Client: Fairmount Greenway Task Force, Fairmount/Indigo CDC Collaborative

Year: 2013-Present

Project Team

• Civic Space Collaborative, Project Manager

• Boston Transportation Department

• Healthy Community Champions

• Healthy Dorchester

• Harvard Chan School of Public Health

• Neighborhood associations

• Harvard Chan School of Public Health, Lead research

• Dorchester and Mattapan residents, community partners

Fairmount Greenway Route Implementation

Civic Space Collaborative served as the lead author of the “Fairmount Greenway Route Implementation Plan” for two on-street pilot sections. The plan included quick-build improvements (e.g. sharrows, wayfinding) as well as long-term treatments (e.g. curb extensions, speed humps). 

Since 2013, we have worked with the City of Boston’s Transportation Department to implement the Fairmount Greenway on-street route in Dorchester and path in Mattapan and Hyde Park. To date, the project team has:

• Worked with the City to install the first sharrows to mark the half-mile of the route in Dorchester. (2014) 

• Worked with residents and the City on two neighborhoods as part of the City’s Slow Zone initiative, which includes improvements for walking, biking, and traffic calming. Once implemented, there will be a 1.5-mile continuous stretch of the Fairmount Greenway route.

• Designed wayfinding signs and identified locations to mark the route.

• Secured funding for wayfinding signs.

• Increased residents’ understanding of street design, planning, and vocabulary for street design elements.

• Engaged youth and residents to collect traffic speed, sidewalk width, tree canopy, and air quality data. 

Dorchester Air Quality Citizen Science + Field Work

The Harvard Chan School of Public Health worked with the Fairmount Greenway Task Force on collecting air quality data in Dorchester. Civic Space Collaborative developed fieldwork methodology to collect and compare data from the proposed Fairmount Greenway and arterial roads in Dorchester, including Massachusetts Avenue, Columbia Road, and Washington Street, during evening rush hour. Residents joined several of the data collection bike rides where they learned about the work we were doing, as well as public health issues related to air quality. The Harvard Chan School of Public Health analyzed the results which showed the air pollution was much higher during rush hour on the arterial roads, and that on the Fairmount Greenway the air quality was better except at major intersections. 

Fairmount Greenway Related Projects