Wood Avenue Safety Improvements

The preliminary design for Wood Avenue involves safety interventions at seven intersections. These include design elements that are proven to reduce speeding and improve pedestrian safety.

• As part of the project, all existing flexposts will be removed and replaced with fully-constructed sidewalk and curb extensions.
• In total, eight raised crosswalks and one raised intersection are proposed along the street to reduce speeding on Wood Avenue.
• On-street parking will be provided on one side of the street.

The preliminary design includes:

• A raised crosswalk across Wood Avenue south of Seminole Street and north of Roanoke Road
• Curb extensions to realign and straighten the approaches of Seminole Street, Mariposa Street, and Roanoke Road. The curb extensions also create space for new landscaping
• Reconstructing the existing concrete sidewalk between Seminole Street and Mariposa Street; proposed sidewalks range from six- to nine-feet wide and tie into the existing sidewalks
• New accessible pedestrian ramps at all corners
• Preserving access for all existing driveways

The preliminary design includes:

• A raised crosswalk across Wood Avenue, south of Runskindale Road and north of Farrar Avenue
• A curb extension with planted space that is designed to realign and straighten out the intersections at Runskindale Road and Farrar Avenue
• Reconstructing the existing concrete sidewalk on both sides of Runskindale Road and Farrar Avenue; the new sidewalks range from eight feet to nine feet wide and tie into existing sidewalks
• New accessible pedestrian ramps at all corners
• Preserving access for all existing driveways

The preliminary design includes:

•  A raised intersection, with high visibility pedestrian crossing markings and curb extensions on all corners of the intersection
• New landscaping areas 
• Realigning and straightening out the Safford Street and Parker Street intersections
• New accessible pedestrian ramps at all corners
• Preserving access for all existing driveways

The preliminary design includes::

•  A raised crosswalk across Wood Avenue south of Joyce Road and north of Ellard Road
• Curb extensions around Ellard Road in order to realign and straighten out the approach of Ellard Road
• New accessible pedestrian ramps at all corners
• Preserving access for all existing driveways

The preliminary design includes:

• A raised crosswalk across Wood Avenue, south of Danbury Road and North of Edwardson Road
• New accessible pedestrian ramps at all corners
• Preserving access for all existing driveways

We hope you are enjoying the warming weather as Spring slowly returns to Boston.

Firstly, thank you for all your participation and contributions to the Wood Avenue Safety Improvements project. The design team is hard at work incorporating your feedback into the first round of design concepts. We are currently scheduling our next round of public feedback meetings, which we'll hold in May. Once a date and location is selected, we will send mailers, post flyers, and send an email several weeks in advance. We look forward to hearing your thoughts, concerns, and questions on our design concepts.

In other news, we've installed STOP signs in all directions at the intersection of Wood Avenue and Safford Street. Vehicles are now required to come to a complete stop before proceeding through the intersection. These STOP signs were installed based on feedback we heard from you and your neighbors during last Fall's street walk and public meeting.

We are also looking forward to attending the Mayor's Community Safety Team's Village Vibes event at Ross Playground on May 6th.

We held a meeting at the 922 River Street Community Room to discuss the safety issues and potential approaches for addressing them on December 17, 2024. We spoke with 17 residents about their experiences on the street as well as their reaction to our proposed design directions. We heard a lot about the chicanes on the southern half of the street, the desire for speed humps on abutting streets, as well as the preference that street parking be changed to on same-side only, and not alternate. 

We also heard discussions around adding a stop light at Safford Street. After the street walk on November 16th, we learned that we were able to add a stop sign to Safford/Parker Streets and Wood Avenue, and proposed adding it to the street as a short term action to slow traffic. We also heard discussion around converting the section of the street from Roanoke Road/Mariposa Street to Cummins Highway to a one-way or finding other ways to limit access to the entirety of Wood Avenue to traffic from Cummins Highway. 

We appreciate the neighbors and friends who came out for this discussion. Your thoughts and concerns will be an important part of our design process. Our next meeting will be the first design review meeting, we will present the first proposed designs and be looking for your feedback on these designs. We are hopeful to have the proposal plans ready in late winter or early spring 2025.

On November 16, 2024, we hosted a street walk along Wood Avenue. We began at Farrar Avenue, walked north to Noah Street, then south to River Street before discussing what we saw and heard at the Boston Preparatory School. 16 people attended at various points during the walk. Residents described the speeding and safety issues they witness along the corridor; especially between Seminole and Tacoma Streets. We also observed confusion from drivers at the intersection with Safford Street and several speeding cars and near crashes. Thank you to all who came, we look forward to hearing from you again on the December 17 meeting.

We are excited to announce the Wood Avenue Street Walk on November 16, 2024. This event inform the design process for safety improvements on the street. We are looking forward to meeting with residents and neighbors to hear where they see problems and what those problems are. We will take this information and use it to formulate several design ideas and present those for community review at a later date. Once the design direction is confirmed, we will move into the concept design phase with periodic meetings to update and receive feedback from the community.

On September 9, 2024, we attended the East River Street Neighborhood Association meeting. Also in attendance were Representative Consalvo and representatives from Councilor Pepen's and Representative Fluker Oakly's offices. We from elected officials about their legislative agendas as well as some policies around rodent control and civilian crossing guards. We provided information about the street projects in the area and shared an update with the community around timeline and the next steps of engagement after the listening period. We heard about a motorcycle crash at Safford Street, although it was not determined if there were any injuries sustained from the crash. We heard about congestion at Cummins Highway and Wood Avenue with delays at the light running as long as 20 minutes. 

Presentation: September 9, 2024

On September 20, 2024, we met with the Community Advisory Group (CAG) to share a presentation that details what we had heard during the listening period and what design directions were possible for the community to choose. We presented this presentation (LINK) and heard concerns around access to the Price Rite Plaza, school bus access, and preserving parking on the street. We heard that our proposed in-person meeting venue (Hyde Park Community Center)was too far from the corridor and that we should pursue accessing other public spaces along the street. We took this as an action item and continued outreach to the Greater Faith Worship Center, Urban Edge Properties, and the Boston Preparatory Academy. This was a very informative meeting and we look forward to future in-person events where we can collect feedback and direction from the community.

We attended Open Streets: Hyde Park on August 11, 2024. We met with dozens of Hyde Park Residents who wanted to discuss many of the streets projects in the neighborhood. Generally the consensus was that speeding cars needed to be slowed down, and we heard frequent requests for speed humps in the area. Because of Wood Avenue's status as an EMS corridor, it is ineligible for speed humps. 

On August 12th, 2024 we attended the East River Street Neighborhood Association. We answered questions regarding Cummins Highway and heard concerns about speeding on Wood Avenue, especially between the hours of 3PM and 6PM. The community requested additional enforcement from the Boston Police representative on the call, and the officer replied that they would request additional enforcement for those hours. We also heard about congestion on Wood Avenue at Cummins Highway during the construction of that corridor.  

On August 13, 2024 we attended the Roseberry/Ruskindale Road Neighborhood Association Meeting. Councillor Pepen gave an update and listened to concerns from the community. They shared that they are working with Councilor Mejia on educational work around the rules of the road. We gave an update presentation with a timeline around proposed community events and answered questions about streets projects in the area. We heard about the left turning motion from Cummins to Wood causing congestions issues, especially with all the large vehicles taking part in construction. We also heard about enforcement concerns regarding people on bikes as well as cars moving too fast on the street.

On July 8, 2024, we attended the East River Street Neighborhood Association. We gave a brief update on our listening period progress, featured the survey and fielded questions from the community members in attendance. At this meeting we heard a lot about the southern end of Wood Avenue with requests for speed humps on Frazer Street, illegal parking on Reddy Avenue, and concerns about the safety of students at the Boston Preparatory Academy. Lewiston Street, which runs parallel to Wood Avenue, was also mentioned as seeing cut-through activity to Safford Street.

Presentation: July 8, 2024

On July 12, 2024, we posted flyers on houses along Wood Avenue. The flyers featured a link to the project website and community survey. The goal of the survey is to provide a enduring digital engagement avenue where residents can add comments and concerns whenever they like. During the walk, we met several residents and heard a lot about the flexposts on Farrar Avenue and vehicle crashes at Safford Street. 

On June 11, 2024, we attended the Roseberry-Ruskindale Road Neighborhood Association bi-monthly meeting. We gave a presentation that included an updated timeline and an announcement that the website and survey were live. 

Presentation: June 11, 2024

City Councillor Pepen gave a presentation and talked about the Chittick School and the Safe Routes to School Program. RRRd Neighbors shared experiences of nearly being hit by a car, not feeling safe crossing the street, as well as experiences with parking enforcement that they felt were not the most positive. We also heard about poor sidewalk conditions in the area and we shared that 311 is the current best contact for the sidewalk repair program.

On April 9, we attended the Roseberry-Ruskindale Road Neighborhood Association meeting. We answered questions about local street projects and gave a brief update on the listening period and timeline.

Presentation: April 9, 2024

On March 15, 2024, we met with the Community Advisory Group to kick off the listening period for the Wood Avenue Safety Improvements. We gave a brief presentation that contained our initial existing conditions review and heard comments from folks. The residents shared stories about the street that included issues with parking near Humarock Way, issues with the currently installed flexposts on Farrar Avenue and confrontations with speeding drivers on the street.

Presentation: March 15, 2024