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Streetsblog Network

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

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Streetsblog Massachusetts

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A view down a straight pathway with a yellow line painted down its center. The path is lined with black fencing and railroad infrastructure is visible to the right. In the distance is a bridge over the tracks and an MBTA station sign, and a skyline of buildings and trees

CommunityPathOpening

Trails

Somerville’s Community Path Extension Is Open

A map of Massachusetts highlighting long-distance trails that MassDOT hopes to connect across the state. Those routes are highlighted as yellow lines and include north-south routes in the Berkshires from Pittsfield to North Adams, in the Connecticut River Valley from Westfield to Northampton and from Northampton to Springfield, two east-west routes from Palmer to Boston, a route along Cape Cod, and a network of routes to connect gateway cities in eastern Mass. to Boston.

MassDOTPriorityTrailsJune2023

MassDOT Releases ‘Priority Trails Network’ Map

<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>


PROMO-milneil

Christian MilNeil

A paved path running through sand dunes. Two people in bikes are in the middle distance.

ProvinceLandsBikePathProvincetownMA

Street Design

Provincetown Plans to Carve Up Its Freeway For a New Car-Free Path

A graded gravel path under construction runs underneath a highway bridge next to a concrete bridge abutment. To the right of the abutment and below the trail are some railroad tracks.

Northern Strand RevereBeach Parkway credit Bike to the Sea

Bicycling

The Northern Strand Trail Is Growing In Lynn and Everett

A map of the MetroWest region of Massachusetts, extending from I-495 in the west to Waltham in the east, Framingham in the south, and Concord in the north. The Mass. Central Rail Trail corridor, highlighted in green solid lines where the trail is complete and in dotted lines to indicate incomplete trail sections, crosses the center map west to east, and the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail crosses the center of the map north to south.

MCRT_2023ProjectOverviewMap

3 Major MetroWest Trail Projects Are Under Construction In 2023

A crowd of people wearing bright construction vests and helmets crosses a bridge next to a chain-link fence (left) and railroad tracks (right)

BridgeOverWashingtonStreet

Somerville Approves Community Path Lease Agreement; Opening Delayed ‘Til April

Grecia White

a clear trail lined by snow next to trees and a restaurant.

Twin Cities Rail Trail, January 2023

Leominster and Fitchburg’s New Rail-Trail Gets Creative With Winter Maintenance

An aerial view of Fall River's Route 79 expressway, looking south towards downtown Fall River (top left) and Mt. Hope Bay (top right). The view is dominated by the massive Route 79, which occupies 8 to 14 lanes alongside wide expanses of empty grass along Fall River's waterfront. Along the left edge of the photo is visible the densely-populated residential neighborhoods of Fall River's North End.

FallRiverRoute79_creditMassDOT

Highways

MassDOT Is Demolishing a Highway to Give Fall River Its Waterfront Back

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

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