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Streetsblog Network

Connecting people to information about how to improve walking, biking, and transit

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<p>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></p>


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Christian MilNeil

A historic black-and-white photograph of Charlesgate Park before the Bowker Overpass and Storrow Drive existed. The photo is taken from an elevated vantage point looking down at the Muddy River and the bridges that carry Commonwealth Avenue, Beacon Street, and Back Street over it. In the foreground two Model T-type cars drive along a mostly empty Commonwealth Avenue while a man crosses the street on foot in front of them. In the background is the Charles River and the Harvard Bridge, and the Great Dome of MIT is visible on the other side of the river in a mostly industrial riverfront district in Cambridge.

Charlesgate c. 1930 credit Leslie Jones, Boston Public Library

MassDOT

MassDOT Plans to Tweak Its Highway ‘Blunder’ in Back Bay

A rendering of a proposed Columbus Avenue busway, looking down at the street from above, with the Northeast Corridor railroad tracks at left, the Southwest Corridor bike and walking paths, and center-running bus lanes on Columbus Avenue, with bus shelters located between the bus lanes and the general-purpose motor vehicle lanes.

ColumbusAveAtCederRendering_creditBTD-MBTA

Bus lanes

Our First Look at Boston’s Plans to Extend Columbus Ave. Bus Lanes

MBTA-FMCB-December-2017

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We Want Your Feedback: Take Our Year-End Reader Survey

A diagram showing recommended installation heights and four varieties of signage from MassDOT's bike route signage design guide. Gray outlines of a person walking and a person riding a bike are shown for scale against a light grid of horizontal lines that indicate height in 1-foot increments. The four example signs all have 7 feet of clearance underneath them. The leftmost sample sign, which is indicated as 18 inches tall by 24 inches wide, shows icons of a bike rider and pedestrian in white on a blue background above the words "Linear Route Name." To the right, the next sample sign shows two signs mounted on a single pole: the top sign is a smaller 8-inch-tall blue-background "Linear Route Name" indicator sign; below it, a green sign split vertically into three sections has three white arrows pointing in various directions next to three copies of the word "Destination." To that sign's right, a third sample sign shows the same 18-inch-by-24-inch blue "Linear Route Name" sign over a smaller sign with a single, bold white arrow on a green background. The fourth and rightmost sign, specifed as 6 to 8 inches tall, says "Street Name" in white on a green background.

MassDOTBikeWayfindingDesignGuide

Accessibility

New Wayfinding Guide Aims to Help Riders Find Their Way Across the Commonwealth

An animated GIF showing Congress Street in Fort Point as it is today – a wide two-lane street with on-street parking on both sides – alongside a rendering of how the street will look after a reconstruction project is finished, with protected bike lanes and widened sidewalks.

Congress Street rendering_creditBTDpng

Boston Planning New Bikeways, Widened Sidewalks for Fort Point

A chain-link fence blocks the entrance to the JFK/UMass Red Line station.

ClosedJFKStationEntrance

Citing Structural Hazards, T Shuts Down Critical Access Point to JFK/UMass Station

Riders check out a newly-rebranded Merrimack Valley Transit bus, with colorful red, blue, and orange stripes wrapped around this bus, next to a fall-themed park with haybales, mums, and pumpkins in Lawrence, Massachusetts. In the background are several triple-decker apartment buildings. Courtesy of Merrimack Valley Transit.

MeVaBus2022

Equity

RTAs Are Giving Their Riders A Holiday Bonus

A Green Line train bearing the destination sign for "Union Square" arrives at Lechmere station in Cambridge.

A Green Line train bears the destination “Union Square” at Lechmere station in Cambridge.

MBTA

MBTA Board Updates: Green Line to Medford Will Open Dec. 12

A row of docked blue, white, and black ValleyBike shared bikes parked along a paved street under the shade of some leafy trees.

ValleyBike station at UMass  credit UMass Media Relations

Bikesharing

Citing Worker Shortages, ValleyBike Will Shut Down for the Winter

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