Residents give mixed reviews on Piety Corner intersection redesign

By CHRISTIAN MAITRE
Waltham Times Contributing Writer

Residents have mixed reactions to the Piety Corner intersection redesign, with some seeing improvements and others not so much.

This comes just a month or so after the city completed an overhaul of the intersection where Lexington Street, Bacon Street and Totten Pond Road meet. The work was part of Waltham’s 2017 Master Transportation Plan.

“In my view, at the time, it was probably the intersection in the whole city that was most calling out for a redesign,” said Micheal Garvin, the city’s senior traffic engineer.

The 2017 transportation plan showed that the intersection had the highest number of crashes in the city, totaling 60, from 2011 to 2013.

Figures show that this problem has not gone away.

According to an annual report which Garvin receives from the Police Department, the intersection was the top site for crashes in 2024 with 18 total crashes.

Most of those, though, came before the $2.1 million redesign was finished in the third week of December. 

Changes include new traffic signals that detect bicycles, a new lane for turning onto Bacon Street from Totten Pond Road, and improved crosswalks.

Garvin said the intersection is more compact with its length from north to south being cut in half.

Improvements questioned

Still, some residents are skeptical of improvements in traffic safety.

Larissa Eglem, a Waltham resident who observes the intersection frequently, said the new turn lane, also called a slip lane, can become dangerous for pedestrians trying to cross.

Slip lanes allow vehicles to turn onto streets without slowing down. They can reduce T-bone collisions between vehicles but make it difficult for pedestrians to cross the street due to vehicles traveling unimpeded by traffic lights.

Eglem also witnessed a crash near the intersection where a car hit a resident’s fence only to be stopped by a tree in the resident’s front yard. This was in January, shortly after construction was finished.

Others made similar comments.

“They probably made some things better, they must have, but they didn’t fix the most basic problem,” said Matthew Frederick, a Waltham resident and urban designer who drives through the intersection frequently.

In his view, the central problem is that cars turning from Totten Pond Road onto Lexington Street are forced into a tight two-lane area right next to traffic traveling both north and southbound on Lexington, running the risk of causing collisions.

Additional assessments

However, John Allen, a Waltham resident who teaches a course on bicycle safety, said the intersection has become somewhat safer for bicyclists. 

Before the redesign, bicyclists wanting to turn left onto Totten Pond Road from Bacon Street had to travel into Lexington Street toward oncoming traffic. But Allen said the more compact intersection makes this turn tighter, reducing bicyclist’s likelihood of traveling toward traffic.

Garvin said the city’s traffic engineering staff will collect crash data for the intersection over the course of this year. The department then will compare it to crash rates pre-pandemic when traffic volumes were similar.

Ultimately, Garvin said he wants to “let the data speak for itself, once we can collect it.”

Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to clarify comments made by John Allen.