Boylston Street (Jamaica Plain)

Design summary

• Repave Boylston Street between Lamartine Street and Centre Street. 
• Reconstruct the intersection of Boylston Street and Belmore Terrace to create accessible curb ramps. Last year, we rebuilt the other curb ramps along Boylston Street to be accessible.
• Add a contraflow bike lane going eastbound (towards Amory Street) between Centre Street and Amory Street. In the westbound direction (towards Centre Street), we'll add shared lane markings.
  • Add signage on Boylston Street and side streets approaching Boylston Street indicating that two-way bike travel is allowed.
• Add seven new speed humps on Boylston Street between Amory Street and Centre Street.
  • New speed humps will be located at 130 Boylston Street, 76 Boylston Street, 53 Boylston Street, 46 Boylston Street, 33 Boylston Street, 20 Boylston Street, and 11 Boylston Street.
• Change on-street parking:
  • Add 12 new parking spaces on the north (even-numbered) side between Amory Street and the Stony Brook MBTA station. This parking will be regulated as 2-hour limit 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. Monday-Friday. 
  • Add a 15-minute limit zone in front of Stony Brook Wine & Spirits at 78 Boylston Street. On the west (odd-numbered) side of Danforth Street, we will add a 40 foot loading zone in front of 76 Boylston Street. The loading zone will be in effect from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday-Friday. 
  • Restrict 4 parking spaces just west of Danforth Street to improve visibility going around the bend.
  • Move parking to the north (even-numbered) side between the Chestnut Ave and Centre Street. Keep parking on the north (even-numbered) side between Lamartine Street and Centre Street.
  • Restrict parking between Adelaide Street and Belmore Terrace. The street is not wide enough on this block to fit a bike lane and retain parking. 15 unrestricted parking spaces are impacted by this change.
  • After design changes, there are 66 parking spaces on Boylston Street between Amory Street and Centre Street. To get these numbers, we used a detailed method to count and configure parking spaces. These numbers may differ from previously published information.

• Boylston Street is the only direct route between the Southwest Corridor, Centre Street, the new separated bike lane on South Huntington Avenue, and the Emerald Necklace. There’s no ramp to the Southwest Corridor bike path from Paul Gore Street. There’s no direct access to the Southwest Corridor bike path from Spring Park Ave, which ends at Chestnut Ave.
• People were already biking both ways on Boylston Street. 1 in 5 bicyclists were riding contraflow near Danforth Street, the block approaching the Southwest Corridor, according to pre-installation data. 
• Vehicle volumes are moderate. We can make the street safer and more comfortable with speed humps.

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.