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Map of Route 9 and the Norwottuck Rail Trail in Hadley. Route 9 runs diagonally from lower left (SW) to upper right (NE) while the green line representing the trail runs in a less-steep diagonal path that crosses Route 9 in the center. A red X at the intersection marks the location labelled "Rt. 9 Tunnel Closure".

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Trails

Changing Course, MassDOT Will Provide Safe Detour For Norwottuck Trail Blockage in Hadley

A homemade sign printed on 8.5"x11" paper is haphazardly taped to the entrance to a pedestrian tunnel. The sign uses different fonts for each line of text. The top line reads (in blue, italicized text): "Join other trail users:" the next line, in black, larger text: "Plan an alternate route", the next line, smaller black text: "to use during the" (in red, larger italicized text) "upcoming" (final line, red bolder text) "tunnel closure". On the left side of the paper, someone has hand-written the word "When?" with a black marker. Fine print at the bottom of the sign says "FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT PARK SUPERVISOR AT (413) 387-4339."

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Accessibility

In Hadley, MassDOT, DCR Shut Down Norwottuck Trail With No Viable Detours

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.

Regional Transit Authorities

MeVa Launches Free Beach Bus This Weekend, From Lawrence to Salisbury Beach

<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>


Christian MilNeil

A photo of a street in Chinatown. In the distance on the left, several construction workers shovel asphalt to patch a hole in the street, which is roped off around the construction site. On the right, a Boston Police officer in a green high-viz vest talks on his phone while watching the work.

Policing

The Cops’ Directing-Traffic Racket Is Delaying Safety Projects

Grecia White

Changes Coming to Jamaica Plain’s Arborway Parkway

Five college students in winter clothes stand around an older man wearing a Franciscan monk's habit, and a poster-sized display board with the title "Listen to Me! Stories of the unnoticed" on a grassy lawn in Boston Common. Downtown high-rises are visible on the horizon under grey skies.

Emerson Students Amplify Under-Represented Voices from Boston’s Streets

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.

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.

Boston Planning New Bikeways, Widened Sidewalks for Fort Point

a white car is parked in between two trees planted in the street.

What Planting Trees In the Street Could Look Like in Boston: Learning From Other Cities

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

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