A heavily-used pedestrian route between Back Bay and downtown Boston will be closed until spring 2024 while workers restore two historic fountains at the Arlington Street entrance to the Public Garden. Starting on Wednesday, September 13, a construction project will close pedestrian access into the Public Garden from the Arlington Street gate, located directly across…

Construction Closes Popular Walking Route Across Public Garden In Downtown Boston

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A person rides their bike along a straight, flat, paved trail lined with trees to the left and a power line at right. The rider is approaching a small traffic circle junction with a street sign at left that reads "Speen St". In the middle of the junction is a stone column with the words "Natick Cochituate Rail Trail"

Trails

Natick’s Rail Trail Now Connects to Its Downtown MBTA Station

Marion Davis is a board member of WalkMassachusetts and lives in Somerville.

Marion Davis

Brendan Kearney is executive director of WalkMassachusetts and a former member of the StreetsblogMASS board of directors. He lives in Framingham.

Brendan Kearney

Op-ed

Guest Column: Enough With the Snow, We Deserve Accessible Sidewalks

Got tips? Send them to me via Signal, the encrypted messaging app, at 207-310-0728. You can also follow me on <a href="https://better.boston/@cmilneil" rel="me">Mastodon.</a>

Christian MilNeil

A sidewalk buried in a messy mixture of snow and slush along a busy city street in a neighborhood commercial area lined with one-story retail buildings.

Walking

Eyes On the Street: Days After the Storm, Boston’s Sidewalks Are An Inaccessible Mess

A photograph of a bridge construction zone in winter. In the foreground a metal crash barrier and chain link fence separate a concrete sidewalk (left) from a multi-lane roadway (right). In the middle distance another fence blocks the sidewalk, with an orange "detour" sign pointing right towards the roadway behind an orange construction barrel. In the distance, a crash barrier in the roadway separates car traffic from a temporary sidewalk across the bridge. On the left edge of the photo a second pedestrian bridge joins with the sidewalk.

Bicycling

Update: MassDOT Improves Allston Construction Detour Following Streetsblog Coverage

A map highlighting detour routes around a closure of the Linear Park in Cambridge. Davis Sq. is on the right edge of the map; Alewife is on the left. A blue line representing the pedestrian detour route follows Dudley St. from Alewife to Mass. Ave., then Kingston St. north of Mass. Ave. Pink lines for bike detour routes follow Dudley St. for eastbound traffic and Harvey St. for westbound traffic.

Park Renovations Prompt Mass. Central Rail Trail Detours In Cambridge

A smiling black woman with long braided hair wearing a black-and-yellow plaid patterned sweater

Meghan Volcy

A bicyclist rides in a bike lane alongside a row of flexible-post bollards that divide the bike lane from a maroon-painted bus lane. A sign on the curb says "RIGHT LANE BUSES ONLY". An awning over the adjacent sidewalk covers an outdoor dining area in front of a restaurant.

Elections and Politics

For Cambridge Bike Safety, the Political is Personal

Header

Streetsblog Network

Streetsblog Massachusetts

A Waymo autonomous taxi blocks a crosswalk in the middle of a large city.

Daily headlines

Friday’s Headlines Take a Free Ride

Jaime Moore-Carrillo is a journalist based in Boston. A Massachusetts native, Jaime has reported on transportation issues for The Boston Globe and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in Texas.

A young man with light-colored skin and short brown hair.

Jaime Moore-Carrillo

A photo of UMass Transit employee Ash Larner driving a city bus don a downtown street. The photo is taken from behind the driver's seat of a city bus, with Larner's face visible in profile the rear-view mirror at upper right.

Regional Transit Authorities

In Amherst, Delivering Public Transit Is An Extracurricular Activity

A rendering of the Alford Street Bridge in Boston with a red-painted dedicated busway in the roadway (far right) next to a two-way bike path (center right) and the existing bridge sidewalk (left). In the distance is visible the high-rise Encore Casino.

MBTA

Wheels Start Turning For the Lower Broadway – Alford Street Transit Priority Corridor Project

A view of the new Columbus Ave. bus lanes and the new bus platforms at Walnut Avenue.

Transit

Wu Administration Delays Columbus Ave. Transit Project; City Hall Planners Told to Cancel Meetings With MBTA

A man walks away from a bus stop where an MBTA bus marked "109 Via Sullivan" is waiting. In the foreground is a crosswalk.

Uncategorized

MBTA’s Phillip Eng Says T Will Exceed Pre-Pandemic Levels of Bus Service This Spring

A view of a multi-track train station from an elevated perspective from a nearby building. A CSX freight train is approaching the platforms from the lower right. Several of the platforms at left are abandoned but there is a newer platform visible in the upper part of the rail yard. In the distance are multi-story masonry buildings of a small city.

MassDOT In Talks With Connecticut for Hourly Springfield-NYC Amtrak Service

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A locator map of downtown Boston and Back Bay with the Public Garden in the center and the Charles River in the upper right. A red X marks the spot where a popular access point into the Garden will be closed until Spring 2024. The X is in the center of the map, where Commonwealth Avenue terminates at the western edge of the Garden.

Temporary fencing lines the sidewalk on the DCR-controlled approach to the Beades Bridge. Google Street View imagery suggests that the temporary fencing has been there for nearly 8 years. Photo by Tony Dutzik.