Cabot Estate wants to put up pedestrian crossing signs

PONDSIDE—The state Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) announced earlier this month that, in response to requests from state Rep. Jeffrey Sánchez and residents of Cabot Estate, the agency plans to conduct a traffic study of Perkins Street in Jamaica Plain.

“DCR is taking steps in the right direction to making Jamaica Plain an even more welcoming neighborhood for pedestrians,” Sánchez said in a written statement. “They made promises to the residents of Jamaica Plain and Cabot Estate, and they have kept those promises.”

The promised study comes after a meeting on Oct. 6 organized by Sánchez between residents of Cabot Estate at 241 Perkins St. and representatives of DCR, and will address concerns the residents voiced about the lack of a safe crossing to Jamaica Pond.

The study will take three to six months to complete and will take into account the flow of vehicular traffic and the amount of foot traffic during both winter and spring, according to the statement.

Peter Weiss, a Cabot Estate resident, expressed skepticism about the study this week, especially because it will take place partly during winter months. Weiss is the partner of Jutta Adolph, who was hit by a car while she was crossing Perkins Street from the Pond with her dog on Sept. 10.

Weiss, who attended the Oct. 6 meeting, said a crosswalk at the entrance to Cabot may not ever happen. “We would settle for a couple of pedestrian warning signs” before and after the driveway where most residents cross, he said.

“We are a peninsula,” Cabot resident Gaby Cohen, chair of the Cabot Estate safety committee, said of the 158-unit complex that has only one other entrance, up a steep hill. She said she is also concerned that a mostly winter-time traffic study will have to be redone when more people cross the street in summer. And, she predicted, a study done in the summer will show a crosswalk to the Pond is needed.

“In the meantime,” she said, she and others are trying to get a permit to put pedestrian crossing signs on Cabot property.

In nearby Jamaica Hills, DCR will be repainting crosswalks along Centre Street at Hillcroft Road, Louders Lane, Rambler Road, Westchester Road and Whitcomb Avenue. The work will be completed soon, depending on the weather, DCR said.

“DCR is committed to ensuring public safety and access along all the agency roadways,” said DCR Commissioner Richard Sullivan Jr. in the same written statement. “We thank Representative Sanchez and the entire Jamaica Plain legislative delegation for their continued support of DCR and its mission.”