Recent Streetsblog MASS posts about COVID-19

Proposed "shared streets" and expanded curbside pedestrian areas, part of the city's COVID-19 mobility plan. Courtesy of the City of Somerville.

Check Out Somerville’s Citywide ‘COVID-19 Mobility Strategy’

By Christian MilNeil | May 24, 2020 | No Comments

The City of Somerville has announced a citywide mobility strategy to provide safer walking and biking routes with more room for physical distancing as “stay at home” orders ease this spring and summer. Roughly a quarter of Somerville’s households are car-free. The city’s COVID-19 mobility plan therefore focuses on creating safer routes between residential neighborhoods […]

A new Orange Line train at Assembly Station in summer 2019. Courtesy of the MBTA.

Pandemic Adds to Delays for New Orange and Red Line Cars

By Christian MilNeil | May 15, 2020 | No Comments

The new Orange and Red Line cars are a key element in the T's ambitions to reduce crowding on its two busiest subway lines.

Pedestrians take advantage of expanded walking areas on Beacon Street in Brookline in mid-April. Brookline officials have repurposed on-street parking areas to provide additional space for safe physical distancing in commercial districts and on key routes to area hospitals; City of Boston officials may soon follow suit. Photo courtesy of the Brookline Transportation Department.

Boston Plans Expanded Sidewalks, Expedited Bike Projects for Pandemic Recovery

By Christian MilNeil | May 12, 2020 | No Comments

City of Boston staff are proposing to expand pedestrian space into on-street parking areas, build pop-up bike lanes, expand waiting areas at busy bus stops, and close some residential streets to through traffic in a wide-ranging strategy to support car-free mobility in a new era of physical distancing. City officials discussed these strategies and several […]

Rush-hour bike traffic takes the lane on Boylston Street, a heavily-used bike route with no dedicated bike facilities, on the morning of Friday, May 3, 2019.

Portents of a Post-Pandemic Walking and Cycling Boom

By Christian MilNeil | May 12, 2020 | No Comments

As Governor Baker’s administration prepares its phased reopening plan, ongoing physical distancing requirements present a stark choice for the region’s political leaders: will people returning to work physically distance themselves in massive traffic jams, or will cities and towns give them they space they need to travel safely with widened sidewalks, protected bike routes, and […]

An MBTA Route 111 bus bound for Haymarket Station uses the new inbound bus lane on North Washington Street on October 9, 2019.

Demands of ‘Essential’ Work Put Boston’s Neighborhoods of Color at Higher Risk

By Christian MilNeil | Apr 27, 2020 | No Comments

'Essential' workers are more likely to live in the Boston region’s neighborhoods of color, according to an analysis by the ACLU of Massachusetts.

Tow truck drivers are still considered "essential" workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, but with declining traffic, fewer tows, and bigger health risks, drivers in the industry are facing difficult financial decisions. Image courtesy of Washington State DOT, licensed under Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 2.0.

Guest Column: Pandemic Puts Tow Drivers in Limbo

By Warren Vaughn | Apr 23, 2020 | No Comments

Tow truck drivers are still considered "essential" workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, but with declining traffic, fewer tows, and bigger health risks, drivers in the industry are facing difficult financial decisions.

The Town of Brookline has deactivated beg buttons at 55 traffic signals across the town in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mixed Signals: ‘Beg Buttons’ and the Pandemic

By Christian MilNeil | Apr 21, 2020 | No Comments

In the past month, several municipalities in the region, including Brookline, Cambridge, Arlington and Providence, RI, have acknowledged the uselessness of push-to-walk buttons at crosswalks, and have reprogrammed traffic lights to make walk signals automatic. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, those “beg buttons” were merely one of the hundreds of inconveniences that engineers forced upon pedestrians […]

Memorial Drive in Cambridge. Photo by John Phelan, licensed under Creative Commons CC BY 3.0.

In Turnaround, Cambridge Council Endorses Car-Free Memorial Drive

By Christian MilNeil | Apr 14, 2020 | No Comments

On Monday night, the Cambridge City Council voted to endorse the closure of Memorial Drive to car traffic for the duration of the stay-at-home order associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. With most City Councilors participating by teleconference, the order passed by a 5-3 margin, with Councilors Marc McGovern, E. Denise Simmons, and Timothy Toomey opposed. […]

A person riding a bike enjoys plenty of room on a section of Day Boulevard that was closed to car traffic for the weekend of April 11-12. Photo courtesy of the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation.

Eyes on the Street: Room to Breathe on DCR Parkways

By Christian MilNeil | Apr 13, 2020 | No Comments

This weekend, the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) closed off segments of several Boston-area park roads to give people more room to recreate with safe physical distancing in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. While a number of local officials have been reluctant to endorse outdoor recreation in the midst of the pandemic, […]

A Google Street View image of Francis Parkman Drive at its intersection with Perkins Street on the north shore of Jamaica Pond in Boston.

DCR to Block Drivers From More Parkways in Boston, Watertown

By Christian MilNeil | Apr 10, 2020 | No Comments

DCR hopes that the closure of parking areas and certain road segments to motor vehicle users will reduce crowding and give park users more space to spread out.

Traffic congestion on I-93 southbound in downtown Boston, pictured around 2 pm on Thursday, August 8, 2019.

Study: Highway Pollution Contributes to Higher COVID-19 Death Rates

By Christian MilNeil | Apr 7, 2020 | No Comments

The study's results are especially concerning for many of communities of color in Massachusetts, where the legacies of racist planning policies expose Asian, Latinx and Black neighborhoods to higher levels of tailpipe pollution.

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