The Commonwealth Avenue Carriage Lane
Newton, MA
The Commonwealth Ave Carriage Road Two-Way for Bicycles is now officially designated the Commonwealth Greenway. You can find a description and detailed map of the trail on TrailLink.
Commonwealth Greenway Newton. 6 miles of wonderful. Walk, Bike, Roll.
Timed to occur National Bike Month, and the morning of the first workday of Bike to Work Week, this bike breakfast and ribbon-cutting that occurred Monday Morning, May 13, 2024 was an amazing and enjoyable time for all.
Read the FIG CITY NEWS article Celebrating 14 years of efforts to improve bike safety on the event.
Watch the NEWTV Two-Way Carriage Lane Officially Opens: “After years of advocating, The Commonwealth Avenue Carriage Road was officially opened as a two-way bike lane on Monday with a ribbon-cutting ceremony with all those who helped make this possible.”
Thank you again to our great Newton sponsors: Heartbreak Hill Running Club (Comm Ave & Centre St, Newton Centre), The Roasted Spoke Bicycle Shop (Walnut St at Washington St, Newtonville), Rosenfeld Bagels (Centre St at Piccadilly Square, Newton Centre), and Blackers Bake Shop (Comm Ave Carriage Road at Irving St, Newton Centre).
Join Mayor Fuller, City Councilors and members of the bike community who made this happen as we celebrate the new bike lane on the Carriage Road with a ribbon-cutting ceremony. Coffee and refreshments* will be provided to kick off Bike to Work Week. Sponsors of this event include our local businesses Heartbreak Hill Running Company (638 Commonwealth Ave, Newton Centre) and The Roasted Spoke Bike Shop. (260 Walnut St., Newtonville). Gratitude to Newton’s own Bike Newton (where membership is free!) for co-sponsoring this event.
Event time: 8am – 9:30am.
Location: Beaumont Ave at the Carriage Road. Bike parking (and MWRA water truck to fill up water bottles) provided.
*Refreshments Certified Kosher; freshly baked goods donated by Rosenfeld Bagels and Blackers Bake Shop
You can now find the Commonwealth Avenue Carriage Road on MassDOT’s map of Bicycle/Pedestrian Priority Roadways!! This is a great map of existing bike infrastructure. It also shows planned bike infrastructure.
Visit Massachusetts Priority Trails Network to locate Newton and the Commonwealth Ave Carriage Road, from Mt Alvernia in the east to Higgins Street in the west. You’ll be able to zoom in on any specific location along this entire route. Or just click on the map below.
Have you driven by, biked, run or walked on the Carriage Road between Bristol and Chestnut? This area, now called Bristol Mini-park, was officially created on Feb. 24, 2021, when this proposal passed Traffic Council unanimously. It is the permanent closure of this 330′ of roadway to motorized vehicles. From now on, it is open only to pedestrians, runners, and bicyclists.
The idea for this goes back to 2015, when the City was struggling to stop the number of crashes occurring at the intersection of the Carriage Road and Chestnut St. For several years Traffic Council had tried to solve this by passing a “Right Turn Only” at the corner. But the crashes continued, as drivers along the Carriage Road violated that restriction, and drove straight across Chestnut.
Realizing the solution was to close this stretch of road to motor vehicles, which was possible as there were no driveways this entire block, I suggested this idea of closure to Councilor Andreae Downs, who then docketed this before Traffic Council. It passed unanimously.
In November 2022, Parks and Recreation planted fourteen 4C trees (Capture Carbon Commemorate COVID-19) in the berm here. These beautiful flowering trees, Syringa Reticulata, Syringa Snowcap, Prunus Sargentii Spring Wonder and Prunus Sargenti Rancho, are now thriving and we look forward to pink and white blooms next season, and in subsequent years.
Parks, Recreation and Culture under Commissioner Banks located beautiful large boulders at the entrance to this mini-park in 2023. We hope this will be a template for future decoration of the park entrances, both at Bristol and at Chestnut.
