Soldiers Field Rd traffic volume on Sunday morning

Last Sunday morning while walking our dog at Herter Park and thinking about the Charles River Conservancy proposal to close Soldiers Field Road on summer Sunday mornings, I noticed how few cars were using the road. It was 9:00 in the morning, which would be right in the middle of the 7:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. closure that is proposed.

I stopped for 5 minutes at the intersection of Soldiers Field Rd and Everett St and counted 24 cars using the outbound lanes of Soldiers Field Rd. Five minutes is not a particularly long interval, but it seemed long enough to get an approximate average of the traffic volume. Traffic heading west stops at the traffic light at the Elliot Bridge, and 5 minutes was enough time to observe several lulls caused by the red light cycle and several groups of cars driving together after the light turned green.

I don't know how the summer traffic compares with February, but the approximately 300 cars per hour / 5 cars per minute seemed like it would have a pretty minimal impact on other roads if diverted because of a Soldiers Field Road closure. Some of those cars would use Memorial Drive, some would take the Mass Pike, some would use Mass Ave, etc. Of course more data is needed, but at first glance it seems like alternate routes would take a very small hit if this proposal was given a try.