North Washington Street Intersection with Causeway and Commercial Streets – Google Map
Resident Mike Regan raises some issues to Boston’s City Hall related to resident parking on Medford Street and the traffic situation at the North Washington Street intersection with Causeway and Commercial Streets. He shares them with the community here:
1) Since when did Medford Street in the North End become the West End? About a month ago West End Resident signs went up on the street. Medford St. runs diagonally from N. Washington St near NEBO (North End Boston) restaurant to Causeway Street. In no way is this street in the West End. It is tough enough to find spots in the North End without our streets being gobbled up by other neighborhoods. This needs to be addressed immediately.
2) An old item, but one that keeps getting more serious; the intersection of Causeway St., North Washington St , Commercial St. and the bridge to Charlestown. This intersection has gotten worse SINCE THEY PUT UP A NO TURN ON RED SIGN for traffic coming from Causeway St. This sign was put up a year ago or so and it has caused the traffic on Causeway to no longer be able to take a right on red at N. Washington, which by the way was never an issue. What the regulation has done is cause major backups and subsequent horn honking on Causeway St. In addition when the light turns green, the traffic has to wait for pedestrian traffic at the same time; again, adding delays to turning and making it very dangerous too for pedestrians.
Once again I have to put out to you what the major cause of the issues at the intersection is; BLOCKING THE BOX! The traffic from Charlestown, especially during traffic hours refuses to maintain space for cross traffic as they rush to get through the light. As you can imagine the cross traffic gets annoyed, horn honking etc. By the way the worst culprits for this are the MBTA buses. (FYI; I have reached out to the MBTA about this and they say they will remind the drivers; yeah, ok!)
There are a few very simple ways to fix this mess; get rid of the No Turn on Red sign for Causeway St traffic, paint a box on the intersection, like they do in NYC, post signs and most importantly have traffic officers at random traffic hours be there to enforce and ticket violators. You should know that frequently a State Police Motorcycle unit sits in front of The Strada Building on Causeway ticketing folks for taking illegal left hand turns onto Causeway from N. Washington. They might as well get people for blocking the box too.
The trouble at this intersection is in dire need of addressing. If changes aren’t made there is going to be a road range incident or major accident, both of which could be prevented by some simple changes. I have brought the intersection issue up before to numerous folks but it doesn’t seem to get addressed. I would hope that we can do something to address it. I live on North Washington and work on Causeway. I see these problems at the intersection all day long. It has to be one of the worst intersections in Boston. If this is a state road or one that the City has limited ability to make changes to please let me know what department I should address it with. It is a quality of living issue that others and I are getting tired of having to deal with.
Thanks for your attention.
Mike Regan
More posts that you may find interesting:
Fire at Strada Building on Causeway Street
North Washington Street (Charlestown) Bridge Lane Reduction Starts July 12, 2011
North End Celebrates George Washington Every Day with the Bostonian Christian Gullager’s Carara Bust