Itinalaga ni Traffic - KC (Permits) ang isyung ito kay Traffic - PB (Engineering)

Thank you for reporting your concern to City of Cambridge via Commonwealth Connect. We have reviewed the information you provided our staff and will be investigating this issue further.

Issue 2788063 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue.

Thanks for your report. We have investigated this intersection and the traffic volumes here do not warrant the installation of an all-way STOP. We will be restricting parking along Franklin St to increase the visibility of pedestrians attempting to cross Franklin and installing "cross traffic does not stop" placards beneath the STOP signs on Franklin so drivers know that it is not an all-way STOP.

Thanks you, but it seems to me if you're gon put an extra sign on the existing stop signs (on Franklin) to warn drivers, it would cost the same effort to just put a stop sign on Pleasant as I proposed! And removing ANY parking spots in the area would not be good at all -- it affects my business noticeably. During the recent road-construction years, parking issues in the vicinity really affected my bottom line.
Several people have written to you asking for a stop sign on Pleasant at Franklin. Would it be a hardship, or create some other traffic problem, to put a sign there? I appreciate the empirics you have developed showing volume, etc, as not meeting some standard/threshold, but don't natives' observations over long periods of time, prompting people to submit multiple requests, carry any weight at all?
In decades past, the intersection at Franklin and Pleasant (I was told by Traffic) had the highest number of fender-benders in the city! (Green & Pleasant came in second.) I certainly have spent 33 yr in my office -- adjacent to both of these intersections -- hearing: screeching tires and --WHAM!-- dozens of times. But I submitted my request because of (a) _pedestrian_ patterns and experiences. AND(b) because cars entering from Pleasant onto Western Ave often have to wait a long time, backing cars up past Franklin Street. So slowing Pleasant St down would appear to be a good idea for lots of reasons!

It is important that we follow appropriate guidelines when installing STOP signs. Drivers are very intuitive, which is why the wrong type of traffic control device for an intersection can be dangerous. If this were an all-way STOP, drivers on Pleasant Street would likely ignore the STOP sign due to the low volume of road users on Franklin Street, increasing the likelihood of crashes with other road users who expect all drivers to stop. We will review the crash data from Cambridge Police to determine if there are any other outstanding issues. Thank you.

Thanks for your reply, although I found it quite surprising to learn that the City might not install a sign "because it would be ignored"? I'm sure there are drivers who ignore stop signs*, but I watch drivers on Pleasant Street slowing down at Franklin St .instinctively. because there is so much going on there -- blind to cars from R on Franklin, lots of pedestrians all the time, etc.
Please do not interpret my persistence in this as impertinence or snarky, etc-- it's just that I have been adjacent to the corner for 34 years and if ever there was a place that needed a stop sign, that is it. There is tons of foot traffic there. On three occasions, I have been walking to work and arrived at that corner just in time to see someone run the stop sign on Franklin and hit a car coming down Pleasant Street! What coincidences! Really?

I noticed in a past reply that one reason not to put a stop sign is low volume of traffic. This caused me to observe numerous places in Cambridgeport where there are stop signs on tiny, tiny streets with surely a very small fraction of the traffic at Franklin & Pleasant! (Example: stop sign on Chalk St at Pleasant St).
*PS I was following a driver who drove smoothly through FOUR top signs on my way to Trader Joe's. They also parked to go to Trader Joe's. I could not help asking the driver if he was all right, given that he had driver straight through four stop signs. Turns out he is a foreigner, tourist, was lost, and 'not paying attention.'

The STOP sign for Chalk at Magazine Street is installed on the side street, similar to the current configuration of Pleasant Street @ Franklin Street. We follow Federal standards for installation of STOP signs, as consistent traffic operation is important for safety.

Where traffic volumes are heavy on the major street and low on the side street, we install STOP signs on the side street only. All-way STOP control is reserved for locations where both roadways have similar volumes, requiring all road users to stop prior to entering the intersection.

As noted before, we are reviewing the crash data for this intersection and may consider additional measures if necessary.

Thank you.