BOSTON- ALBANY STREET SHARED-USE PATH EXTENSION

The proposed concept aims to address these mobility problems for people walking and biking. In the concept, the existing narrow sidewalk on the east side of Albany Street is reconstructed to a shared-use path to facilitate a wider and obstruction-free path of travel for people walking and biking. This shared-use path extends to South Station Connector to connect to the existing path beyond the Connector. The shared-use path also involves narrowing the curb radius on the south east corner of Albany Street and Kneeland Street to shorten the crossing distance for people walking, and slowing turning movement speeds for vehicles. The curb corner is flushed with the roadway to allow for bicycles to mount the curb in a safe manner. Additionally, wayfinding signage is proposed at the southeast and southwest corners to make it easy for people biking to navigate. Signal modifications that increase safety and decrease wait times for people walking and biking is also shown. This includes a bike signal for eastbound travel through bikes on Kneeland Street, and turning off existing concurrent pedestrian phasing. Expansion of the shared-use path involves elimination of one travel lane on Albany Street until it merges back to three 11-foot travel lanes where the existing sidewalk is wide. Synchro models from a previous project were used to analyze operations of the new lane configuration on a high-level and were found to have little to no effect.