Originally Posted by
Jim from Boston
Having ridden “Jim’s Road” from Lexington to Woburn, is this segment on your usual route? To go from Waltham to Lexington appears to violate Pythagoras’ Theorem of the Shortest Distance Between Two Points. Besides Waltham St in Lexington, I noted another Waltham St slightly west of Rte 3; it looked peaceful and more direct to Waltham.
Good morning, JFB. And everyone else too.
I see no pic attached to your query about "this segment" so I can't quite answer directly.
There is a rather thoroughfare-ish Waltham St in Lexington which becomes Lexington St in Waltham, carries a lot of traffic, has minimal shoulders, some shopping centers on the flanks, and seemingly a zillion stoplights though it's probably only half a dozen. It's not for the faint-of-heart cyclist, at least the Waltham segment. It's better in Lexington.
The Waltham St in Woburn appears quieter though I always observe quite a few westbound cars turning left, southward, there from Lexington St. I've ne'er been tempted to bike there because it goes straight up, more or less, even compared to the Lexington St climb. For you see, it goes over even more of the big hill named Mt. Zion in DeLorme's TopoNAm, with a slope running about 13%. After half a mile its name changes to the appropriate Ridge St. On the map it seems to dump into parts of Arlington which offer no great improvement on the commute route.
My commute is different morning and evening for traffic and bikeability reasons, and no they are not "shortest distance" routes. In the morning I run through Waverley Sq, across the Start Market parking lot to Rt 60 into Arlington Center where I pick up the MM. I run the MM west to Bow St, cut through that residential area to Lowell (Rt 2A) then west to Woburn St. It's pleasant, quiet. Alternatives, shorter by a mile or less, include getting to Mass Ave via Pleasant St or Winter St past Wilson Farm to Mass Ave, not bad except it requires either a steep climb (more 12-13%) up Concord Rd or the narrow gauntlet through Belmont CC. From Mass Ave or the MM I could take Maple St over Lowell/2A, not bad but the Bow St run is quieter.
The return route would be the same but for two problems. First, Rt 60 north out of Arlington has a worse shoulder. I could avoid it by running the MM further east, say to Lake St, but that's longer. Second, the Maple/Mass Ave intersection is a small rotary where making a left from Maple to Mass Ave can be very tedious at rush hour. Cars sit there in a string for 45 minutes, maybe even three hours
, trying to find a break in both directions simultaneously in the Mass Ave traffic. I've had to wait on my bike for more than a few minutes too. So I avoid it by running Woburn St all the way to Mass Ave and then turning left. It's longer but nicer and easier. The run from Mass Ave to Waverley Sq requires the gauntlet up the small hill past Wilson Farm, but Pleasant St and a tiny residential section provide easy access to Concord, followed by a thrilling (if dangerously fast) downhill.