Expanded bus, bike lanes eyed

Boston transportation officials are eyeing various ways of shutting down parts of streets during the coronavirus crisis, turning them into pedestrian areas or bus lanes.

Jacob Wessel, Boston’s public realm director, said Tuesday that the city’s looking at four different approaches to extending sidewalks into streets.

One is the “slow streets approach,” where neighborhood roads are limited to local traffic only. Wessel said the city is looking at portions of Roxbury near Franklin Park for this.

“This type of approach’s something that could be done in a lot of different neighborhoods in Boston,” Wessel said during a council hearing, noting that it’s important to have community input.

Then there is the idea of making “pop-up bike lanes,” Wessel said, for which the city is looking at Day Boulevard in Southie and portions of Beacon Street.

“This is a lot of planning that we’ve already done,” Wessel said, noting the city’s recent push to expand the bike lane network, which has run into some controversy.

And the city is also considering adding bus lanes, particularly along the Silver Line routes on Washington Street in the South End and downtown. Wessel said the city and MBTA may look to expand bus stops to allow for better social distancing as people wait.

The city also is eyeing cordoning off slices of parking lanes to expand sidewalks, normally in places near grocery stores or other businesses where people have to wait outside. Wessel said the city is considering Centre Street in Jamaica Plain and Meridian Street in East Boston for this type of change.

Mayor Martin Walsh on Monday voiced support for these general ideas, floating the North End’s Hanover Street as one possibility.

City Councilor Matt O’Malley, whose district includes a portion of West Roxbury where a plan to get rid of parking in favor of bike lanes drew heavy community pushback last year, said this is a time to work with neighbors to make changes happen.

“We have an opportunity to address that, to find common ground and work together,” O’Malley said.

NICOLAUS CZARNECKI / HERALD STAFF FILE ‘COMMON GROUND’: City officials are mulling the possibility of expanding bus and bike lanes, along with extending sidewalks.