For the October 26th issue of The Boston Globe, reporter Billy Baker explores why the Riverway, Jamaicaway and Arborway have become “most dangerous and toughest road” in Boston. He writes that the connected parkways were originally “designed to immerse the traveler in nature via an intentionally curvy, tree-canopied, what’s-around-the-next-bend jaunt on horseback or buggy. Because that’s what they had in the 1880s.
Things have changed a lot since then. What hasn’t changed are the curves of the three roadways. And today those curves — hemmed in by homes and development on one side and the Emerald Necklace on the other — serve as the main north-south corridor for a huge swath of city drivers. They are notoriously dangerous to drive, with lanes so narrow you feel like you need to hold your breath to squeeze through, all of it inside an intruding tree canopy where trunks and roots come within inches of the roadway.”
The article includes insights from historian Arleyn Levee, MMOC member and former chair of the Olmsted Network:
“Olmsted’s initial concept was something green, scenic, recognizing that you can create something with the topography of the landscape that surrounds it. You don’t find straight lines in nature, so wherever he could, on the footpaths and the parkways, he used curvilinear lines, because with curves there is a leisure to the meander.”
Read the article in full.