Our first official event in this mini-park, the Bicycle Lights Giveaway at Bristol Mini-Park, took place on Sunday, October 15, 2023. A highly successful event, it was co-sponsored by BikeNewton and MassBike. The MassBikes Lights Brigade aims to brighten up cyclists across Massachusetts by distributing sets of front and rear bike lights. and this was the first ever such event in Newton!
DPW removed the cobbles along the Carriage Road. While some bemoaned the loss of the cobbles with their mystique, this is a tremendous improvement for public safety. The Carriage Road is now safer for pedestrians, runners, people with disabilities, and bicyclists (whose tires sometimes could get stuck in between the cobbles). Some day we hope for funding to add flowers and foliage in the berm to further adorn the Carriage Road.
Before:
Current:
There are several landmark projects occurring in the City of Newton. One is called the “Commonwealth Avenue Carriageway Redesign” project. It is not to be confused with the “Commonwealth Avenue Two-way for Bicycles.” Information about the “Commonwealth Avenue Carriageway Redesign” can be found : here: Commonwealth Avenue Carriageway Redesign. It’s fully funded through MassDOT’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Program, and construction is supposed to begin in 2023.
TC112-50, which requested action to allow legal two-way bicycle travel on the Commonwealth Avenue Carriage Lane between Woodbine Street and Mt. Alvernia Road, passed last night, Thursday March 17, 2020. Support among the five members of Traffic Council was unanimous. The mandatory 20-day appeal period, ending April 6, came and went with no appeals. This project is also known as Commonwealth Avenue Carriageway – 2-way Bike Travel.
The measure was co-docketed by Councilors Andreae Downs, Jake Auchincloss, Alicia Bowman, Andrea Kelley, Mark Laredo, Marty Markiewitz, Emily Norton, Pam Wright, Vicky Danberg, Josh Krintzman, Maria Scibelli Greenberg, and Rick Lipof.
This historic vote will have far-reaching impact. It will positively impact bicycle and pedestrian safety. It will help Newton reach its Climate Action goals. It will:
The five voting members of Traffic Council were Newton Transportation Coordinator David Koses; City Councilor Alicia Bowman; representing the Police Dept, Sgt. Wade; citizen representative Jeremy Freudberg; and from Newton’s Dept. of Public Works, Transportation Engineer Isaac Prizant.
Newton residents and community leaders Scott Oran, James Purdy from the Newton Citizens’ Commission on Energy, Jenn Martin from SRTS, and Jerry Reilly from Village14 and Newton Nomadic Theater all spoke eloquently to support passage of this motion. I am grateful to each.
With the 20-day appeal period now in the past, with no appeals, the City will begin making the street signs, such as the smaller STOP signs for the bicyclists heading east.
Thanks go out to all who played a part in this momentous vote.
Jane Hanser
Mayor Fuller approved the commission of a consultants’ report on the Commonwealth Avenue Carriage Way 2-way for bicycling. This report is now complete and was submitted to the DPW Engineers. That report is available to the public on the Transportation Planning web page. That report was discussed by, and has the support of the Complete Streets Working Group, and the Transportation Advisory Group (TAG), and representatives from Safe Routes to Schools Task Force and BikeNewton. I will be providing my own comments to DPW and Transportation Planning tomorrow, 11/25.
The 2nd Public Meeting is scheduled to be led by Nicole Freedman of the Planning Department, on Thursday, November 4, 2021, 5:30-7pm via ZOOM.
You can download the flyer here.
Please come out and support this project! We know our children and others ride legally eastbound. And they need to be able to return home safely, the same way.
https://village14.com/2021/10/04/both-ways-on-the-carriage-lane/
Did you miss the Sept. 29 2020 public meeting? If you did, not only are you not alone, but you can now read or listen to what you missed.
The Transportation Planning Dept now has a web page devoted to the project.
On this page, Commonwealth Avenue Carriageway – 2 Way Bike Travel, you can find links to:
* the design plan presented at that meeting, and to
* the audio recording of the meeting.
Stay tuned for more news.
