Medford Street & School Street Protected Bike Lanes

As part of the Somerville Bicycle Network Plan and through funding provided by the City’s Participatory Budgeting, the City aims to install protected bike lanes on Medford Street between Pearl Street and School Street and upgrade the protected bike lane barriers on School Street between the Community Path and Medford Street.

The new facilities on Medford Street will include a two-way bike lane on the southside of the street protected with pre-cast concrete curb barriers and plastic flex posts. To make space for these new facilities, we aim to remove three parking spaces on the northside and shift the northbound and southbound motor vehicle travel lanes slightly north. These changes will not impact the bus stop located at the intersection of Medford Street and School Street.

The City installed a similar design temporarily with flex posts in the summer of 2023 for the Community Path detour while work was being completed on the Somerville High School athletic field.

On School Street, in the existing two-way protected bike lanes between the Community Path and Medford Street, the City will replace many of the flex posts with pre-cast concrete curbs.

What is the timeline for the new street changes?

We anticipate City contractors to begin implementing the new pavement markings and bike lane protective barriers between October and November 2025. Pavement marking work is likely to take place overnight. Shortly before the painting begins, City staff will install new signage along the street to indicate that parking is no longer permitted on the northside of Medford Street (between School Street and Pearl Street).

How do I get up to date information about this project?

To stay up to date, we encourage community members to sign up for City Alerts. City Alerts provide up to date notifications via phone, text, or email about upcoming construction, detours, major events, snow emergencies and more. You can also subscribe to the Mobility Monthly Newsletter for updates on this project and other transportation planning efforts in Somerville. All latest information about this project will be posted to this website.

If you have any questions, please reach out to the Mobility Division via email at transportation@somervillema.gov or via phone through 311 (617-666-3311).

Why are we installing these facilities at this time?

As part of the first round on Participatory Budgeting in the spring and fall of 2023, one of the winning projects was Bike Lane Acceleration with the aim of accelerating the implementation of the Somerville Bicycle Network Plan with projects not already planned as part of the Priority Network. Medford Street helps provide a connection to proposed new facilities on Pearl Street between Medford Street and McGrath Highway through the Western Pearl Street Reconstruction project. Since Medford Street is not on the priority network, this valuable connection would have been implemented after 2030. The funding can also be used to replace existing protected bike lane flex post barriers with more durable materials. For both the new facility on Medford Street and the existing School Street facility, the City will use concrete curb barriers.