At last month’s Tremont St. Design Project public meeting, we scored an important victory when the Boston Transportation Department (BTD) revealed that the City’s preferred design for Tremont St. includes 3 critical safety features to calm traffic and make the street safer for walking and biking:

1. A lane reduction, or “road diet,” along the corridor from 4 lanes to 2 with, occasional turning lanes
2. Parking-protected bike lanes
3. Raised crosswalks for cross streets at unsignalized intersections

We were also excited to see in-lane bus boarding to increase efficiency, and the potential for concrete curbs instead of flex posts to provide ironclad physical separation for the bike lane. Thank you for showing up and speaking up over the last year and a half of the planning process to support a safe, multi-modal street design! Your actions have had an invaluable impact in securing this proposed design!

However, our work is not finished until the changes are on the ground. For a project being done in the name of safety, it is critical that all of these features remain in the final version of the plan. Even though we did not hear opposition at the public meeting, there has been some pushback since then from people concerned about the loss of space for cars to drive and double park.

If you live, work, or travel Tremont Street, here is what you can do to make sure this proposal becomes a reality:

• Send an email to Mayor Walsh, Chief Osgood, and project lead, Stefanie Seskinletting them know that you like the designs. This feedback will not only help to ensure the final design retains all the key safety features, but will also give these leaders more encouragement to pursue similar pro-bike designs in the future. Please CC info@bostoncyclistsunion.org so we can track our advocacy efforts.

• Share your ideas for parking regulations through BTD’s online form. We agree with BTD that a next critical step is to adjust curb regulations to create more parking turnover. We encourage you to share your ideas for parking regulations the form.

The Tremont St. design includes so many of the complete streets elements that we are advocating for across the City, and it can serve as an example and inspiration to other planning processes underway. If this design in implemented, we are hopeful to see more like it!