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Posted 5/17
This report documents the existing bicycle and pedestrian travel conditions within a half-mile radius of five stations on the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) commuter rail Fairmount Line. The Fairmount Line is the only MBTA commuter rail branch that exclusively serves the City of Boston, traveling through its Downtown, South Boston, Roxbury, Dorchester, Mattapan, and Hyde Park neighborhoods. Apart from South Station, there are currently seven Fairmount Line stations, with plans to add an eighth. Including the planned station (Blue Hill Avenue), the eight stations on the line are Four Corners/Geneva Avenue, Talbot Avenue, Morton Street, Fairmount, and Readville. Using the ActiveTrans Priority Tool (APT), five of these stations were selected for analysis: Newmarket, Four Corners/Geneva Avenue, Talbot Avenue, Morton Street, and Blue Hill Avenue. MPO staff traveled by foot and on bike through the five selected station areas along Boston Bike Network roadways and the Fairmount Greenway path, and noted the conditions of the bicycle and pedestrian environment. MPO staff assessed bicycle facilities, bike racks, pedestrian signals, sidewalks, curb ramps, detectable warnings, and pavement markings. This report presents assessments of the five station areas, followed by improvement recommendations, and cost estimates for each station area analyzed.
Four appendices are included at the end of this report:
- Appendix A explains the APT and the station-area selection process.
- Appendix B describes different types of bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure, outlining their associated requirements.
- Appendix C compiles feedback received from the public
- Appendix D documents differences between the pedestrian signal measurements taken by MPO staff and the City of Boston’s records of the same conditions, in order to indicate the locations at which signal timings should be restored to their recorded conditions.
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