Square Shuttle Stops To Move

The Johnston Gate and Garden Street shuttle stops will move next year in order to improve the flow of traffic in Harvard Square.

The changes, first announced at a forum at Currier House last Tuesday, are part of a $3.2 million effort by the City of Cambridge to make the Square’s streets and sidewalks more pedestrian-friendly. The project is slated to begin in July.

David E. Harris Jr., general manager of fleet management services and shuttle services for University Operations Services, said that the Johnston Gate stop will relocate to the gate on Mass. Ave. across from Holyoke Center. The Garden Street stop will move from its current location in front of the Christ Church Cambridge to the end of Garden Street, right before the crosswalk.

Harris said that the changes were propelled by the city’s designation of Johnston Gate as a Massachusetts Bay Transportation Association (MBTA) only stop—meaning no other buses, including Harvard shuttles, will be allowed to stop there.

“The idea is that it will improve safety for pedestrians by halving the number of vehicles there,” he said.

Harris said that currently, any bus company that has a jitney license from the city can stop at Johnston Gate.

“When all those transportation companies get in queue, it backs up traffic in Mass. Ave,” he said.

Last week, Kathy Watkins, a project planner for the City of Cambridge, said that the city had identified Johnston Gate as a part of the Square where pedestrian safety needed to be improved.

“[Many] people have brought it up as a location of concern for pedestrians,” she said.

In addition to limiting the number of buses that stop at Johnston Gate, the city will also add a crossing signal to the crosswalk in front of the gate.

Currently, pedestrians have to walk out into the street in order to halt traffic.

Harris said that the new stop across from Holyoke Center will only be used by the Harvard and Longwood Medical Area shuttles. He said it had not yet been decided where the tourist buses that currently use that space will go.

Harris said that the move of the Garden Street stop was also the result of concerns about pedestrian safety.

The shuttle from the Radcliffe Quadrangle usually does not drop students off at its designated stop in front of the Christ Church Cambridge. Rather, if the light is red, it stops at the end of Garden Street before the sidewalk.

Two parking meters will be removed there and an official stop created.

“It’s much safer. It gets students closer to [their] destination. It’s better for traffic,” Harris said.

Aaron D. Chadbourne ’06, the chair of the Undergraduate Council’s Student Affairs Committee, said that bus shelters might be added at both stops.

“I would hope that in these negotiations, some sort of shelter like the one by Memorial Hall could be considered or proposed,” he said. But Chadbourne added that any construction near the Yard would have to be approved by the Cambridge Historical Commission.

Assistant Dean of the College Paul J. McLoughlin II said that the changes would increase student safety.

“The advantage of this is safety,” he said. “[The city] is trying to make this a much more pedestrian [friendly] area.”

Chadbourne said it will take time for students to get used to the changes.

“They’ll have to walk across a different part of the Yard,” he said.

But Chadbourne added that the new stops had been positively received by the students who attended the shuttle forum last week.

Separately, Harris said that the shuttle service would spend almost $1 million to replace five of the seven buses in its fleet by next Christmas.

The new buses—which will all have low floors and digital destination signs—will be more fuel efficient, Harris said.

­—Staff writer Joseph M. Tartakoff can be reached at tartakof@fas.harvard.edu.