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Upcoming talks on new transportation plan contemplate “road diet”

May 7th, 2010 · 21 Comments

We’ve been seeing a lot of action at city hall lately when it comes to bike lanes in a few areas. But there’s a much bigger, more comprehensive re-think coming in the fall, when the city will start talking about an update to its 1997 Transportation Plan.

One topic for sure that is going to come up in the debate, as I outlined today in the Globe, is a reallocation of the existing road space. The city has had a policy since 1997 of not creating new road space. Now it will be looking at who should get which part of its current road network among the groups competing for it: car drivers, commercial truck traffic, buses, future rapid transit, cyclists, pedestrians, taxis, car co-ops, skateboarders, motorcyclists, electric-bike riders and probably a few more categories that I missed.

Other cities have talked about “road diets” — squeezing cars into smaller spaces to make room for the other modes. Wait for that term to appear here.

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