Bicycle Infrastructure And Accessibility In Boston’s Environmental Justice Communities

Abstract

This project focused on bicycle infrastructure in Boston, including the city's count of bicycle infrastructure and cycling accessibility. Infrastructure included Bluebike stations from November 1st, 2023, and bicycle trails from the 2020 MassDOT Bike Inventory. Accessibility explored the gaps in Boston's bicycle infrastructure in environmental justice (EJ) 2020 census block groups. As of the 2020 Census, 460 of the 581 census block groups in Boston are EJ designated, meaning that approximately 79.17% of census block groups are EJ designated. 2020 EJ designated census block groups' count of bicycle infrastructure and their accessibility to bicycle infrastructure in Boston, MA were analyzed in ArcGIS Pro using spatial joins, distance accumulation, and a suitability modeler. The average number of bicycle trails in a 2020 EJ census block group was 4.22, while the average number of Bluebike stations in a 2020 EJ census block group was less than 1 (0.465). Bicycle lanes were the most common bicycle trail type across the EJ designated census block groups, but 139 (30.22%) of the EJ 2020 census block groups had zero bicycle trails, showcasing a need for bicycle trail connection in these areas. More than the majority, or 302 (65.65%), of EJ designated census block groups had 0 Bluebike stations as of November 1st, 2023. Accessibility to bicycle infrastructure was highest in the neighborhoods surrounding Downtown, such as the North End, West End, Beacon Hill, Back Bay, Fenway, South End, Chinatown, and the South Boston Waterfront. Accessibility was more varied elsewhere, particularly in the West Roxbury, Hyde Park, Brighton, Dorchester, Roxbury, Jamaica Plain, Mattapan, and Roslindale neighborhoods. Bicycling is an essential aspect of multimodal transport and should be constantly evolving and improving.