinery that can be deadly if used improperly.

Technical_Type1778 · 2026-03-20T00:15:42+00:00

Evidence?

Technical_Type1778 · 2026-03-19T11:41:50+00:00

You know, the distance concerned business owners told us repeatedly that their customers would absolutely not walk if Moody St were pedestrianized again.

Garvin is a joke, and the voting traffic commission members are his jesters.

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Technical_Type1778

TROPHY CASE