Skip to Content
Streetsblog Massachusetts home
Streetsblog Massachusetts home
Log In
Street Design

Poll: Metro Boston Voters Strongly Support Reconfigured Streets With Fewer Cars, More Public Space

On-street dining in Hanover Street in the North End, pictured in the mid-afternoon of May 26, 2021.

A new poll of Boston-area voters finds strong support for more diverse uses of the public space on city streets, with a desire for more space for outdoor dining, expanded sidewalks, dedicated bus lanes, and protected bike lanes, and less space dedicated for privately-owned motor vehicles.

Over the past year, cities in towns across Massachusetts reconfigured public streets to provide more outdoor dining areas, bus lanes, protected bike lanes, and other public spaces to facilitate outdoor physical distancing during the pandemic.

Now, as the public health threat recedes, many of those changes remain popular, and look likely to remain.

Pollsters for MassINC asked 670 registered voters from the Boston area whether they would support more of those changes – and making the tradeoff explicit, the questions specifically asked whether respondents would support such changes "even if it means less space for cars."

An overwhelming proportion of respondents said yes: 79 percent said they would support more outdoor dining areas, 75 percent said they would support more protected bike lanes, and 67 percent said they would support more dedicated bus lanes to help make transit trips more reliable.

73 percent of poll respondents said that improved public transit was "very important" to the Boston region.
Courtesy of MassINC
Courtesy of MassINC

Other results from the same poll suggest that voters may support changes to city streets in part because they have little faith in our status-quo transportation system.

42 percent of respondents told pollsters that they expect traffic will soon be just as bad as it was before the pandemic; 32 percent of respondents expect it to be even worse.

The MassINC poll was sponsored by The Barr Foundation, which is also a major financial supporter of StreetsblogMASS.

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog Massachusetts

Roadblocked: Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ Eliminates Most Federal Funding For Allston Highway Realignment

Without a formal project agreement in place, MassDOT will receive only $8 million out of a $335 million "reconnecting communities" grant that the Biden administration had pledged.

July 10, 2025

Another Bus Lane Bites the Dust: Wu Administration Forces Chelsea, Charlestown Transit Riders to Wait In More Traffic

The change comes just weeks before the MBTA rolls out a new bus lane enforcement system, which is expected to improve bus service considerably – at least on the dwindling number of streets where dedicated bus lanes still exist.

July 8, 2025

Balanced For Now – But Beacon Hill Is Putting the T Back On the Edge of Another Fiscal Cliff

The state's final budget gives the T about $80 million less than it had planned to spend in the coming fiscal year to cover its payroll and other transit operating costs.

July 7, 2025

Ambulance Data Reveals That Boston Drivers Are 4 Times More Likely to Run Over Pedestrians From Black Neighborhoods

"Overall, residents of predominantly Black and Latino neighborhoods are about four times more likely than residents of predominantly white neighborhoods to be struck as a pedestrian."

July 1, 2025
See all posts