Blue Hill Avenue community meeting to discuss near-term improvements, long-term vision

Mayor Martin J. Walsh today announced a community meeting to discuss the future of the Blue Hill Ave corridor scheduled for this Wednesday, September 30. For the past year, the Boston Transportation Department (BTD) has been leading a community process to re-imagine the future of Blue Hill Avenue from Mattapan Square to Grove Hall. So far, BTD received over 500 comments from the community on how to make the corridor safer, improve public space including public art, and develop bus and bike facilities. BTD will continue the community conversation and give updates on improvements planned for this fall and early 2021 and a longer-term vision for the corridor.

"Blue Hill Ave is a vital transportation corridor and community gathering space for residents of Dorchester, Mattapan, Roxbury, and beyond. We are committed to working with the community on near-term improvements and a transformative vision for the Blue Hill Ave corridor," said Mayor Walsh. "I'm excited to hear resident feedback on this important step in the planning process."

Near-term enhancements will focus on neighborhood safety elements, including crosswalks, speed feedback signs, parking regulation improvements, and signal retiming for pedestrian crossings. Additionally, BTD is partnering with neighborhood artists to paint murals on street light boxes. 

As part of a long-term vision, the City, in partnership with the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA), is looking to improve bus and bike infrastructure on Blue Hill Ave. The MBTA and City of Boston seek to improve bus reliability and travel time. By improving bus travel times and reliability, the MBTA can run more service to Boston neighborhoods.

More than 20,000 bus riders travel along Blue Hill Avenue each weekday, and workers living along the corridor face significantly longer delays when commuting than those from other areas in the region. The proposed treatments would directly address these inequities to substantially improve quality of life for commuters.

The MBTA estimates that, as a result of the improvements, weekday ridership could increase by over 10 percent, or 2,100 riders. The resulting bus travel time savings and reliability improvements could allow for up to 100 additional scheduled weekday trips, improving bus frequency without having to use additional buses or operators. The City & MBTA have seen similar increases in ridership and in bus frequency on other corridors where bus priority projects have been implemented. These projects include bus lanes in Roslindale, Allston, Chinatown and the North End.

The Boston Transportation Department has begun collaboration with residents along Blue Hill Ave Highway in Dorchester and Roslindale to improve safety and slow speeding along the two-mile corridor. Planning and design work will consider changes that could be made before winter as well as those that can be completed in 2021.

Upcoming opportunities to learn more about next steps for Blue Hill Ave:

 

• Wednesday, September 30, 6:00 - 8:00 p.m.

Register online

• Thursday, October 1, 12:00 - 2:00 p.m. @ Mattapan Municipal Lot #14 (Corner of Cummins Highway and Fairway Street, Mattapan, MA 02126)
• Wednesday, October 7, 4:00-6:00 p.m. @ BPL Grove Hall Branch, 41 Geneva Ave, Dorchester, MA 02121

Attendees must wear face coverings and keep a physical distance of 6 feet. 

• Wednesday, September 30, 6:00 - 8:00 p.m.
• Tuesday, October 6, 12:00 - 2:00 p.m. on Zoom
• Tuesday, October 6, 5:00 - 7:00 p.m. on Zoom

Book an appointment for in-person and virtual office hours.

Live translations will be available in Haitian Creole and Spanish, and other languages upon request.