Boston Mayor Michelle Wu divides West Roxbury over Centre Street redesign

Drivers, pedestrians and cyclists on Centre Street in West Roxbury are still getting the hang of a controversial redesign, while business owners say their operations are being challenged, for the good and bad.

City officials contend it’s “too early to draw conclusions” on the revised mile-stretch between Holy Name Rotary and Lagrange Street aimed at slowing traffic to reduce the number of crashes on the roadway.

The redesign, which the city finished last December, features one travel lane in each direction instead of two, a center turning/emergency lane, a bike lane along the curb, and a parking lane between the bike and travel lanes.

Yeanie Bach, head chef and owner of Banh Mi Oi, told the Herald that she’s seen very few cyclists take advantage of the new road, while traffic has increased around her Vietnamese restaurant at 1759 Centre St.

The so-called “road diet” sparked concerns around customer accessibility to Banh Mi Oi, and those fears have so far come to fruition: Bach reported that her restaurant, which she opened four years ago, saw a 20% to 25% decrease in sales initially.

“While sales have slightly improved as customers adjust, parking difficulties still affect in-store pickups and reduce foot traffic and in-house orders,” Bach said. “Delivery options are available, but additional fees deter customers. We believe improved traffic management and parking solutions are essential.”

Just a third a mile away from Banh Mi Oi, immigration lawyer Adrienne J. Vaughan said the project has made her “safer and happier,” as a neighborhood resident and business owner.

Vaughan reported no negative impacts on her law office at 1895 Centre St., and her staff has “felt safer to get coffee and lunch and take walks at lunch so it’s made my workplace more attractive to candidates.”

“There used to be honking and drivers swearing at each other all day long and I hated opening my office windows,” Vaughan said. “That has completely abated; it’s much more calm and I find that cars now acknowledge pedestrian crossings 100 times more than when there were more lanes.”

City transportation officials are looking to add three more accessible parking spaces to go with one they installed last fall. Overall, the project wiped away seven regular spaces on Centre Street and two on Belgrade Avenue, a road off of West Roxbury Parkway.

Officials also implemented short-term loading zones to reduce double parking, flex posts to improve sightlines and to keep crosswalks and merge areas clear and various pavement markings, such as turn arrows and bus and bike symbols, according to the project website.

Redesigning Centre Street became essential, officials have said, after the death of Marilyn Wentworth, a 66-year-old woman who was struck and killed in February 2019 when a driver didn’t see her in the middle of the intersection with Hastings Street due to solar glare.

Officials said they had noticed the majority of the roughly 15,235 daily drivers pre-construction drove faster than 25 mph speed limit, with “hundreds” traveling over 40 mph.

Then-Mayor Marty Walsh first proposed a reconfiguration while in office, but due to fierce community backlash, his administration withdrew the plans.

The project, which Mayor Michelle Wu revived last year under the “Safety Surge” initiative that aims to bring “traffic calming infrastructure to every neighborhood” in the city, has officials happy with initial post-construction data.

So far, speeding is down more than 75% on Centre Street, with median and 85% percentile speeds down at least 5 mph. But daytime travel times have increased by about a minute and peak hours by about two, estimates compiled through the Waze navigation app show.

“The City made it a priority to bring the early findings of the Centre Street redesign back to the community for residents to ask questions and provide further feedback on tweaks that can be made,” a city spokesperson said in a statement. “While it’s too early to draw conclusions, the early data shows that the redesign has slowed speeding and made the roadway safer, without drastically adding to traffic and drive times.”

As executive director of West Roxbury Main Streets, Lindsey Chase is charged with carrying out the independent nonprofit’s mission: to support small businesses along the Centre Street corridor in any way possible.

Some storefronts have operated along the street for upwards of 50 years, said Chase, who called them “mainstay, generational businesses.”

“That’s really the heart of the town,” she told the Herald. “These businesses are feeling impacts from the road.”

She said owners have told her of a 30% drop in business, with some closing early because the traffic can’t support second shifts.

Since taking over the role earlier this year, Chase said there has been no communication between the city and nonprofit on the impacts to businesses. She added that her nonprofit doesn’t have any resources available that could uplift the businesses, putting the pressure on the city to offer relief.

“I don’t think that anybody at the beginning, middle or the end of this project ever wanted to sacrifice the safety of everybody,” Chase said. “Everybody was in favor of making things safe for everyone who wants to come to the street and patronize these businesses.”

The goal of the project from “day one” was to slow people down from speeding and to make the road safer for everyone, said Stacy Thompson, executive director of Livable Streets Alliance, an advocacy nonprofit.

Dozens of studies have shown that bike lanes don’t negatively affect businesses, Thompson told the Herald.

“For people who felt really strongly that bike lanes were the end of the world, it doesn’t matter what the data shows,” Thompson said. “At the end of the day, what we have to focus on is if the street is safer, and the answer is yes.”

City Councilor At-Large Erin Murphy told the Herald she hears from West Roxbury residents almost daily about concerns they have about the redesign, some including how infrequently cyclists use the bike lanes.

“I visit West Roxbury often, and am still trying to get used to the traffic changes that were made,” she said. “Many neighbors who live in the neighborhood, and drive down Centre street daily, have reached out, and most have been very frustrated.”

Officials are planning on adding speed humps in areas that navigation apps are most likely to suggest for rerouting. Pre-construction, Waze suggested users seek an alternative route just 0.3% of the time, a figure that has increased to 3.3% post-construction.

The average number of vehicles using Centre Street daily has dropped from 15,235 pre-construction to 13,654 post-construction.

“You didn’t see this type of jamming up of cars,” resident Steven Morris told the Herald inside his office at LAER Realty Partners overlooking the road. “There’s road rage out there. People are ignoring red lights or stop signs, they’re speeding on the side streets.”

Morris co-founded the West Roxbury Safety Association in 2019 and helped audit the road, examining every intersection through a safety angle. The group reemerged when Wu announced her administration’s intentions to go through with the project last year.

Hundreds of residents voiced opposition to the project in a series of meetings, but Morris said those concerns fell on deaf ears.

“A lot of people don’t want to say anything out loud because of the cancel culture,” he said.