Local Projects

With a new intersection layout and revised signal timing at Mass. Ave. and Memorial Drive, through traffic can be reduced to a single lane per direction, creating space for new bike lanes, a bus lane, and protecting bikes from a heavy right turn flow.

Casey Arborway, at Forest Hills in Boston, is a newly constructed roadway with a lot of good features for bikes, transit, and pedestrians, such as cycle tracks, bike signals, relatively small footprint intersections (for the volume of traffic carried), and a left turn...

Providing a protected bike lane, or cycle track, along "Mass Ave South" -- that is, Mass. Ave. from Melnea Cass Blvd to Columbia Rd (Edward Everett Square) is critical for Boston's bike network. This creates a traffic engineering challenge -- how to find the space for...

Click here for traffic simulation of the proposed layout Cummins Highway, between Mattapan Square and the cemeteries just west of Wood Ave. / Harvard St., is an auto-oriented, 4-lane divided road passing through the middle of Boston's Mattapan neighborhood. In one...

Redesign Project, 2008 Arborway, between Jamaica Pond and the Arboretum, has 8 lanes of through traffic. This student project, done in 2008, shows how the road's footprint can be severely reduced, creating 4.5 net acres of accessible parkland and continuous walking /...

Egleston Square is a mess, and so it’s encouraging to see that the City has advanced two concepts for reimagining this intersection (follow this link to see those concepts). Concept 1 focuses on reducing pedestrian crossing distances and waiting times, while Concept 2...

Graduate student Jeff Bachiochi designed a compact intersection based on a Copenhagen design that allows bikes and pedestrians to cross concurrently, yet protected from high right-turn volumes - an efficient design that results in a short cycle and short delays for...

Since 2008, the City of Boston has been planning a project to convert Rutherford Avenue in Charlestown from a wide highway into a boulevard with a linear park, and to convert the oversized rotary and vehicle-oriented streets in Sullivan Square into a walkable urban...

Two pedestrians have recently been killed crossing Tremont Street in Boston' South End. The current layout - 4 lanes, undivided - leads to reckless speeding and makes it difficult to cross the street. Rampant double parking offers evidence that four lanes aren't...

(Editor's note, 4/8/2018: Since this report was first published in February, 2018, we are glad to report that the Boston Transportation Department has modified its design by adding the delta islands that are part of our proposal, so that its plan now includes safe...

Chris Boll, a Master's student in civil engineering, took inspiration from best practices in Brussels, Zurich, and Dublin to  develop ways to protect Route 66 from traffic congestion at five "hot spots" that include Mission Hill, Coolidge Corner, Allston Village, the...

Centre St between Lagrange St and Esther Street (near Holy Name Circle) is West Roxbury's main street, flanked by shops and businesses. It has 3 bus routes, a nearby commuter rail station, and several nearby schools that further contribute to pedestrian traffic. For...

The Mission Hill stretch of Huntington Av, between Brigham Circle and South Huntington Ave., can be so congested that it's quicker to walk than to ride the train or bus. While buses and Green Line trains represent only 3% of the traffic, they carry 70% of the people -...

UPDATE, 2017:  The new park entrance for ped/bike that we recommended is under construction! (Franklin Hill Ave. @ American Legion Hwy) The limited number of entrances and poor crossing provisions across the busy roads bordering Boston's Franklin Park limit its...

Columbia Road was originally envisioned as a link in Boston's Emerald Necklace, a string of linear parks encircling Boston with paths for travel by foot, by carriage (later, car) and by horse (later, bicycle). It was to be a greenway link from Franklin Park to the...

Silver Line buses suffer large and highly variable delays on Washington Street near Dudley Station. Master's student (now graduate) Guillerme Nakao studied the stretch of Washington Street from Melnea Cass Blvd to Dudley Station and identified two bottlenecks: the...

A unique intersection design for the junction of Comm Ave with the BU Bridge can reduce delay for all users, reduce the length of pedestrian crossings, and protect crossings that would otherwise face heavy conflicting right-turning traffic. Master's student (now...

Broadway in Everett, MA is a 2-lane road plagued by congestion, hampering local business and making bus service on this important transit corridor slow and unreliable. Master's student (now graduate) Adewale ('Wale') Ogunleke studied it to identify...