Recent Streetsblog MASS posts about Boston

Orange Line bus shuttles wait on Rutherford Avenue to make the turn into the Community College station on the morning on Monday, October 21, after a construction accident during weekend track work delayed the reopening of the Orange Line into midday Monday. Photo courtesy of Ari Ofsevit.

Advocates Demand Better Emergency Response Plans For Subway Failures

By Christian MilNeil | Oct 24, 2019 | No Comments

This Monday, for the second time this year, commuters woke up to the unexpected rush-hour closure of a subway line after delays to weekend track work kept the Orange Line’s downtown tunnel closed well into Monday afternoon. The T diverted riders onto shuttle buses running between Sullivan Square and Haymarket, and asked riders to crowd […]

Boston public school students in the city's Youth Cycling Program visit the East Boston Harborwalk in June 2017. Courtesy of the City of Boston.

Boston Suspends Popular Youth Cycling Program

By Christian MilNeil | Oct 17, 2019 | No Comments

The City of Boston has temporarily suspended its popular Youth Cycling Programs this fall because of staff turnover at the Boston Transportation Department, according to city officials. The city’s Youth Cycling Program brought bikes, helmets and cycling safety educators to Boston public school classrooms for multi-day bike safety classes, including group rides around city neighborhoods […]

A rendering of a proposed Mystic River bike and pedestrian bridge, which could connect the Northern Strand multi-use path in the City of Everett to the Assembly Orange Line Station in Somerville. Rendering by AECOM, courtesy of the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation.

For Priority Trails-To-Transit Projects, MBTA Can’t Get Out of Its Own Way

By Christian MilNeil | Oct 4, 2019 | No Comments

Today’s Boston Globe reports on the ongoing efforts to build a new bike and pedestrian bridge over the Mystic River to connect Everett to the Assembly Orange Line stop, and how administrative bottlenecks at the MBTA are hampering the project in spite of broad financial and political support. Everett Mayor Carlo DeMaria is extremely eager […]

The current eastbound bike lane on Cambridge Street in Allston is pictured in September 2019. The City of Boston and MassDOT are planning to add flexposts to separate the street's bike lanes from vehicular traffic.

Boston Plans Separation, Traffic Calming For White-Knuckle Allston Bike Lanes

By Christian MilNeil | Sep 30, 2019 | No Comments

The Boston Transportation Department is planning “near-term” changes to Cambridge Street in Allston between Harvard Avenue and the Charles River, where paint-only bike lanes currently guide cyclists through a series of intimidating merges with speeding vehicles headed to and from the Massachusetts Turnpike. In an open house last Tuesday, staff from the Boston Transportation Department […]

City of Boston Preliminary Elections Are Today

By Christian MilNeil | Sep 24, 2019 | No Comments

Today's top 8 vote-winners among a field of 15 at-large candidates – and the top two vote winners in each district race – will move ahead to compete in the general election on Nov. 5.

The pop-up plaza at Phillips Square in Chinatown is nearly complete as of Wednesday, August 29, 2019.

Eyes On the Street: Chinatown’s New Phillips Square Plaza

By Christian MilNeil | Aug 29, 2019 | No Comments

A little-used turning lane on Harrison Street in Chinatown is on the verge of being reclaimed as public space as the city puts the finishing touches on a new plaza in Phillips Square. The City of Boston has been planning public space improvements for Phillips Square – located on Harrison Street between Essex and Beach […]

An architects' rendering illustrates planned safety improvements for the intersection of Melnea Cass Boulevard and Tremont Street in Roxbury. The reconstruction of Melnea Cass has been postponed until 2020.

Reconstruction of High-Crash Melnea Cass Boulevard Delayed to 2020

By Christian MilNeil | Aug 19, 2019 | 1 Comment

Construction of a long-planned safety project for the Melnea Cass Boulevard in Roxbury has been delayed until 2020, according to MassDOT, and won’t be complete until 2024. Melnea Cass Boulevard, which extends from Columbus Avenue to Massachusetts Avenue in Roxbury, ranks among the city’s most dangerous road segments. Its junction with Massachusetts Avenue near Boston […]

New flexpost-protected bike lanes have been installed on the Craigie Bridge in front of the Boston Museum of Science, seen in this August 8 photograph looking south towards Boston.

Eyes on the Street: New Bikeways on Charles River Dam

By Christian MilNeil | Aug 9, 2019 | No Comments

One of the first stories that StreetsblogMASS covered was a May public meeting on MassDOT’s plans for a road diet and new flexpost-protected bike lanes on Craigie Bridge (also known as Charles River Dam Road) in front of the Boston Museum of Science. Eyes on the street: the new flexpost-protected bike lanes have been installed […]

A double-parked Lyft driver waits outside of the South Station bus terminal on Thursday, August 8, 2019.

Uber/Lyft Have Big Impacts to Boston's Traffic

By Christian MilNeil and Aaron Short | Aug 8, 2019 | 3 Comments

Uber and Lyft have finally come clean: Their drivers are causing a significant share of the congestion in America’s most transit-dense cities, particularly in Boston. A new study jointly commissioned by the two app-based cab companies found that they have a massive footprint in San Francisco, Washington and Boston, but the companies are affecting traffic to a lesser degree […]

A map of recently installed stations (in blue), pending (yellow) and planned (in green) Bluebikes stations in the city of Boston as of July 2019. Courtesy of the Boston Transportation Department.

Boston Transportation Department Announces New Bluebikes Expansion

By Christian MilNeil | Jul 30, 2019 | 1 Comment

Mayor Marty Walsh and the Boston Transportation Department have announced planned sites for over a dozen new Bluebikes stations, which will expand the city’s bikesharing network into West Roxbury and Mattapan and add more infill stations in high-use neighborhoods like the South End. “By the end of 2019, Boston will install more than 50 new […]

The Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) has painted new bike lanes on Fenway near Simmons University. The lanes have been criticized for their lack of physical protection, and for their poor design at intersections. During the morning rush hour on July 11, 2019, dozens of safety advocates lined the new bike lanes to create a "people-protected" barrier.

Photos: ‘People-Protected’ Bike Lane on Fenway

By Christian MilNeil | Jul 11, 2019 | 1 Comment

A crowd of over 100 street safety advocates spent a pleasant morning in one of Boston’s Olmsted parks (albeit one that’s largely been paved over to give drivers more places to get stuck in traffic) as they created a “people-protected bike lane” on Fenway and Brookline Avenue during the morning rush hour. As reported previously, […]

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