All right, I've now visited most of Cambridge and Somerville's shared streets. I have thoughts!

tl; dr Harvard Street is the best shared street

The 1st thing I did was a couple of weeks ago (on a Sunday) I went over to E. Somerville and rode around. Somerville mostly does narrow 1 way streets. This has pluses (less traffic overall) and minuses (very narrow).

The signs in Somerville say Shared Streets, with a 6' distance indicator. To me, that seems like a communication about pedestrian responsibility and nothing really about driver responsibility.

I do like that they specifically indicate that the roads are closed to thru traffic (not sure about compliance though)

I believe that cyclists are allowed to go the wrong way down the one way streets on shared streets, but these streets are narrow, and where there's a blind curve or over a hill like this one at Glen St and Pearl this feels dangerous to me. I walked my bike on the sidewalk here.

Then on a Thursday afternoon, I went to the West Somerville shared streets. I like the bollards!

Oh

Also, I know infrastructure isn't part of the shared streets at this time, but marked crosswalks would be helpful to connect the segments

Somerville conclusion: Do I like biking in the same direction as motorized traffic on the shared streets! Yes, although most of the shared streets require a little more of a detour than I think most cyclists would like.

Would I bike in the opposite direction as motorized traffic? No, probably not. Would I walk in the street on my own? Probably at least some of the time. Would I walk with my child in the street? No, I would not.

Now on to Cambridge.

The signage is a little different. There are 10 mph signs, but I think they may be just advisory signs. Since the streets are wider (and 2 way), this encourage faster traffic than on Somerville's shared streets, but I feel safer as a cyclist going both ways.

The signs say "Local Access Only" which is a little more wishy washy than Somerville's "No Thru Traffic". But I like the shared streets signs. The images might be a little small to read, but they do indicate that drivers should yield to pedestrians and cyclists.

My 1st experience on Garden was going for a run early last week. It was...ok, I guess, but not very comfortable. It was nice to be able to give other pedestrians enough space, but I didn't feel at all comfortable at the corner with Huron going west.

One time it kind of seemed like an SUV driver was driving right at me, and passed way closer than they should have, and there was a driver right behind the SUV that didn't see me well. There are some drivers definitely going too fast and not observing the 10 mph advisory signs.

On Friday, spouse, 8 yo and I rode on Garden Street to Fresh Pond. It might have been that it was a holiday weekend, but that felt okay. We rode taking the lane, and drivers only passed us cautiously.

But I would not feel comfortable walking on the street on Garden with a child, or riding with a new rider.

Yesterday, we rode along Mem Dr to get to Magazine St. There were a few people walking in the street, and overall, it was not bad for riding. Narrower than Garden St which seemed to be slowing traffic, and we had a driver patiently follow us the full length of the street.

When we reached the end of Magazine, we were going to Harvard St, but there's no safe bike connection thru Central; we walked our bikes the several blocks, unable to keep 6 ft from the other peds. A connected network of protected bike lanes/shared streets can't come soon enough.

Then we rode on Harvard St. Despite its width, little traffic compared to Garden/Magazine, and since it's pretty straight, peds can see whether or not there are cars coming, so it feels safer to walk on. It was a joy to ride, and I would walk on it with a kid, and people were.

I like that we're doing this, but these streets could be safer. Additional traffic calming, particularly on Garden Street in Cambridge, could go a long way towards this, and it would be great if additional features could discourage through traffic.

Removing some parking on the one way streets in Somerville would make it easier for pedestrians or opposite direction cyclists.

Cambridge has fewer miles of shared streets, but they feel like more useful streets; Somerville's feel a bit out of the way.

Fin