(The following is the preliminary report and recommendations on traffic flow, parking and bus-loadíng along Washington Street, Norwood between Guild Street and Railroad Avenue, as prepared by John T. Blackwell, traffic expert who formerly was a Boston Elevated Traffic Commissioner. He studies city planning at Harvard and M.I.T.; where he received his master’s degree following his return from the service. He is now connected with Homer Hoyt, an authority on land valuation, who, with Mrs. Blackwell, has made similar surveys in such communities as Brockton and Waltham. Mr. Blackwell has also made private surveys in Lexington and Manchester. New Hampshire. The Norwood report will be published in four Installments, of which, the following is Part I.)
The stores of Norwoods Class A shopping district strung along both sides of- Washington Street from Guild Street, northerly toward Railroad Avenue.
The volume of business(clone in these stores, the street pattern ‘and pavement widths in this central part of Norwood, and the ever-rising volume of motor traffic throughout Massachusetts are fundamental factors in the severe traffic congestion and serious parking difficulties of this area, in my opinion. This portion of Washington Street has long been traffic-loaded to the saturation point. Any interruption to flow in either direction freezes the whole stream momentarily. Flow interruptions arising from bus-loading and unloading may have been more conspicuous to motorists and more easily identified than other sorts of traffic hindrances, and therefore more generally cursed.
The time engaged for this quick survey has permitted me only to explore the main outlines of these aspects of the problem. In order to assure the future of Norwood as a shopping center in the metropolitan Boston region, I must recommend that the Class A area be more fully studied this year. Need for further study is evident from the findings and minor recommendations set forth herewith.
Norwood As A Shopping Center 1939 versus 1929
Norwood has been generally recognized as a shopping sub-center in metropolitan Boston. In volume of retail sales, Norwood ranks somewhere after Quincy, Brockton, and Wellesley which are, geographically, the major poles of competitive shopping attractions nearby.
Analysis of retail sales in 1929 and 1939 as reported by the State Planning Board for cities and towns of Massachusetts suggests only slight relationship between the distance of sub-centers from the principal center in downtown Boston and their relative sales performance during the Depression. Retail sales per capita averaged I6.9% lower throughout the Commonwealth in 1939 than in 1929, reflecting in part the depression-reduced purchasing power of all citizens, of whom some 40% were and are dependent on factory payrolls.
Retail sales per capita dropped 26.5% in Boston, somewhat lower than the State as a whole, but only 7.8% in Brockton and 4.3% in Norwood, comparing 1939 with 1929. However, this index figure rose 1.8% in Quincy, 46.4% in Wellesley, 6.6% in Framingham, 9.9% in Medford and 9.3% in Waltham. This suggests to me that In 1939 there was somewhat less trade going to Norwood as a Shopping center than in 1929, while other of Boston’s suburban localities experienced an increase in shopping pressure.
Much the same pattern appears from the 1929 and 1939 figures for the towns right in Norwood’s own shopping territory. Comparison of retail sales per capita, town by town, makes it possible to estimate roughly the extent to which stores in Norwood drew trade from other towns adjoining. On this basis, a tentative boundary was drawn to show Norwood’s probable shopping territory in 1939. Recent physical improvement of the stores in Walpole and Dedham bears out the 1939 statistical indication that they are successfully competing with Norwood for local retail sales, although Norwood is still getting substantially more of the total business in the “home territory.”
Could the relative decline in Norwood’s local and regional retail sales per capita be due in part to the increasing difficulty of parking in the Class A shopping area, and to the thickening traffic congestion along that portion of Washington Street.
Traffic-Flow, Parking and Bus-Loading in Norwood
The total length of street curbs in the shopping neighborhood is almost exactly the same in 1947 as it was in 1927, while the number of passenger cars insured for the full year in Norwood and environs has increased 60%, which may mean nearly doubling the parking load per foot of curb In the Class A area. And the number of bus lines in operation has risen from one to eight, with a corresponding increase in number of traffic interruptions for bus-loading.
Earned Passenger Car Years; Norwood and Environs
How many parking spaces does the Class A shopping area need now? How many will it need in 1950? In 1960? No one knows, precisely, but some intelligent guesses can be made, using yardsticks developed from experience in many suburban shopping centers throughout USA.
The stores in the Class A problem area are arranged in a double row, fronting primarily on Washington Street from Guild Street northerly to Nahatan Street, Taking the not curb lengths between streets instead of the actual store buildings, we find the Class A area has 740 feet of storefronts along the west side of Washington Street and 1360 feet along the eastside, including those portions of Cottage and Central Streets that face the Common; a total of 2100 front feet.
Because of the strip pattern of the stores, we may estimate the number of patrons by the fairly conservative measure of 10 front feet of store per 100 persons to be served.
This indicates that Norwood’s Class A area may be servicing some 21,000 persons from its “home shopping territory.” If there-is-an average of 3.75 persons per family (a commonly accepted figure for the U. S. today), then these stores may be the shopping center for 5,500 families.
Automobile ownership per family in the United States has been rising steadily, despite the depression and the war. And the number of families is increasing, too. At present, approximately three-quarters of car-owning families live in urban areas; the present ratio of car ownership is 736 cars per 1000 families, but it is being predicted that in 1950 there will be 810 cars per 1000 families. At 736 cars per 1000 families, the Class A area in Norwood may need, curb spaces for 736 x 5.5 automobiles, that is, a total of 4,048 from the area, but not all at one time.
(All articles originally published in the Norwood Messenger)