Cronin's corner on Lake Avenue! People enter Lake Avenue from Beacon St and speed around the corner. They speed even though they are often driving in the oncoming lane because their lane is occupied with parked cars.

People driving down Lake Ave from the other direction are already speeding down the straight stretch of road by Crystal Lake and continue speeding around the corner heading for Beacon Street.

There have been countless near crashes.

Hammond Pond Parkway routinely has people going 50 in a 30 zone, but even so it's probably not top 5 for safety issues.

From Jon (via Twitter): The Sumner Street to Willow Street section off of Beacon Street.

Driving on Vine St in Chestnut Hill section of Newton.

Where is speeding a problem in Newton? Pretty much everywhere.

Crosswalks are not solutions to speeding problems. They're for getting pedestrians across the street safely where there is demand. I think this thread is misguided. Individual bias and misdirected solutions will only produce more misunderstanding.

Melanie, it's a complex problem, and part of the problem is that there aren't enough educational resources. A publication such as yours could really help with research and interviews on the subject. Too often, people demand from city hall a crosswalk, a speed limit sign, etc. for inappropriate settings, and such requests are denied. Take another example: stop signs. They're for traffic control and are not for calming traffic. Misused, stop signs undermine their importance on roadways and can even result in more speeding (and stop sign violations) and therefore more accidents. Vertical traffic calming (e.g. speed humps or tables) cannot be used on arterial routes and are typically not allowed on any roads which would interfere with emergency vehicles. The fire department, in particular, has been adamant about that. Mini-roundabouts are a more modern solution, but are often controversial -- there's one in Brookline which seems wonderful but apparently has created quite a stir. There are those who expect roadway design to accommodate distracted drivers rather than force people to pay attention.

Identifying and prioritizing traffic problems is thorny business to begin with. And of course, any solution would have to be designed and paid for. Then there's the fact that Newton presently employs no traffic engineers.

There's also a general rule that the 85th percentile speed, rather than the desired speed, is the target, regardless of the wishes of the community.

So it's a lot more than will fit in this tiny box, but in summary, it's human nature: people will do what's in their best interest, and roadway design is what matters. Signs are a false sense of security. Here's a good place to start: http://www.amazon.com/Traffic-Drive-What-Says-About/dp/0307264785/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1343926668&sr=1-4&keywords=signs+vanderbilt

Washington Street in Newtonville. First - There are no Speed Limit Signs posted in the area, and I would be hard pressed to find a Speed Limit Sign on Washington Street!!! There has been couple of hit pedestrians thru the years. Newton police do not patrol the street enough to slow the traffic- The city is more concern with handing out parking tickets on Washington Street then public safety!!!!!!!!!!!!

Route 9.

Lexington Street in Auburndale coming down from Waltham and from the Commonwealth Ave end is like a raceway. I see the speeding everyday (cars and motorcycles). The section in Auburndale from Freeman Street down to River Street is densely populated with residential homes. The speed limit is 30mph and few obey it. I'm reminded of this limit daily, since we have a sign in front of our home. We have lived here for 4 years and the problem seems to be getting worse. I've thought about contacting the aldermen for my district and still may. We seem to have more families with children in our neighborhood. I would not want to see something horrific happen before some remedies are put into place. I realize this is only one of a number of problem areas, perhaps the community needs to organize inorder to resolve these traffic issues. This is a wonderful area to live in, we should do everything to keep it this way.
Linda G.

The section of Centre Street right near the Crowne Plaza. I've nearly gotten mowed over a dozen times by people flying through the red light! It's scary because I see a ton of kids walking that way on the way to the YMCA. On more than a few occasions, the drivers definitely saw both me and the red light, but decided it was more important to get to where they were going 3 seconds faster.