Recent Streetsblog MASS posts about Traffic Calming

Pedestrians take advantage of expanded walking areas on Beacon Street in Brookline in mid-April. Brookline officials have repurposed on-street parking areas to provide additional space for safe physical distancing in commercial districts and on key routes to area hospitals; City of Boston officials may soon follow suit. Photo courtesy of the Brookline Transportation Department.

Baker Admin. Launches $5M ‘Shared Streets and Spaces Emergency Grant Program’

By Christian MilNeil | Jun 11, 2020 | No Comments

The Commonwealth is launching a new $5 million grant program to create safer walking and biking routes with more room for physical distancing as “stay at home” orders ease this spring and summer. The new program was announced on Thursday afternoon during a press conference with Governor Baker and Lt. Governor Karyn Polito at the […]

Proposed signage for Cambridge's "shared streets" network, part of the city's strategy to provide safe physical distancing routes for car-free residents to get around the city. Courtesy of the City of Cambridge.

Cambridge (Finally) Announces Citywide Shared Streets Network

By Christian MilNeil | May 28, 2020 | No Comments

The conceptual network would extend "all the way from Fresh Pond and Danehy Park, through Harvard Square and down towards Kendall Square... with another piece running down from Central Square to the river along Magazine Street."

Memorial Drive in Cambridge. Photo by John Phelan, licensed under Creative Commons CC BY 3.0.

Cambridge Lags In Delivering Safer Streets for Physical Distancing

By Christian MilNeil | May 27, 2020 | No Comments

It’s been over a month since the Cambridge City Council endorsed a policy order to restrict car traffic on Memorial Drive and other neighborhood streets in order to give residents more space to physically distance on city streets, and the city’s administration has still not taken any action, even as peers in surrounding cities have […]

Construction barrels block cars and a sign encourages park users to stay 6 feet apart on Parkman Drive next to Jamaica Pond on April 11, 2020. Photo courtesy of Sarah Freeman.

Plans for Boston’s ‘Healthy Streets’ Initiative Expected Later This Week

By Christian MilNeil | May 26, 2020 | No Comments

On Tuesday, the City of Boston briefly published a new website with tentative plans for its “healthy streets” initiative, which would make tactical changes to city streets to provide more room for safe physical distancing among pedestrians, bicyclists, and transit riders. City officials had discussed the overall strategy at a City Council hearing earlier this […]

A rendering of the new three-lane "road diet" layout on Main Street in Reading. The new layout will be tested in a "pilot" project over the summer and fall of 2020, and evaluated according to its benefits in reducing rates of crashes and illegal speeding. Courtesy of MassDOT.

MassDOT Tries Out Traffic Calming on Reading’s Main Street

By Christian MilNeil | May 11, 2020 | No Comments

MassDOT is test-driving a narrower road layout – and new online public engagement tools – in a suburb north of Boston.

A map illustrates one of 11 design options under analysis for the "Connect Downtown" project to improve bike and pedestrian connections into and across downtown Boston. Option 1-A would create a separated bike facilities running counter-clockwise around the Public Garden, and a new southbound protected bike lane on Tremont Street downtown. Map courtesy of the City of Boston; photo by Elena Huisman.

City Wants You To Weigh In: What’s the Best Way To ‘Connect Downtown’?

By Elena Huisman | Mar 6, 2020 | No Comments

On Thursday evening, the City of Boston’s Transportation Department revealed conceptual designs for pedestrian improvements and high-quality bikeways across the Common and downtown Boston at an open house for its “Connect Downtown” project. “Connect Downtown” aims to extend the Southwest Corridor that runs from Forest Hills to Back Bay and connects Jamaica Plain and Roxbury […]

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