OWNERSHIP
CONDITIONS
USE
CONTEXT
HISTORY
ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES
DESIGN ISSUES
PLANNING PROCESSES
TESTIMONIES

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OWNERSHIP:
The Metropolitan District Commission (MDC) has rights and responsibilities for the Arborway (as well as for the Jamaicaway and the Riverway, which continue north of the Arborway).

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CONDITIONS:
The Arborway is a major thoroughfare that connects traffic from Cambridge and Boston to the southern and western suburbs as well as to neighborhoods in the Heart of the City. It is also a residential road and a historic landscape with homes valued by the City assessment department in 2002 at between $250,000 to $1 million or more. Much of the Arborway is characterized by grassy medians, towering old trees, and peeks into parkland. The Arborway goes through a completely residential section, a section with residences on one side and parkland on the other, and a section dominated by a transportation station and major intersections.

The Arborway is classified as a principle artery by both the City of Boston and the Metropolitan District Commission. Commercial vehicles are excluded from the Arborway, which has a speed limit of 30 miles per hour. 

-- The Arborway can be divided into three sections, the first of which stretches from the Jamaicaway at Kelly Circle to Centre Street and Murray Circle. This section has eight lanes for through-traffic. There are four fast-traffic lanes in the middle and two fast-traffic lanes on either side of the street alongside the residences. These side roads are referred to as "Arborway Street." Red oaks that are approximately 100 years old line both sides of the street. There are approximately two dozen homes between Kelly and Murray Circles, many of which were built about 90 years ago. 

-- The second section stretches from Centre Street to the Casey Overpass and runs along the edge of the Arnold Arboretum. Here there are four lanes of through-traffic and the two slow-moving lanes alongside the homes on the eastern edge. This part of the Arborway is also known as "Arborway Street."

Here, the residential section of the Arborway breaks off from the main road and the two sections are separated by a forested area that is more than 200 feet wide at its widest point. In recent years, the MDC installed a quick-response pedestrian crosswalk and a ramp on the Arborway near the main gate to the Arnold Arboretum. 

-- The third section of the Arborway, between Casey Overpass and Franklin Park at Shea Circle, has retained little of its original parkway character. The concrete and metal Casey Overpass, which functions as a highway, casts deep shadows over the Arborway and creates unused space below. The terminus of the MBTA Orange Line is located here, and three major thoroughfares (Hyde Park Avenue, Washington Street, and South Street) converge along this stretch. The paved, largely unused, 18-acre Arborway Yard, as well as multiple parking lots, line this section of the Arborway. The Southwest Corridor Park also originates here. This and the landscaping at the Forest Hills Station represent some vestiges of a parkway, but they are drowned out by the tremendous traffic, noise, pollution, and vacant, paved land. This section of the Arborway has been renamed "New Washington."

(Each of these sections is covered in greater depth in separate entries).

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USE:
Although there are no numbers available from Mass Highway on traffic volume on the Arborway, average daily traffic on the Jamaicaway, which connects to it, was 44,000 1992 and 45,300 in 1998.

Many commuters and other drivers who are not daunted by narrow lanes and fast traffic enjoy driving on the Arborway because of its trees and park-like character. People seldom use the Arborway purely as a scenic driving route, however.

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CONTEXT:
The Arborway is part of a linear network of open spaces in the City of Boston referred to as the "Emerald Necklace." Parkways such as the Arborway were designed to connect centers of population with large parks (Shurcliff, A. "Special report: review of the Boston Park System," 1925). Designed by landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted and managed by the Metropolitan District Commission, the Arborway connects with the Jamaicaway to the north, borders the Arnold Arboretum, and was intended to retain its green character through the Forest Hills area and connect with Franklin Park. Theoretically, the MDC and Boston Parks Department seek to manage the Arborway and the other sections of the historic park system by striking a balance between the original vision for the area and the needs and concerns of today's park users.

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HISTORY:
In 1871, before he designed the Arborway, Frederick Law Olmsted described his idea of what a parkway should be. He said, "route of access to the large common park of the city [should be] of such a character that most of the steps on the way to it would be taken in the midst of a scene of sylvan beauty, and with the sounds and sights of the ordinary town business, if not wholly shut out, removed to some distance and placed in obscurity. The way itself would thus be more park-like than town-like" (Letter from Olmsted to William Dorsheimer, October 1, 1868, First annual report of the Buffalo Park Commissioners, January 1871, p26).

In his design of the Arborway, Olmsted was influenced by the promenades in Paris, France. He designed a promenade on one side and a bridle path on the other. On the original plans for the Arborway, masses of shrubs line the roads and median. There were rose bushes planted between the oak trees. The final section of the Arborway was a grand approach to Franklin Park with a variety of shrubs in the median.

