Challenge
The City of Boston is looking for a coordinated approach to support the areas surrounding its transit-accessible squares and main streets. Through the “Squares & Streets” initiative, the City is working toward location-specific action plans that respond to community needs such as housing creation, activation of public space, multimodal transportation, climate resiliency, and support for small businesses, the arts, and cultural venues. This effort requires a planning process that reflects the themes of resilience, affordability, and equity, and which brings many city departments into a shared conversation about how these places can serve residents and visitors.
Solution
Our role has focused on providing transportation planning support for this citywide initiative. We began by conducting existing conditions analyses that looked at multimodal quality and capacity. These findings helped shape a needs assessment for each planning area. Based on the specific context and needs of each of the planning areas, Kittelson is now recommending solutions for addressing safety and accessibility, providing active sidewalks, increasing bike network connectivity, improving transit access and better bus stops, optimizing curbside management, making streets climate ready, adding new public spaces, and managing transportation demand.
The Outcome
Planning People-Oriented Streets for Boston’s Squares & Streets Initiative
The findings and recommendations are helping the City understand how transportation can reinforce its broader goals for these neighborhoods. By grounding the work in current conditions and community priorities, the planning process is giving Boston tools to support people-oriented streets and guide future investment in ways that reflect local needs.
