Somerville hopes Neighborways will stop Boston drivers using side streets as traffic shortcuts: "A game of chicken"

Somerville, Massachusetts is trying to discourage drivers who use GPS maps to cut through neighborhood side streets to get around Boston traffic.

The city has installed so-called Neighborways to slow traffic, improve safety and reduce stress on neighborhood roads that weren't meant to become thruways.

"I think a Neighborway to me is just a side street that's an unofficial pedestrian bikeway," Somerville City Councilor Matthew McLaughlin told WBZ-TV.

One of them just opened on Tufts Street. A key feature is bump outs in the curbs and pavement.

McLaughlin said drivers in other spots ignore their attempts to halt cut-through driving.

"This is kind of the best way of dealing with it, is to change the actual structure of the road. So yeah, you can still drive through here if you want, but you're going to drive slow and you might want to pick a better road to ride on," he said.

Bill Trudell pedaled through here from Arlington just to test it out.

"Cars just take these side roads and giant trucks and they zip down them and it's an accident waiting to happen," Trudell told WBZ.

Now it's a challenge. Drivers have to stop at the pinch points to let one car through at a time.

"It's two raised curbs, so you're playing a game of chicken with the person in front of you," said resident John Chandler. He drives and bikes the street but said there's a learning curve and it's working.

"I don't hear nearly as much car noise, so I think that it is kind of deterring people from using it," Chandler said.

Now bikers have a new way to commute where they are the right of way.

"If this road wasn't built like this, the cars riding by us would be driving 10 miles an hour faster," McLaughlin said.