[tosser0001]

That bridge also took over 2 years to complete at an absurd cost after the one it replaced was damaged. While it was under construction, there was a temporary red light installed at the intersection of Magazine St. which was far better all around as it allowed pedestrians to just cross the street much closer to the only real stores in the immediate area (and a Starbucks, now closed.)

While the bridge is well-built and provides wheelchair and bike access, its location is inconvenient. It’s so far away from any of the few available amenities that many people just try to dart across the road from the park and community pool. Two people have been struck in killed trying to cross in the past few years.

Other than a single water bubbler at the BU boathouse, that only went in a couple of years ago, there isn’t a single place to get a drink (let alone buy one or get a snack) the entire 4+ mile length of the river in Cambridge from the Museum of Science to the Elliot St. Bridge, without crossing Memorial Drive. It’s unclear to me why they just don’t take down the footbridge and make the stop light with crosswalk permanent. There seems to be some issue with the fact that Cambridge itself doesn’t really have control over the road itself or the land along the River as it’s controlled by the Department of Conservation & Recreation (the “dcr”) which is a State agency.

The footbridge that I find oddest is the one across Rt. 2 past Alewife just over the Cambridge line in Arlington.

https://goo.gl/maps/8JrUQHn2j4B7TuE56

    42.399443, -71.147645
    Arlington, Massachusetts

I assume it has a similar story to the OP in that whatever utility it may have had has long since passed.

[nedrylandJP]

According to this reddit comment[1] that I didn't dive farther into, the Rt. 2 bridge used to allow access from a westbound bus stop before Alewife station was built. Makes reference to the now closed Lanes & Games. Looking at MBTA bus maps I don't see any stop there now but I could be wrong.

[1] https://old.reddit.com/r/boston/comments/2ny6b5/whats_up_wit...

[nitwit005]

I've seen people dart across a road to avoid using a much straighter pedestrian bridge. They just didn't want to have to walk up and down steps.

Not sure you can fix that issue with better design.

[auno]

Of course you can. Just design the area for walking and biking and let the motor vehicle traffic flow around that.

A car driver is not nearly as inconvenienced by an incline as a pedestrian or cyclist would be. If we don't want to do more in depth changes, then at least we could just let motor vehicle traffic tunnel under or bridge over foot and bicycle paths instead of the other way around.

[SoftTalker]

Tunnels and bridges are expensive. If there's a choice between a pedestrian bridge and a car bridge, the pedestrian bridge will be less expensive. And vastly more people drive than walk. It's pretty obvious how we end up with the infrasructure we have.

[dolmen]

> And vastly more people drive than walk. It's pretty obvious how we end up with the infrasructure we have.

Cars made long distances easy to reach and shaped cities.

Let's reshape cities to reduce dependency to cars and to gas.