Here’s how I would make things better on Newton’s streets:

Mayor Laredo did the right thing by repainting Adams Street, the main boulevard in The Lake, with the Italian flag colors that had been there for decades, but which the previous Mayor inexplicably removed. This symbolic but important act went a long way to repair the ill will created by the prior administration.

It’s hardly a secret that too many streets in Newton are decrepit and in need of repair. Some are so bad that after various surgeries I had to constantly avoid several extra bumpy roads. McCarthy Road in Oak Hill Park comes to mind. So, too, does Centre Street. Yet since most of the city budget goes to the schools, road repairs will have to wait, as usual.

Traffic lights usually cause more traffic problems than they solve. One only has to venture down Centre Street to Needham Street at rush hour, or any hour, for that matter. Recently two extra lights were put in from Walnut Street to Needham Street, and staggered, which means you’re hit with three red lights in a row, causing the traffic to back up for a half mile, when before it didn’t.

The worst traffic light resulting in the worst backups in the city is the one on Parker Street at Route 9. Until about a decade ago there was no traffic light, only a stop sign at the short up-ramps from Route 9. And the traffic moved well all the way to Newton Centre.

And now?

Two middle schools and the high school get out at roughly the same time, with the result of perpetual gridlock all the way to Dedham St. Morning and afternoon rush hour? The same. Even on weekends. The solution? A blinking yellow light on Parker Street at Route 9. Problem solved.

This is not Amsterdam, where bikes rule the city. Here we drive or take the train or subway to work. It’s not going to change.

Bike paths in Newton are a nuisance. They make no sense at all. They’ve replaced needed car lanes and created hazardous situations when parking or just opening your car door to traffic zooming by. For at least six months of the year no one uses them. It’s winter, it’s cold. For the other months it rains half the time. Even in good weather how  often do we see any number of bikes traversing that cumbersome two-lane bike path on Washington Street?

Hammond Pond Parkway was one of the few thoroughfares that moved well, until some bureaucrat decided to ruin it by installing bike lanes and a wider sidewalk. And how many bikes pass by in an hour? You can probably count them on two hands.

My next door neighbor would complain about my then-teenage boys parking in front of his house. I understood that. Your house and yard are your space. So too the sidewalk and curb in front of your house. You wouldn’t put your trash barrel in front of your neighbor’s house, the same should apply to your car, your kid’s car, your guest’s car.

Unless you have a big backyard barbecue, and then you should do the neighborly thing… and invite your neighbor.

Tom Mountain

Tom Mountain is a 41-year resident of Oak Hill.