Old news, good news

This news is a bit old (March 12th) but since it is directly related to what I was writing about several weeks ago, it is worth mentioning.

We can read on Wicked Local Arlington:

Improvements will be made to an intersection in the center of town that has been called congested and unsafe. Funded by the state Department of Transportation (MassDOT), the town will install bike lanes on both sides of Mass. Ave.; remove parking in front of Cambridge Savings Bank to allow room for bike lanes and add parking on Mystic Street to make up for it; extend the bike path along Uncle Sam Park; elongate the left turn lane on Mystic Street onto Mass. Ave; extend curbs to shorten crossing distance for pedestrians and adjust traffic signal timing to give them more time.

Option 5 (Source: Arlington Center Safe Travel Project)

Excellent. This means that the Option 5 was chosen, which was the one I sort of hoped for. I wrote "sort of" since my preference was more toward option 3B. This is only because it opens a new possibility of building bike lanes on both sides of Mass Ave.

Option 3B (Source: Arlington Center Safe Travel Project)

Even though the more "conservative" option won, I am still pleased that the Town of Arlington decided to finally tie both loose ends of the Minuteman Bikeway together. Hopefully this will make the main intersection in town safer for all of us.