In the 1920s and 30s some of the intersections were replaced by rotaries and Kelly and Murray Circles were built. Then in 1951, work began on the Casey Overpass, which is the most dramatic change to the character of the Arborway. The MDC inherited the rights and responsibilities for the Arborway, as well as the Jamaicaway and the Riverway, in 1956.

In 1999, the MDC responded to citizen requests for a traffic study on the Arborway. Bruce Campbell & Associates carried out the study, which did not satisfy the Arborway Coalition citizen group.

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ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES:
-- One of the most stunning features of the Arborway -- its red oaks -- are in decline. Many of these trees are more than 100 years old. They are reaching the end of their natural life expectancy. But heavy road salt use, soil compaction from construction, and traffic congestion and the resulting pollution could be hastening their decline. Along the section of the Arborway between Murray Circle and Kelly Circle, the majority of trees have experienced physical damage because of traffic accidents. Oaks south of Murray Circle at the Centre Street intersection have not been physically damaged because they are either set back from the road or on a stretch of the Arborway that functions as a residential road rather than a speedway. Some of the old trees have been cut down and ground into sawdust. These trees are a major focus of the Arborway Coalition, which got a private grant to have the trees trimmed in 2000.

-- According to one Arborway resident, the catch basins along the Arborway are often clogged, causing minor flooding of the street.

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DESIGN ISSUES:
(Design issues, particularly around Forest Hills Station, are covered in detail in separate entries).
Traffic issues on the Arborway have received much attention. A citizen group called the Arborway Coalition works to address these issues. In recent years, the State completed a study on traffic issues along the Arborway but has not made moves to implement the recommendations that emerged from the study. 

-- According to local police, there have been 15 deaths on Jamaicaway/ Arborway since 1975 and 217 accidents over the past three years. Although the posted speed limit is 30 mile per hour, the flow of traffic is generally much faster. Because lanes are tightly packed together, accidents are common and often damage the trees along the side of the road. The Arborway Coalition has pushed the Metropolitan District Commission to improve safety conditions on the Arborway for approximately six years. 

-- Between Murray Circle and Kelly Circle, some residents feel that the current use of the side roads for fast-moving through-traffic is incompatible with the residential character of the street. They argue that only four lanes are necessary for fast-moving traffic. 

-- Although there are sidewalks on the Casey Overpass, pedestrians and bikers are without sidewalks on either end of the Overpass. On the Arboretum end, the sidewalk continues for less than 250 feet. At that point, pedestrians and bikers are abandoned and must either walk along the sliver of shoulder as the traffic whizzes by, take their chances running across the street without the aid of a crosswalk, or make their way along the forested slope of land.

-- The middle section of the Arborway has 12-foot wide walkways on the western side. They are not wide enough to accommodate both bikers and walkers together. There is a wide wooded slope along the side of this section, some of which could be used to enhance access and safety for walkers and bikers.

-- Residents frequently complain that the MDC is inadequately maintaining and policing the parkways. The MDC has rights and responsibilities for the parkways 25 feet from the curb. However, they have only one-third of the maintenance personnel that they had 20 years ago and are looking to design roadways and parks such that the cost of maintenance is as low as possible. They have gotten prison laborers to do some of the work because those workers are available at minimal cost. Neighbors complain that the law enforcement on the Arborway is very poor. The road is under State Police jurisdiction, but City Police can, and sometimes do, share the responsibility for enforcement. 

-- BikeBoston identified the Arborway as the single greatest design challenge to biking the Emerald Necklace.

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PLANNING PROCESSES:
Several planning processes impact the Arborway. These include a Arborway Master Planning processes, the Arborway Yard plan, the Emerald Necklace Re-connector/ Green Connector plan, and possibly a Forest Hills master planning process. The Metropolitan District Commission (MDC) may also come up with a plan specifically to mitigate traffic issues.

MDC and traffic calming:
In 2000, the MDC completed a $40,000 traffic study for the Arborway that relates primarily to traffic-calming issues. According to MDC representatives, there are more angry calls when traffic is slowed than when someone gets hurt or dies. Thus the MDC is torn between local constituencies demanding slow traffic in their neighborhood and commuters demanding a quick ride home. In 2001, David Balfour, Commissioner of the MDC, said that $1.7 million had been set aside for improvements to the Arborway, some of which was to be used for Kelly Circle.

