Residents Near Newton Library Petition To Restore Two-Way Traffic

NEWTON, MA — Residents who live near Newton Free Library are petitioning the city to reinstate two-way traffic on Homer Street as promised at the start of the library parking lot enhancement project.

The project, which began earlier this year, required changing Homer Street traffic flow to one-way to provide space for parking during renovation, a change that was described as temporary by city officials.

However, residents of Cummings Road and North Street said they recently heard from City Hall that two-way traffic may not be returned. In response, nearly 500 people have signed a petition to formally send to the City of Newton with the following key requests:

1. Immediately restore Two Way traffic on Homer Street until such time as One Way is needed to support the Newton Library Parking Lot work currently scheduled to commence in the Spring of 2022.
2. Affirm that Two Way traffic will be permanently restored once construction of Library Lot is completed.

Here's the rationale for these requests:

1. Safety - As winter is approaching, reliance on North Street as a primary means of ingress/egress into the neighborhood creates a material risk of accidents occurring due to the well known icing conditions that form on the North Street hill that abuts Comm Ave. Additionally, frustrated commuters are behaving more erratically due to the detours required to navigate the area.
2. Convenience - Traffic patterns in and around Comm Ave, Homer, and Walnut have become significantly congested due to the One Way restriction. Commute times to neighborhood locations such as schools & grocery stores have doubled or even tripled since the change was made. This is an unacceptable situation when no work will be underway for the next 6 months.
3. Trust - when this change was socialized to the neighborhood, it was described as a 'temporary' solution to support the work and the city, "plan[s] to return Homer Street to it's current two-way operation at the completion of the Library Parking Lot project."

To view or sign the petition, click here.