The longest red light on Cambridge and Somerville streets will keep drivers and riders waiting a full 2 minutes, 30 seconds (spoiler alert, it’s in Somerville’s Union Square, and is a full 36 seconds longer than even the longest red light in Cambridge).
The longest green light on city streets, meanwhile, is a full minute shorter (and also in Union Square).
So, no, you’re not imagining it.
We emailed with transportation departments and spokespeople in each city over the summer to check in on the traffic light situation. The analyses do not include state-owned intersections: “There may be longer greens or reds at any of the signals along McGrath Highway, Mystic Avenue or Alewife Brook Parkway,” said Grace Munns, a spokesperson for Somerville.
The longest city-street red in the area, on Somerville Avenue westbound at Prospect Street, is long enough for the average person to read more than two pages in the average book or watch the July trailer for “Avengers: Doomsday” with two seconds to spare. Since transportation officials probably don’t want you looking at anything except the road, let’s just say that this red light is also long enough to listen to “Walking With a Ghost” by Tegan & Sara or “Call the Doctor” by Sleater-Kinney.
During a survey in 2018, the longest red (which was 2 minutes, 30 seconds, just like this year) was at Mossland Street in Somerville, but Mossland is becoming a neighborway, part of an Elm-Beacon Connector project, and will be a dead-end for motor vehicles at Elm Street but become a two-way connection for people who are biking. Munns told us in July that the Mossland red had eased over time, with an update in 2022 putting it on a total cycle length of 1 minute, 45 seconds; now that short street is off the list entirely.
Somerville has all the longest reds and greens, and Union Square is where they come together.
The city’s longest red lights:
2 minutes, 30 seconds at Somerville Avenue westbound at Prospect Street, Union Square.
2 minutes, 10 seconds at the MBTA busway in Davis Square.
2 minutes, 5 seconds at Webster Avenue northbound at Washington Street, Union Square.
And Somerville’s longest green lights:
1 minute, 30 seconds at Washington Street southbound, right into Union Square at Somerville Avenue and Prospect Street.
1 minute, 20 seconds at Prospect Street northbound and southbound at Webster Street, south of Union Square in Ward 2.
1 minute at Union Square westbound at Somerville Avenue and Prospect Street.
Cambridge
While no one thinks Cambridge is fast or easy to navigate, it doesn’t have a traffic snarl like Union Square. Cambridge’s longest reds and greens are scattered around the city.
Cambridge’s longest red lights:
1 minutes, 54 seconds at the exit to Massachusetts Avenue from The Mix Porter Square.
1 minute, 44 seconds where Huron Avenue meets Garden Street on the Sherman Street approach in Neighborhood 9.
1 minute, 23 seconds at Massachusetts Avenue and Dover and Hollis streets, North Cambridge. (Dover is the right turn off the avenue; Hollis is the left turn.)
Cambridge’s longest green lights:
55 seconds at Garden Street and Appian Way, Harvard Square.
54 seconds at the crosswalk in front of an iconic Massachusetts Institute of Technology building at 77 Massachusetts Ave., Area 2.
52 seconds at Broadway at Inman Street, Mid-Cambridge.
Cambridge has a policy committed to balancing the needs of all modes of transportation, including vehicles, pedestrians, bicycles and transit, said Jeremy Warnick, a city spokesperson.
The Transportation Department “attempts to keep the cycle length – or the time it takes for all streets to go one time each – to a maximum of 90 seconds during peak times, which is why even the longest red light wait times are reasonable,” Warnick said, “particularly in comparison to other municipalities.”
Ninety-second cycle caps aren’t always possible, the Cambridge policy says, but when long cycle lengths are needed, special consideration is given to pedestrian and bicycle delay. The average delay experienced by pedestrians waiting for a “walk” indicator shall be no more than 40 seconds, the policy says.
