There are a lot of problems with intersection that are easy to see. Whoever designed the intersection for traffic mitigation for Assembly/IKEA did it on the cheap and shame on Somerville for rubber stamping it.

1. At night, because of the grades and slops of the roads, headlights blind drivers in the opposite direction (Mt Vernon/Lombardi Way). This slows down cars going through the intersection when Sullivan is not backed up.

2. The bus stop right after the lights often blocks traffic, especially with the frequency of busses stopping there during the rush hour time periods. That stop should be moved, further down the street to avoid backing up the intersection.

3. ***This suggestion does not mean there should be dedicated walk cycles across Broadway because the volume of foot traffic does not necessitate it. That change a few month ago was the one good thing to come to the intersection in years. It would be preferable to keep it as is then to go to the dark old days of 20 second walk cycles for no one every minute*** But, to the point, the walk signals across MT Vernon are so far back from the crossing (20ft) that pedestrians do not pay attention to them and often are crossing the street when Mt Vernon has a green. At rush hour there is heavy foot traffic and this 5 to 10 second delay each cycle delay adds up quickly. Also, the walk signal is always "do not walk" unless it is manually pushed. The signal is a waste as pedestrians cannot see it and even if they could, it provide no information when it is time to walk or not. No one is pushing the button to walk across a one way street 20 feet wide.

I feel the walk signal is the biggest impact and easiest to fix, although it would require some construction. Move the signals closer to the intersection and have it signaled to "Walk" when Mt Vernon is red, start counting down before Mt Vernon is about to go green and "Do Not Walk" only when Mt Vernon is green. Right now the walk signals are merely a wasteful check of the box for design requirements and provide little to no value or input to pedestrians.

4. Put police details and "Do not block the box" signs at the intersections.

5. As far as cut through commuters. The only way to really address this is to add more stop signs and raised crosswalks/intersections to increase the time it takes to cut through. Because Sullivan is such a mess, it probably will not stop all commuters, but it will at least make it safer by reducing speeds.

Regarding Matt's suggestions:

#2 - the bus stop should just be removed all together; there's no point moving it further down the street when the Sullivan station is the next stop and it's ~two blocks down. I walk pass busses two or three times a week in the morning stuck in traffic and make it to Sullivan before they do.

#3 - I don't have any trouble seeing the do not walk/walk signal and I walk this intersection every day. The pedestrians are a huge part of the problem since a large volume do not bother to pause and check for traffic coming down Mt Vernon. I think a larger issue is that due to the building at the corner of Mt Vernon the pedestrians can't see if there is a car coming down Mt.. Vernon until they are practically walking into the street, and like I said hardly anyone bothers to pause, rather they just barrel through and expect cars with GREEN lights to just stop for them. The pedestrians walking down East Broadway are cavalier about the side street traffic on many of the roads, for instance they also do this at the intersection of Arlington/East Broadway. They'll just walk right out into the street when their light is RED and the through traffic is GREEN. It's to the point where I'd welcome Somerville implementing jay walking laws/enforcement to the extent they have done in LA. NO one in LA will cross without a signal for fear of a ticket.

#4 This is a great suggestion and should be implemented immediately

#5 - About two years ago I asked Somerville to add traffic calming measures specifically on Mt Vernon to the tune of a stop sign OR a raised platform/cross walk and at the time the Director of Traffic and Parking and the City Traffic Engineer conducted a site review of the area of Lincoln Ave and Mt. Vernon St for 10 – 15 minutes. It was determined they couldn't add cross walks at that intersection because there were not ADA ramps on both sides of the street. I noticed this year when they repaved the roads and sidewalks they didn't bother to correct for ADA ramps on both sides of that intersection. A revised/holistic review by the Somerville Traffic Department for the entire Mt Vernon and neighboring streets in the East Somerville neighborhoods that reside between Broadway and Washington for more effective traffic calming measures should be prioritized. I also don't understand why the "do not enter" signs cannot be enforced. This is not necessarily a "good" suggestion but perhaps the police detail should try a few random enforcement stops. One day a week spread out over a couple of months stopping all the cars and ensuring drivers on those streets during the stated times live in the neighborhood or else receive a ticket may incentivize those ignoring the law to start rethinking their commute.