Milk Street Better Bike Lanes
We will add safe, comfortable bike lanes on Milk Street to create connections from our Tremont Street bike lanes to the Financial District and the Greenway.
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Transportation
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1 City Hall Square
Room 721Boston, MA 02201-2026
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EventsLearn about the design
Our Approach for Milk Street
- Pedestrian safety and comfort: Pedestrian-friendly signal timing changes, where applicable and feasible.
- Protected bike lanes: Mix of one- and two-way protected bike lanes depending on the section.
- Minor changes to motor vehicle circulation:
- Milk Street between Washington Street and Hawley Street becomes one-way towards Washington Street (westbound). The section is currently two-ways.
- This change creates space for a designated short-term parking zone.
- Changes to on-street parking:
- New short-term parking and loading
- Fewer metered spaces between Pearl and Surface
Existing conditions and concept design report (PDF 6.3 MB)
What do you like about this concept design? What are your questions? Share your feedback: better-bike-lanes@boston.gov.
Why Milk Street
Downtown Boston and the Financial District hold some of the highest concentration of jobs in the region. There are also historic landmarks, as well as dining and retail destinations. Milk Street will serve as the eastbound pair to westbound bike lanes on State Street and Court Street.
Everyone in Boston deserves safe streets
This project is part of a bold plan for transforming Boston's streets to better serve people walking, rolling, and riding bikes. Over the next three years, we will expand our bike network so that 50% of residents will be a three-minute walk from a safe and connected bike route.
The project area includes Milk Street, between Washington Street and Surface Road. It also includes a short section of Washington Street between Milk Street and School Street.
Updates
UpdatesIn the spring and summer of 2023, we held meetings with community stakeholders, including the Downtown Business Improvement District, business owners, commercial property owners and managers, the Wharf District Council, and the Downtown Residents' Neighborhood Association. We shared existing conditions data and project goals. We also presented options for turning Milk Street into a one-way street between Washington Street and Devonshire Street, either going eastbound or westbound.
We continue to welcome feedback at better-bike-lanes@boston.gov.
We let abutters know about the project and how to get involved. In December 2022, we went door-to-door to speak with ground-floor businesses on Milk Street. We also sent a postcard to about 2,000 addresses on and near Milk Street. The postcards arrived in later December 2022 and early January 2023.
To build on her commitment to create safe streets for all modes of transportation, Mayor Michelle Wu and the Boston Transportation Department (BTD) announced a 9.4 mile expansion of bike lanes, providing key connections within the City’s existing bike network and the launch of a Citywide design process to bring safer streets to every neighborhood. To do this, Boston is expanding Bluebikes to accommodate rising demand, designing traffic-calmed streets by building speed humps and raised crosswalks, and hiring more staff to aid in the design process.
The announcement was covered by local news outlets.
-
Still have questions? Contact:
Transportation
-
1 City Hall Square
Room 721Boston, MA 02201-2026
-
Join our email list
Sign up to get email updates about this project.
