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Cross section
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Generally, what Dr. Furth and his students at Northeastern U. propose for South Brookline is to convert four-lane roadways, some with shoulders, some without, to narrow two-lane roadways which bicyclists could not comfortably share with motor traffic, and a multi-use path running alongside behind a wide, landscaped median.
As shown in the pictures below, the students would like to compare this treatment with Commonwealth Avenue in Newton, which has a wide two-lane, two-way roadway, and a frontage road on the north side. (The term "carriage lane" used on the cross-section is a historical artifact, dating back to around 1900 when streetcars ran in the median, as they still do on Commonwealth Avenue in Boston.) But there are some important differences:
The Commonwealth Avenue carriage lane is 21 feet wide. It is configured as a one-way street and carries one-way motor traffic. Parking is allowed at the outside. The frontage road is also used by bicyclists, sometimes opposite the flow of motor traffic, though the legality of this is questionable. Driveways enter the frontage road, but only streets cross it.
On the other hand:
The path which Dr. Furth and his students propose would be 12 feet wide, and long segments of it (on Clyde Street, see the Lee-Clyde section of this photo album) would carry two-way local motor traffic as well as bicycle and pedestrian traffic. 12 feet is not wide enough for two motor vehicles to pass when they meet head-on, and has even proven marginal when there is only bicycle and pedestrian traffic (for example, on the Minuteman Bikeway in Boston's northwestern suburbs). Much of the path is on the opposite side of the street from most trip generators -- residences, and side streets. Where trip generators are on the same side, driveways cross the path. Either way, the path location gives a false sense of security to naive bicyclists and impedes skillful ones.
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