Glen Street and Otis Street Quick-Build Neighborway

The City of Somerville is partnering with CultureHouse and Neighborways Design to create a Neighborway on Glen Street in East Somerville between Tufts Street and Broadway, and on Otis Street between McGrath Highway and the East Somerville Community School. Our goal with the Neighborways is to have streets designed for speeds of 20 mph and below that will:

• Increase safety for everyone
• Improve comfort and ease for people of all ages and abilities walking, rolling, and biking
• Connect schools, homes, businesses, and popular destinations

This project is Funded by an American Rescue Plan Act grant from the City of Somerville.

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What is a Neighborway?

As defined in the Somerville Bicycle Network Plan, Neighborways are walk-, roll-, and-bike friendly streets that run parallel to larger main streets, creating a low-stress and high comfort experience on 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.

What is a Quick-Build Project?

The Glen and Otis Street Neighborways installation is a quick-build project. This means that the work will be limited to changes that can be done without digging or making major structural changes to the street (such as moving sidewalk curbs or changing the height of the road). There will be no sidewalk or major roadway resurfacing as part of the project. Instead, we will use materials that are quicker to install like planters, vertical plastic posts, paint markings on the street, and speed humps. This approach allows us to build this project much quicker and cheaper than a street reconstruction.

Why Glen Street and Otis Street?

With three schools directly on the streets and others close by, both Glen and Otis Street sees high use from children and other vulnerable road users (people walking, rolling, and biking). As both streets also cut through the neighborhood, they also have the potential to be safer and higher-comfort biking, walking and rolling routes to connect the East Somerville T station to the Broadway business district and Winter Hill. For these reasons, among others, these streets were selected as a high priority for Neighborway installations in the Somerville Bicycle Network Plan.

Timeline

In the summer and fall of 2023, we will engage community members to gather feedback on how people use the streets currently, hear what would make them feel comfortable walking, rolling, and biking on it, and collect feedback and concerns. We will then create draft designs for the public to provide feedback on before finalizing. We aim to install the final designs on Glen and Otis Street in the spring of 2024. We will continue to post updates and share opportunities to engage on this webpage.

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