A Driver Has Injured Another Cyclist at Mass. Ave. and Appleton in Arlington

Massachusetts Avenue at Appleton Street in Arlington. Courtesy of Google Street View.
Massachusetts Avenue at Appleton Street in Arlington. Courtesy of Google Street View.

Barely a month after a driver killed one bicyclist and sent another to the hospital on Massachusetts Avenue in Arlington, another driver has injured a cyclist at the same intersection.

Arlington Police confirmed that a driver hit a bicyclist at the intersection of Appleton Street and Massachusetts Avenue in Arlington Heights Sunday evening. This is the same intersection where another driver struck and killed Charles Proctor, 27, of Somerville, last month.

Arlington Police offered no other details about the crash or the victim’s condition, except to say that the crash remains under investigation.

Earlier this month, Arlington’s Select Board voted to convene a new design review committee “to study and make recommendations for both short term and long term improvements to the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Appleton Street.”

A considerable amount of work on that subject has already been done. In 2011 and 2012, the Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization, citing “the relatively high number of crashes at this intersection and students’ safe access to Ottoson Middle School,” conducted a detailed study of the same intersection.

A 2012 study recommended traffic calming improvements for the intersection of Mass. Ave. and Appleton St. in Arlington. As of 2020, the plan has yet to be implemented.
A 2012 study recommended traffic calming improvements for the complex, crash-prone intersection of Mass. Ave., Appleton Pl., and Appleton St. in Arlington. These plans were never implemented.

The report proposed two possible reconfigurations for the intersection, both of which would have shortened its crosswalks, simplified traffic patterns, and reduced the intersection’s paved footprint.

Those recommendations were never implemented.

Daniel Amstutz, Arlington’s Senior Transportation Planner, warns that large-scale projects to realign the intersection are likely to take years to finance, engineer, and build, but said that “we may be able to do some tactical improvements for the geometry” in the meantime.

“There may be short-term improvements we could do with paint and pavement markings,” said Amstutz in a phone interview on Tuesday. “We would need to determine if that’s a way we want to go, and then figure out what it would cost.”

ALSO ON STREETSBLOG

A crowd of people in bikes pedals through a wide brick plaza. In the center, wearing a black helmet and blue hoodie, is Boston Mayor Michelle Wu.

PHOTOS: Boston’s 2023 Bike To Work Day

|
Between 7:30 and 8:45 a.m., convoys of riders coming in from Mattapan, Dorchester, Brookline, Cambridge, Malden, Chelsea, and other cities across the region arrived in City Hall Plaza in waves, while City of Boston Transportation Department staff welcomed them with cowbells and cheers.
Bar chart illustrating monthly bus driver active headcounts and vacancies since January. The number of vacancies increased slightly in the months Jan. to March but decreased slightly in May.

MBTA News Briefs: Finally Some Better News on Bus Driver Hiring

|
The MBTA’s three board committees met on Thursday morning with three newly-appointed members to discuss its new 5-year capital plan, hiring updates, and meet the MassDOT’s newly-hired Chief Safety Officer. Incentives for new bus drivers get traction For the past several months, the board’s Workforce Committee has been getting regular updates on hiring efforts, with […]
The gold-plated dome of the Massachusetts State House against a blue sky, with the Massachusetts flag flying to the right of the dome in the foreground.

State House Transportation Committee Discusses Bills Regarding East-West Rail, T Oversight

|
The legislature’s Joint Committee on Transportation hosted a hybrid in-person and virtual public hearing on Monday afternoon to discuss several bills related to transit expansion projects, East-West rail, and MBTA oversight. You can find hearing details – including information about  how to attend in person or submit testimony virtually – at the Massachusetts Legislature’s website. […]