Near Everything, Yet Close to Nothing
That’s sometimes how I feel living in Somerville. This past weekend I decided to see a movie at the Kendall Square Cinema in neighborhing Cambridge. With only one subway station in all of Somerville (Davis Square)…and with our house being a mile from that station, I opted to drive to the theatre. Besides, according to the GPS in Randy’s car, the theatre is only 3.7 miles away.
Yet despite it being a Sunday afternoon (when traffic should be non-existant) it took nearly 40 minutes to get there. I attribute the problem to numerous factors:
- As I mentioned earlier, despite being the most denseley populated city in the state, and despite bordering both Boston and Cambridge, Somerville has just one subway station within city limits. Porter Square is close to Somerville, but is technically in Cambridge. And Sullivan Square is also close, but in Charlestown/Boston. Neither stop is near me, however. There are various bus routes through Somerville…but the ones leading to my neighborhood are sporadic during the day during the week, let alone during the weekend.
- Aside from Route 93, there are no major highways leading you through Somerville. And Route 93 only covers one corner of the city. That means there’s no rapid way to get from one part of town to the other. Route 28 also pokes into one corner of the city, and Route 16 (though more of a parkway) also follows the city border for a spell, but there’s no traffic-light coordinated thoroughfare getting you efficiently from point A to point B within the city – even on a weekend.
- Somerville taxi rates are absurd. The trip to the airport (even outside of rush hour and using Route 93) can cost close to $40 including tip. And a ride from our house to my office…just 3.5 miles…costs almost $14.00, with tip. The reason? No major thoroughfare gets me there until I reach Mass Ave (in Cambridge). Otherwise, it’s just left turn, right turn, left turn, rotary, left turn, right turn, right turn, left turn, right turn…and that’s just to Mass Ave at Porter Square.
It’s astounding, really, since Somerville is so geographically close to everything. Major destinations are all within just a few miles of every Somerville neighborhood. But street patterns just can’t get you there conveniently. Many streets, including ours, are too narrow for what they’re forced to accomodate: which is two-way traffic plus parking on both sides of the street. Yet that’s what they’re forced to do. Driving inevitably becomes a game of give-n-take, where one car drives into the parallel parking spots to let the other car pass. Add in the fact that it snows here and only one side of the street gets plowed, you get snow mounds making the streets even more narrow.
HMMM – I sound kind of grumpy. I’m actually not. I don’t mind Somerville. It’s just surprising to me that it can take nearly 40 minutes to go just under 4 miles (that’s an average of less than 10 miles/hour..and that’s on a weekend)! Plus, the urban planner in me always has ideas on how I’d improve things if it was up to me. And I guess I’ve just got a bunch of ideas rushing through my head right now.
At least the movie was good!
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Well, the solution to MUCH of Somerville is Haussmann-ian: flatten it and lay out better streets!
The more pragmatic solution, of course, is to suggest maybe getting a bike if you don’t already have one: small, flexible, lightweight semifast transport – ideally suited to a well-positioned but gridlocked and poorly-served-by-public-transit city (once you’re on a bus, it’s stuck in the same traffic hell). Just a thought…
What movie did you see? BTW, were you trying to take (or run along) McGrath Highway? I think driving through the streets kind of directly towards the river usually doesn’t take too long, to get from where you are to Kendall. At least Kendall garage is right there & ridiculously cheap if you go to a movie.
Oh, I saw “Be Kind, Rewind.” It was pretty funny and clever (very engaging visually, quite surreal). Plus, I find something oddly appealing about Jack Black. I always have.
As for Somerville. I didn’t take McGrath. The route with least mileage (per my GPS) was to find my way to Beacon Street at Porter Square and go straight into Kendall Square from there. In the future, I’m toying with popping onto Route 93 South and getting off near Sullivan Square, and then taking side streets.
It’s just so funny living in Somerville (or the Boston area, in general) that often the most direct route south shows you going north for a bit on the GPS. There are so few straight lines.
And that is why I live in Arlington!
I felt exactly the same way in Roslindale during my life there. Public transportation was virtually out of the question and a car was an absolute necessity.
May I suggest an alternate route–longer but assuredly faster. You’re very close to route 16. Take it west to Alewife, then the Fresh Pond Parkway to Memorial Drive heading east. Take the Kendall Square Exit, the one I used to get to my MIT office. You’re something like five blocks from the Kendall Cinema that way.
You need a scooter. Although in this weather, scootering is a bit cold.