Eliot Street Better Bike Lane
We're planning to allow bicycling in both directions on Eliot Street between the Emerald Necklace and Centre Street.
Eliot Street provides a direct link between the Emerald Necklace and Centre Street. A contraflow bike lane will formalize it as two-way connection for people biking. The street will remain one-way for vehicle traffic.
We will add additional speed humps to encourage safer driving speeds. We may need to make changes to where parking is allowed.
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Still have questions? Contact:
Transportation
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1 City Hall Square
Room 721Boston, MA 02201-2026
Upcoming events
EventsWhy Eliot Street
- Eliot Street provides a direct, legible connection between JP center and the Emerald Necklace path. You can easily access the path via the crosswalk at the Jamaicaway.
- People are already biking both ways on Eliot Street. We’ve heard from you, and observed ourselves, that people ride against traffic in the road and on the sidewalk.
- Vehicle volumes are low. We can make the street safer and more comfortable by adding additional speed humps.
Everyone in Boston deserves safe streets
This project is part of a bold plan for transforming Boston's streets to better serve people walking, rolling, and riding bikes. Over the next three years, we will expand our bike network so that 50% of residents will be a 3-minute walk from a safe and connected bike route.
Contraflow bike lanes
DIRECT ROUTES, BETTER ACCESS
One-way streets help manage the flow of vehicles. We might want to allow people to bike in both directions on one-way streets that:
- Provide access to a major destination, park, or trail access point, and/or,
- Help bicyclists avoid an obstacle, like a major hill or busy street with less comfortable biking conditions.
Contraflow bike lanes are a well-established design tool. They have seen decades of use around the U.S., the Boston area, and globally.
On low-volume streets like Eliot Street, we can add contraflow bike lanes with paint and signage. The lane is positioned so that bicyclists ride on the right side of the street in the direction they are traveling, just like on two-way streets.
Design proposal
View the proposed design (PDF 7.8 MB)
We plan to:
- Add two new speed humps and keep the existing speed humps.
- Add a contraflow bike lane going northbound (towards Jamaica Pond). In the southbound direction (towards Centre Street), we'll add shared lane markings.
- Add signage on Eliot Street and side streets approaching Eliot Street indicating that two-way bike travel is allowed.
- Move parking to the west side between the Jamaicaway and Dane Street. Parking will stay on the west side between Dane Street and Centre Street. We expect this change to result in one less parking space on Eliot Street.*
* Parking changes are approximate and subject to change.
What do you like about this design? What are your questions? Email us at better-bike-lanes@boston.gov or join us at an upcoming event.
Neighborhood context
There are other bike lane projects happening in Jamaica Plain this year. These projects will help you to connect from the Southwest Corridor and Emerald Necklace paths to daily destinations on Centre Street, South Street, and points in between. Learn more about other projects in your neighborhood:
Project Updates
UpdatesWe hosted two open house meetings to share more information and hear your feedback about bike projects in Jamaica Plain. You were invited to drop in anytime between 6 and 8 p.m. Both open houses had the same content. We offered Spanish interpretation at both.
- Wednesday, May 3. Margarita Muniz Academy, 20 Child Street
- Thursday, May 11. Mary Curley School, 493 Centre Street
Thank you to everyone who attended and shared their thoughts with us. We look forward to continuing to work with you to get the details right.
We sent a follow up email to the project email list on May 16, 2023.
View the boards (English):
- We posted flyers on front doors on Eliot Street, Eliot Park, Newsome Park, and Eliot Place. We also posted flyers on light posts near the Jamaicaway crosswalk and Centre Street.
- We sent an email to the project list about upcoming in-person and virtual events.
- We hosted virtual office hours every other Wednesday. You shared your feedback on Better Bike Lanes projects. We also corresponded with you via email.
We attended the Jamaica Pond Association monthly board meeting. We shared our concept ideas for Eliot Street, discussed our next steps for community engagement, and took your questions.
- We posted flyers on front doors on Eliot Street, Eliot Park, Newsome Park, and Eliot Place. We also posted flyers on light posts near the Jamaicaway crosswalk and Centre Street.
- We mailed over 650 postcards to households on Eliot Street and the blocks nearby.
- We sent an email to the project list answering questions we’d heard from you so far.
- We hosted virtual office hours every other Wednesday. You shared your feedback on Better Bike Lanes projects. We also corresponded with you via email.
- We hosted virtual office hours every other Wednesday. You shared your feedback on Better Bike Lanes projects. We also corresponded with you via email.
- We began planning for spring and summer 2023 outreach and community conversations.
To build on her commitment to create safe streets for all modes of transportation, Mayor Michelle Wu and the Boston Transportation Department (BTD) announced a 9.4 mile expansion of bike lanes providing key connections within the City’s existing bike network and the launch of a Citywide design process to bring safer streets to every neighborhood. To do this, Boston is expanding Bluebikes to accommodate rising demand, designing traffic-calmed streets by building speed humps and raised crosswalks, and hiring more staff to aid in the design process.
The announcement was covered by local news outlets.
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Still have questions? Contact:
Transportation
-
1 City Hall Square
Room 721Boston, MA 02201-2026
