Traffic Commission in brief: 2024 Piety Corner redesign showing results

By ARTIE KRONENFELD

The redesigned intersection at Lexington Street, Totten Pond Road and Bacon Street experienced 64% fewer accidents in 2025 than it had in 2019, with 24 incidents there last year compared to 66 six years earlier.

City Traffic Engineer J. Michael Garvin delivered the numbers at last week’s Traffic Commission meeting, saying the city’s decade-long work on redesigning the intersection has yielded positive results.

The Massachusetts Department of Transportation said the intersection had been in the top 5% of crash locations in Waltham between 2012 and 2021. 

At the request of the Traffic Commission, the city bought a parcel of land adjacent to the intersection in 2015 to widen and redesign the junction. The construction was completed in 2024.

Additionally, the Traffic Commission:

• Accepted a request to amend a previously approved traffic plan for a project that will expand a convenience store at a 962 Main St. gas station. The board previously ruled to prohibit left turns into the station’s westmost Weston Street driveway. A representative of the project agreed to other conditions but argued that the turn restriction would create more safety issues and requested to create a curb cut in a Weston Street traffic island to allow left turns. The commission agreed, with the condition that the project pay for improved street markings to better direct traffic around the intersection.
• Approved a request for a Rapid Response Flashing Beacon at the intersection of Main and Wellington streets. Garvin found the location did not have sufficient sight distance issues to justify the crossing, but still recommended the beacon because of the confusing behavior of cars switching lanes on Main Street.
• Asked Garvin to study Linden Street before acting on a request from Bentley University police to add a crosswalk there. The university is installing a sidewalk and expanding the usage of what was formerly an access road. Waltham resident John Allen requested the university additionally consider accommodating bike traffic on the street.
• Heard an update about upcoming MBTA bus service changes. Garvin said that the MBTA focused on changes in municipalities other than Waltham this year and doesn’t expect to update Waltham bus lines until after 2026. He told the commission that the MBTA contacts municipalities about upcoming projects six months in advance.
• Heard updates on the Traffic Department’s progress since the last meeting: The department sent requests for improvements at two Weston Street intersections to the state and created a new pedestrian crossing phase at the intersection of Winter and West streets. Additionally, Garvin reported the department collected around $524,000 in parking fees in 2025, about $10,000 more than the previous year.
• OK’d a four-unit residential development at 20 Williams St. that previously received Zoning Board of Appeals approval for increased residential density.
• Voted to update detection, recall and signal timing at two South Street intersections, one at Wheelock Road and the other at Highland Street.