After the Patriots lost their second game this year, there were nay-sayers who thought that a quarterback change was necessary. They wanted Drake Maye to be benched. These critics are now possibly embarrassed about this previous stance, as they see his accomplishments, both passing and running, in the past several games: they regret their previous rhetoric.

I, too, have experienced a drastic change of mind. When the city installed something like 13 speed-bumps all within a quarter-mile on Allandale Street heading toward Brookline, I was aghast at such a radical move to curtail speeding above the posted 25 miles per hour limit. Not only was I up in arms, but so were local movers-and-shakers whose hue-and-cry inspired the contractor who installed them to remove them on the next Saturday. I’m not sure who paid for the removal performed – probably with a weekend differential: Freddie DeRoma, the contractor, or we, the taxpayers, but they were ALL removed.

As one who enjoys walking along this bucolic road under a remarkable tree canopy from Faulkner Hospital to the Allandale Farm, I witness ALL the speeding that occurs on this thoroughfare. Posted signage about speeding, the presence of Boston Police vehicles accessing the canine unit, the curves in the road – none of these dampens the attitude of countless speed demons who traverse the road from its start in Brookline at Grove Street to its terminus in Jamaica Plain at Centre Street.

My current thinking says that, if the city is still not prone to install across-the-street rumble strips (as opposed to the more intrusive speed bumps) such as those along interstates to prevent motorists from swerving into the breakdown lane, maybe a couple of speed bumps between the Faulkner and the Brookline border are in order. The ambulance argument just does not work: ambulances near the Brookline end of Allandale are heading towards the Brigham on Francis Street and, therefore, do not use Allandale to access the Faulkner.

Advertisement

The placement of two or three speed bumps, at least on the Boston section of Allandale if not on the equally long Brookline section, would vastly diminish all the terrible speeding that occurs hourly. It might not be bad to repaint the very faded, if not totally missing, double yellow line down the middle of this curvy roadway.

If in doubt, just wait until a horrific accident happens.