Is Hammond Pond Parkway a Complete Street?

What is a a Complete Street? And how well is the concept being applied?  You need to know. Let’s define “Complete Street” and look at an example.

A Complete Street Is:

Planning literature defines a Complete Street as safe and practical, pleasant even, for modes of transportation up to a contextually appropriate limit of speed, traffic volume and vehicle size. A Complete Street serves pedestrians and bicyclists well.

Restrictions on motor traffic work down from the largest vehicles to what is appropriate in context. The speed limit is low enough that pedestrians can safely cross the street. There are crosswalks, signalized where warranted.

That approach to vehicle types and sizes has been traditional on Massachusetts DCR (Department of Conservation and Recreation)  parkways. The quaint restriction to “pleasure vehicles only” dates back to the 19th Century plans of Frederick Law Olmsted, but has been pushed wider to cover passenger cars and commercial vehicles weighing up to 5,000 pounds. Bicycles and e-bikes fall well below that weight limit and qualify as “pleasure vehicles.”  See these regulations.

Hammond Pond Parkway Reconstruction

On Thursday, June 13, 2024, I visited DCR’s Hammond Pond Parkway in Newton, now under reconstruction, with representatives of advocacy organization Bike Newton and the Boston area’s Central Transportation Planning Staff.

Hammond Pond Parkway was overbuilt in the mid 20^th Century as a 4-lane speedway, reflecting car culture that turned parkways into highways. It would certainly not rate as bicycle-friendly, though I have ridden it, controlling the outside lane (and so demonstrating that the parkway was overbuilt, because motorists could always pass me without delay). The terrain is rolling, with a long, steep downslope to Route 9 at the southern end.

The DCR is currently taking the mile-long segment of the Parkway between Beacon Street and Route 9 down from four to two lanes, installing a 12-foot wide shared-use path 15 feet from the roadway on the west side and a 4-foot wide gravel sidewalk on the east side. The current project imagines Hammond Pond Parkway as a pleasant, park-like experience for bicyclists.

The segment:

RidewithGPS version of this map, so you can change to satellite view and zoom in, or Street View, or explore more widely

I commented on the project proposal when it was in the planning stage. At that time, there was a discussion about making the roadway 28 feet wide, marginally wide enough for today’s largest “pleasure vehicles” to pass bicyclists. A bit wider would be nice, but that is in the nature of political compromise. MassBike Executive Director Galen Mook concurred with my comments.

Really a Complete Street?

So, what is the problem, then? How well will Hammond Pond Parkway meet the definition of a Complete Street?

Galen’s position, and mine, held no weight with the DCR. The roadway will, as I found out during the expedition to Newton, have only two narrow travel lanes, with no shoulders – 22 or 24 feet, as you can see in background of the photo below. The roadway will therefore work well only for people driving a motor vehicle that can hold the 30 mph speed limit. The parallel path is for everyone else.

 The DCR’s Dan Driscoll describes the reconstruction of Hammond Pond Parkway, now underway. The path will be in the dirt strip behind the people listening.

Let me be clear: I like paths for park access and a park experience. I ride them. But — the Parkway is not only a route in a park, it is a transportation route through a park. It connects the Newton Center suburban hub with the large Chestnut Hill shopping malls and residential areas beyond. Not only motorists, but also bicyclists in all parts of the behavior spectrum, e-bike riders and users of all kinds of micromobility devices, also electric and gasoline-powered motor scooters, will want to travel this segment end to end.

Safety Issues

Faster bicyclists, e-bike and motor scooter users are a poor fit on a path shared with pedestrians, especially one with steep slopes. Nationwide, communities are grappling with the safety issues of e-bike traffic on paths. A Boston-area local example: the 15 mph speed-limit signs on the Minuteman Commuter Bikeway. It is flat, being a rail trail, and where faster traffic may use parallel Massachusetts Avenue. There is no such convenient alternative to Hammond Pond Parkway.

Proponents of the Hammond Pond Parkway project objected to adding a few feet of roadway width on the grounds that this would reduce spacing to the path and impede stormwater infiltration. I contend that a few more feet of roadway width would hardly make a difference in the middle of hundreds of acres of parkland into which water could infiltrate.

Complete Street for Bicycle Transportation? E-bikes? Motor Scooters? Year-round?

With the design of Hammond Pond Parkway, the positive environmental goal of improving access to parkland has overturned the positive environmental goal of safe and convenient bicycling for transportation. It is even worse for operators of motor scooters, whether electrically or gasoline powered. They are legal on roadways and in bike lanes, but prohibited from using paths. Legality on the roadway amounts to nothing when these vehicles have been forced off the roadway by design.

At least the noise of the gasoline-powered scooters will warn slower path users of their approach. But don’t expect enforcement of any ban or speed limit. Their important effect under the law is to shift the burden of fault in crashes.

If bicycles are to be competitive in terms of travel time, they must not be subject to unnecessary delays, or held to low speeds. But the path now under construction crosses parking-lot entrances and roads in crosswalks, adding delay and inconvenience. Bicyclists must traverse multiple crosswalks at the Route 9 end of the segment. With such treatments, users become impatient and choose their own times and ways to cross, becoming unpredictable and increasing risk. 

The narrowed roadway is crowned and has storm drains. The path, on the other hand, lacking drainage, will be unusable or unsafe for weeks or months in winter even if plowed. Or it could be heavily salted, unhealthy for vegetation and bicycles.

A Previous Example

Years ago, the DCR applied the same configuration, narrow, shoulderless roadway and parallel path, to Metropolitan Parkway in Waltham, shown in the video below. Metropolitan Parkway is short and very lightly traveled, so riding on the roadway is practical. Bicyclists on the roadway of Hammond Pond Parkway would have queues of cars behind them and would invite harassment.

So, the most practical solution in winter is to put away the bike, ebike or scooter and drive a car. The path could be left unplowed and unsalted for cross-country skiing and snowshoeing.

So much for the idea of a Complete Street.

Be Careful What You ask For — and Just Be Careful

I have applauded the efforts of the DCR in extending the paths along the Charles River upstream from Watertown to Waltham. I have supported the Cochituate Rail Trail, the Mass Central Rail Trail, Bruce Freeman Trail and other trail projects. These projects all have improved bicycle access by constructing trails without compromising access on roads. The Hammond Pond Parkway project proposes to forego much of the potential of the Parkway for bicycle, e-bike and motor scooter transportation. In that way, itthat way has a fundamentally different impact.

If you are going to ride the reconfigured Hammond Pond Parkway, please make sure that your brakes are in good working order, and be cautious!

For Reference

I rode the segment of Hammond Pond Parkway under discussion on November 25, 2021. My travel speeds ranged from 6.5 to 30 miles per hour southbound, and 5 to 21 miles per hour northbound.

• Video of my ride southbound.
• northbound.

If you see plans for a road reconfiguration project in your community, please make your voice heard so it is actually a Complete Street, properly accommodating all anticipated uses.

I have posted more detailed comments at https://bit.ly/hammondpkwy. Again, thanks for your attention.