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Updated as of december 2010

Principles

MultimodalStreet space will be optimized to balance the needs of pedestrians, bicyclists, transit riders, and motorists, and will not be dominated by cars. Road widths will be reduced to the minimum necessary to accommodate pedestrians, vehicular traffic (including bicycles) and on-street parking. Opportunities will be taken to reallocate roadway space once reserved for motor vehicle use to wider sidewalks, bikeways, and plazas where possible.

SmartRoadways will take advantage of technological advances that make travel more convenient and safe. Roadway design, signage, and lane allocation will be coordinated with signal timing and intersection design to effective flow of motor vehicles, bicycles, and transit.

GreenRoadways will be designed to protect the environment by reducing stormwater runoff, resulting in less erosion and water pollution. Green street elements will collect and filter stormwater, while simultaneously reducing the amount of pavement and the associated heat island effects.

the principles below reflect the guiding principles for the design of boston’s roadways. these principles for roadway design reinforce boston’s committment to the design of streets that multimodal, green, and smart—the main themes of boston’s complete streets design.

another key principle in roadway design is the desire to regulate speeds to ensure the safety and comfort of all users. collectively, these principles set a new standard for the design of boston’s streets.

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Updated as of december 2010

Safe SpeedsStreets will be designed to limit excessive speeds. Design speeds will be appropriate for the street type and context of surrounding land uses. New streets will be designed to feel uncomfortable at speeds above the target design speed. On existing streets with excessive speeds, mea-sures may be taken to reduce speeds to improve safety for pedestrians, bicyclists, and transit users.

Most city streets should be designed to produce an operating speed that does not exceed 25 mph.25

M i l e s p e r h o u r

Shared streets should be designed to produce op-erating speeds that generally do not exceed 15 mph

School zones should be designed to produce op-erating speeds that generally do not exceed 15 mph

Parkways and Neighborhood Connectors should be designed to produce operating speeds that generally do not exceed 30 mph

note that the current speed limit on most city streets is 30 mph as stipulated by state law.

15M p h

15M p h

30M p h

the following exceptions apply:

operating speeds of vehicles in boston should be appropri-ate for the function of the roadway. pedestrians and bicyclists are a part of the mix of urban traffic on city streets and are particularly vulnerable in the event of a crash. speed is of fun-damental importance: the severity of a pedestrian injury in the event of a crash is directly related to the speed of the vehicle at the point of impact. for example, a pedestrian who is hit by a motor vehicle traveling at 20 mph has a 95% chance of survival, whereas a pedestrian hit by a motor vehicle traveling at 40 mph has a 15% chance of survival. pedestrians who do survive a crash with a vehicle traveling 40 mph sustain serious long-term injuries.

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