This fall, the City of Somerville is putting the finishing touches on a network of new protected bikeways that will link several bike routes between Porter and Davis Squares – a project mandated by the city’s 2024 Safe Streets Ordinance.

The project renovated a 0.7-mile segment of Elm Street and an adjacent quarter-mile segment of Somerville Avenue with new protected bike lanes.

A city street lined with 2-3 story multi-family buildings on the left. In the foreground is a curbside bike lane lined with flexible-post bollards, running between the curb and a row of parked cars.
Elm Street in Somerville, looking northwest from the John F. Kennedy Elementary School.

The new facilities extend an existing protected bike route on Beacon Street and Hampshire Street (in Cambridge), which connects Inman and Kendall Squares and ranks as one of the busiest bike routes in New England.

A map of the Porter Sq. area in Cambridge and Somerville. The city line is shown as a dotted line running diagonally from upper left to lower right along Elm and Beacon Streets. T stations are shown at Davis Sq (upper left) and Porter (center) and the Somerville Community Path is a green line near the top edge of the map. The map highlights Elm St, Somerville Ave, and Beacon St, which meet at acute angles just east of Porter Square.
Street segments slated for quick-build safety improvements, including separated bike lanes, under Somerville’s proposed Elm-Beacon connector project.

The project also converted Mossland Street – a short connector between Somerville Ave. and Elm Street – into a new low-traffic “neighborway” connection that prioritizes bike and pedestrian traffic.

Mossland is now barred to motor vehicle traffic at its intersection with Elm Street, but bike and emergency vehicle traffic can still get through (the wooden barriers in this photo are slated to be replaced with plastic flexible-post bollards):

An intersection of two city streets under a traffic signal. The street in the foreground has wooden barriers to block car traffic, but a green-painted lane in the middle of the roadway instructs bike riders to "Wait here for green". Tan-painted areas closer to the sidewalk, to the left and right of the green pavement, give the street the appearance of a cul-de-sac.
The northern end of Mossland Street at its intersection with Elm Street in Somerville. This junction is now closed to motor vehicle traffic to prioritize bike and pedestrian connections, as part of Somerville’s “neighborways” network of low-traffic streets.

Another feature of the project is a dramatic reduction in the size of the Beech Street intersection with Elm Street.

Previously, Beech Street had an unusually wide right-turn lane onto Elm Street to permit high-speed turns; now, a large wedge of asphalt has been blocked to motorized traffic, and the intersection of Elm and Beech has been converted into an all-way stop:

The newly-reconfigured intersection of Beech Street in Cambridge (foreground) with Elm Street in Somerville (the cross street in the middle distance). Note the curb line at right, which outlined the intersection’s former right-turn merging lane.

The Beech Street reconfiguration is notable for another reason, too: it’s actually located in the City of Cambridge.

Transportation planners from Cambridge coordinated design work for Beech Street with the City of Somerville’s redesign of Elm Street to complete a seamless connection across city lines – a relatively rare example of successful inter-jurisdictional cooperation.

This article was republished with permission from StreetsblogMASS, an independent, nonprofit news organization that covers transportation news across Massachusetts. Click here to read the original article. 

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