After more than a year of engagement, research, and analysis, the City of Somerville published Somerville’s first-ever citywide Bicycle Network Plan in April 2023 and the City Council voted to approve the plan on September 28, 2023! Thank you to all the hundreds of community members that provided invaluable feedback throughout this process.
The Plan documents Somerville’s community-based vision for an 88-mile network of connected streets and paths where people of all ages and abilities will be able to bike safely and comfortably. The Bicycle Network Plan envisions a future with vastly more biking infrastructure and better connectivity so that residents, workers, and visitors can bike to schools, parks, jobs, businesses, and other key destinations in Somerville and across the region. Learn more about the plan below. To learn more about the development of plan from 2021 to 2023, visit the City’s SomerVoice webpage.
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The Bicycle Network Plan includes the following components:
- The Full Plan
- Executive Summary: Available in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Nepali, Haitian Creole, Traditional Chinese, and Simplified Chinese
- Mayor's Letter, Acknowledgements and Table of Contents
- Chapter 0: Introduction
- Chapter 1: Bicycle Plan Goals
- Chapter 2: Bicycling in Somerville Today
- Chapter 3: Community Engagement
- Chapter 4: Network Vision
- Chapter 5: Implementation
- Appendices (A, A1, A2, A3, A4, A5, A6, A7, B, C)
Key Figures in the Plan
- Bicycle Network Vision Map – 20 Year Projection.
- Priority Network Vision Map – Network to be completed by 2030.
What are the Somerville Bicycle Network Plan Goals?
Shifting travel away from single-occupancy vehicles and toward sustainable modes like biking is essential to meet the City’s Vision Zero public safety goals, Somerville Climate Forward goals, and SomerVision comprehensive planning goals. The Bicycle Network Plan goals reflect and reinforce these Citywide planning objectives:
- Goal #1 – Increase biking as the main mode of transportation for daily trips and aim for 15% of residents traveling by bike by 2050.
- Goal #2 - Provide infrastructure throughout Somerville that is safe and comfortable for biking for all residents regardless of age, ability, gender, and background.
- Goal #3 - Ensure that every resident in Somerville has access to a bicycle and can safely reach their everyday destinations by biking.
What are the proposed bicycle facilities?
The network offers a connected set of streets and paths with one of the following facilities. Each facility will be designed to be safe and comfortable for users of any biking ability.
Protected Bike Lane: We aim to install bike lanes with separation from traffic on all roads in the network with higher speeds and higher volumes. They provide vertical and horizontal separation between people biking and people driving. Separation may include raised concrete or granite curbs, bollards, or delineators. Examples of protected bike lanes are parking protected lanes, such as on Washington Street between McGrath Highway and Merriam Street, and sidewalk-level lanes, such as on Beacon Street between Oxford Street and Museum Street.
One-Way Protected Bike Lane: Some streets are designated with protected bike lanes but only in one direction of bike travel.This is because there is not enough width to accommodate a bicycle lane in each direction and our goal to preserve parking on at least one side. For an overview of alternative ways to bicycle in the other directions refer to Appendix B.
Neighborway: Streets designated as Neighborways in the network are walk and-bike friendly residential streets. These streets are designed to lower volume and speeds for vehicles with measures like speed humps or narrowing the entrance to the street to discourage people using the street as a cut through. Neighborways will always provide a two-way connection for people biking even if the street is one-way for vehicular traffic.
Shared Street: Shared streets are low volume and low speed streets where the street is a shared space and people walking and wheeling are prioritized over cars. Physical traffic calming elements, such as plantings and different street surfaces, communicate to people driving that they are not the primary users of the street.
Off-Street Path: Paths or connections away from roads with cars serve as Off-Street Paths. They are often used for people walking, wheeling, and biking like the existing Somerville Community path.
Unprotected Bike Lane: Outside of the proposed bicycle network, Somerville still has some existing infrastructure such as green painted bike lanes between the travel lane and the parking lane. These will not be removed but are not considered part of the network for people of all ages and abilities.
What is the proposed network?
The proposed network represents a vision for a web of streets with safe bicycle facilities. The selection of streets and facilities was created by considering the importance of
- having protected bicycle lanes on higher volume and higher speed roads while still maintaining parking on at least one side of the street,
- offering alternative safe and low stress residential routes, if possible,
- accommodating current or proposed bus service,
- providing plentiful north-south and east-west bike routes to ensure connections to schools, parks, and commercial centers.
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Bicycle Network Plan Vision Map. The proposed citywide network takes Somerville’s bicycle network from 30.1 miles to a total of 88.1 miles, an increase of 58 miles. |
For full details, read Chapter 4 of the Bicycle Network Plan.
When will the plan be implemented?
The Plan identifies priority streets for protected bike lanes and Neighborways based on a set of criteria that focuses on equity, connectivity, access to destinations, topography, and safety. The goal is to implement quick-build designs with tools like paint, flexible posts, and signage, for the priority streets by 2030. Quick-Build designs allow staff to evaluate changes and adjust for more permanent long-term designs. Once a street is selected for quick-build or permanent implementation, City staff will launch a street-specific public engagement and design process, which will include traffic data collection and parking analysis.
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Priority Network Map of streets to be completed by 2030. |
For full details, read Chapter 5 of the Bicycle Network Plan.
Status of the Plan
In 2024, the City will publish a Bicycle Design Guide and a Community Outreach Guide. Updates regarding upcoming quick-build and permanent bicycle facilities will also be posted in the coming months.
Programs & Initiatives
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