Eyes On the Street: Safer Side Streets In Jamaica Plain

New speed humps, a 20 mph speed limit, and bike lanes – which make the driving lanes more narrow – seem to be having a significant effect in encouraging safer speeds.

By Christian MilNeil

12:47 PM EST on November 7, 2023

A bike lane, marked by two parallel white lines, with a row of flexible-post bollards in between the two white lines. In the foreground is a speed hump marked with white triangles. A row of cars is parked on the left side of the street. The Lamartine Street traffic signal is visible in the distance. — The new Green Street bike lane, just north of the Green Street Orange Line station.

The Boston Transportation Department has installed new bikeways and over a dozen new speed humps on three one-way side streets in Jamaica Plain.

As bike routes, the three streets provide better connections between Centre Street, Jamaica Plain's primary commercial district, and the greenways that encompass the neighborhood on either side.

But the more significant change to these streets might be the addition of new speed humps, consistent with Mayor Wu's new "safety surge" for neighborhood streets.

A map of Jamaica Plain. Jamaica Pond is in the upper left and the Southwest Corridor runs from the bottom edge to the upper right as a solid green line with the Stony Brook and Green Street subway stations marked along its route. Centre Street runs vertically up the center of the map. Three dotted lines connected to Centre Street indicate the locations of new bike infrastructure. Eliot Street runs from Centre to the southern edge of Jamaica Pond in the map's left center, and Green and Seaverns are parallel lines that connect Centre to the Green subway stop in the center of the map. — Map of Jamaica Plain highlighting new bike lane projects (dotted lines) and their connections to existing off-street pathways in the Southwest Corridor and Emerald Necklace (solid green lines).

These three streets all feature long straight sections where drivers often used to accelerate to dangerous and illegal speeds.

But with the speed humps and new bike lanes – which make the driving lanes more narrow – people driving motor vehicles seem to be much more likely to stay under the new 20 mph speed limit.

When your StreetsblogMASS editor took these photos on his bike, he found that he was traveling at roughly the same speed as the people in cars.

Eliot Street

Eliot Street was previously a one-way street that runs from the southern edge of Jamaica Pond to the Sailors Monument at the corner of South and Centre Streets.

It's still a one-way street for motorized vehicles, but BTD has installed a contraflow bike lane to legalize northbound bike traffic as well:

A green-painted bike lane separated from the rest of the street by a row of yellow flexible-post bollards. On either side of the street are two "Do Not Enter – Except Bicycles" signs. Beyond the yellow bollards is a pair of yellow-striped lines that divide the bike lane from motor vehicle traffic coming from the opposite direction. On the right is a one-story commercial building with a mural. Trees with yellowing leaves line the street in the distance. — Eliot Street in Jamaica Plain, looking north from Centre Street.

The Google Street View car has already been down Eliot Street since the new bike lane went in, so you can take a virtual tour of the entire street.

Seaverns Avenue and Green Street

A few blocks to the northeast, the city installed a pair of one-way bikeways on Seaverns Avenue (running east from Centre Street to the Southwest Corridor) and on Green Street (running west, from the Southwest Corridor to Centre).

Note the new 20 mph speed limit sign. Similar signs have been put up at the entrance to Eliot Street near Jamaica Pond and at the entrance to Green Street near the subway station: