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This summer, the City of Boston will make updates to street painting and lane painting aimed at improving safety along Beacon Street.

Matthew Desii, a Brighton resident and transportation advocate for the Allston Brighton Health Collaborative says that these updates aim to accomplish two goals simultaneously: repair the pavement while improving road safety.

“The current repaving project for the section of Beacon Street that they’re doing this summer is a fresh coat of pavement that they have to do anyway, because the conditions are so poor, and the city at the same time is trying to take the time to upgrade safety for all road users when they can,” says Desii. 

During a public meeting on May 6, Maddie Webster, an Active Transportation Planner for the city’s Street Cabinet, outlined the city’s preferred design for these safety updates. In addition to adding a fresh layer of pavement to make the street smoother, the city will work to create wider crosswalks and implement “daylighting,” which removes parking spaces near crosswalks so that incoming cars can have enough visibility and time to make a controlled stop as pedestrians cross. 

The repainting will also create a separation between car traffic and bike lanes by creating buffer zones and situating bike lanes between car parking and the curb. This separation will also shorten the length of crossings for pedestrians. 

Webster also says that the updated painting will narrow the lanes on the street to discourage speeding. 

Desii says that he does not believe that the narrower lanes will slow traffic. 

“The thing that I have to impress upon people is that a narrower lane does not mean traffic will go more slowly,” he says. “It just means everyone will obey the posted speed limit. There’s still enough space for you to safely pass oncoming traffic, you won’t have to worry about the people on bikes and scooters next to you.” 

He calls the project a “slam dunk” in terms of how easily these changes can move through the regulatory process.

According to the City of Boston website, repavement will begin around mid-June. During the May 6 public meeting, Webster said that the pavement markings will be installed in late June to July.

On a broader scale, Desii also believes that this repaving project could serve as a stepping stone for a larger development project along Cleveland Circle, which will undergo a major reconstruction at both the city and state level through the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority in the next few years.

“I look forward to this repaving project and this safety project, because this will provide a good foundation for the city to actually undertake the rest of the Cleveland Circle redesign,” he says. 

“Once we know where the lanes are going to line up on the approach to the traffic lights there at Chestnut Hill Ave, we’ll be able to think through a little more clearly what a redesigned Cleveland Circle can look like.”