Arborway Master Plan:
This is the third and final master plan for the Emerald Necklace. The Boston Parks Department ran the Arborway Master Planning Process in partnership with the Metropolitan District Commission (MDC), the Emerald Necklace Conservancy, the Arborway Coalition, and the Franklin Park Coalition. Rizzo Associates and Pressley Associates, which has a national reputation with Olmsted-designed landscapes, are the consultants for the process. A Department of Environmental Management (DEM) Historic Landscape Preservation Grant funded the process, as did the City of Boston Department of Parks and Recreation. The plan stretches from Kelly Circle to Shea Circle, and the process was launched in the Spring of 2002.

The plan includes an inventory and analysis of the historic resources and traffic. Its goals are: 1) To restore the function of the Arborway as a connector between the Emerald Necklace Parks; 2) To provide safe, convenient access for pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists, and other park visitors, integrating Olmsted's original design intent with contemporary use; 3) To rehabilitate the historic landscape of the Emerald Necklace or to reconstruct Olmsted's original design; 4) To strengthen the historic parkway experience.

Emerald Necklace Master Plan:
The following is an excerpt from the Emerald Necklace Master Plan, which was published in 2001. "[The Arborway] should be resurfaced and re-curbed, have new crosswalks and MDC historic pendent light standards, and have blocks of formalized parkway trees replanted to ensure the future integrity of its consistent historic character" (Emerald Necklace Master Plan, 2001, p173).

Arborway Yard & Emerald Necklace Re-connector/ Green Connector Plans:
The Arborway Yard is a 18.3-acre property along the Arborway, much of which is being redeveloped by the MBTA as a bus storage facility. Part of the land will be used as an open space that connects Franklin Park with the Arborway. This open space will skirt the Arborway and go up Washington Street towards Franklin Park by a road called Lotus Street, which is currently unpaved and hardly used. There is disagreement even among greenspace advocates about whether or not the historic Emerald Necklace landscape can simply be re-routed.

The MBTA, the Community Planning Committee for the Arborway Yard (CPCAY), and a community Design Review Committee (a sub-committee of the CPCAY) have dedicated thousands of hours to work on the Arborway Yard planning process. The Parks and Open Space Committee of the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Council, assisted by a landscape architect hired by the MBTA, is running a planning process for the greenway.

One potential problem in the decision-making process is that the MBTA plans to allow buses onto the section of the Arborway near Forest Hills Station. The MDC, however, does not allow buses on their parkways without a variety of special permits. The MDC has authority over the Arborway and until the winter of 2002 did not know of the plans to have buses use the Arborway to access the new bus facility.

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TESTIMONIES:
"We have also tried to work with the MDC to secure better attention to the maintenance of these trees. We have requested that deadwood be pruned more often than the MDC's standard once in seven years, that dead trees be replaced, and that newly planted trees be adequately cared for" (Arborway Coalition).

"I can remember looking out my grandmother's window and seeing the bridal path along the Arborway in 1951 when I was 11 in 1951. It would be wonderful if we could get the trees back" (resident at Arborway Master Plan Meeting, April 4, 2002).

Connections:
"For 90 years the Arborway was a gracious connector. Today, the Arborway is a barricade between east and west, between the Pond and the Arboretum. How did it get from being a connector to a barricade?" (Kevin Handley, Arborway Coalition).

Management:
"If we can't get the basics addressed, what hope do we have with a grander scheme?" (resident at Arborway Master Plan Meeting, April 4, 2002).

"We neighbors see the Parks Department doing what looks to us to be a better job than the MDC. I wonder if it would be possible to get the Arborway under the same jurisdiction as the other parks in the Emerald Necklace - with the Parks Department?" (local resident at the Arborway Master Plan meeting).

"[Arborway Yard planning] is a regional issue not a local one. All members of the CPCAY are from JP and this is wrong" (Simone Auster, director of the Emerald Necklace Conservancy).

Traffic:
"Diverting traffic is not the answer. Reducing traffic by getting people onto public transportation, aggressive traffic calming - those are great solutions" (Don Eunson, Walk Boston/ Bike Boston).

"There's no enforcement on the Arborway. It's the Wild West" (Kevin Handley, Arborway Coalition).

Planning: 
 "Admittedly, various developments, inappropriate intrusions, and deferred maintenance over time have significantly altered the character of the Commonwealth's historic parkways.  There is no greater example of the effects of this neglect than the quarter-mile stretch of the Arborway from Forest Hills Street to Washington Street, which has been adversely affected by the Casey Overpass, the Forest Hills MBTA Station, the District Courthouse parking, and potentially by this proposed development [for the Arborway Yard]. The proposed MBTA Arborway Facility can and should improve the Arborway, without compromising the MBTA's use of the site.  Given the existing condition of this section of the Arborway, this can be accomplished without additional cost and without significant impact to MBTA operations" (Certificate of the Secretary of Environmental Affairs on the Environmental Notification Form, January 23, 2003).

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