Survey responses: Egleston Sq. Redesign
The Egleston Square redesign project will bring much-needed connections to businesses, homes, schools and green space via bicycle. We encourage you to get involved and share your feedback with the city!
From December 2020 to April 2021, we canvassed residents, parents/teachers/students, and other stakeholders in Egleston Square to hear their visions for mobility and street safety in Egleston Sq. To gather feedback, we hired 2 local residents and partnered with Bikes Not Bombs staff and youth.
Through this outreach, we met cyclists of all ages, backgrounds, and abilities. In these conversations, we overwhelmingly heard that people do not feel safe traveling via bike in the neighborhood, especially on Washington St. A few selected stories are highlighted below, followed by the full survey results.
Romeo
“I have lived in Jamaica Plain for my entire life and I’ve been biking since I was 4 years old. I started biking because my family is into biking and it seemed fun to me, which it is. I have been biking ever since then, mainly to commute to and from school and work, and also for some city rides for fun and some bike camping trips. One thing that I think could improve biking in Boston is the development of more bike lanes which run between the parked cars on the side of the road and the sidewalk. This separates bikers from moving cars on the road, and also puts bikers on the passenger side of the parked cars, making bikers less likely to get doored. Besides being a biker, I am a student at Boston Latin School, bike mechanic, soccer player, and crew rower.”
“I live right in the heart of Egleston Square with my family. We have been here for over 6 years and love the community feel in Egleston. We don’t have a car so my husband bikes, and I use the T, walk and sometimes BlueBikes to get around. I think that making the neighborhood more walkable would bring more business to the neighborhood. For example, I don’t even go to the Dunkin Donuts across Columbus Ave because that intersection is too hard to cross. I would like to feel safe crossing the street with my young daughter, and to feel comfortable biking more in the neighborhood.”
“I started biking around here 15 years ago. For a long time, I would see the same people biking around who were mostly vehicular cyclists and now I see so many more people out there due to the bike infrastructure there which is really exciting. Our 8 and 5 year-olds are now on their own bikes.
There needs to be a bike connection that goes up the park-side of Washington St. School St would be perfect for that. I think it can be done well and can help with traffic congestion. I always avoid driving the block between School St and Columbus because it is always congested. The city needs to improve sidewalks and streets off of School St for all residents and put in quality crosswalks and curb cuts. The city should focus on all the ways that people get around the neighborhood.”
Egleston-St-Survey-Summary.docx