Wood Avenue Safety Improvements
We're making Wood Avenue a safer place to walk, ride, and drive.
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Project Phase
Project Information
Wood Avenue is a residential street that connects Cummins Highway (North) and River Street (South). You have shared concerns about speeding, , and there have been three fatal crashes in the last nine years. We are redesigning Wood Avenue with the goals of:
- lowering traffic speeds
- improving pedestrian crossings and safety
- finding opportunities to reduce the paved surfaces, improve drainage, and add more planted spaces
Design
DesignOur 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 planted areas
- 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
Our design includes:
- A raised crosswalk across Wood Avenue, south of Ruskindale Road and north of Farrar Avenue
- A curb extension with a planted area that is designed to realign and straighten out the intersections of Ruskindale 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
- New Landscaping plan updated to include trees and plantings
Our design includes:
- A raised crosswalk across Wood Avenue, south of Oakwood Street and north of Tacoma Street
- A curb extension with a planted area that is designed to realign and straighten the intersections of Tacoma Street and Wood Avenue and shorten pedestrian crossings
- Reconstructing the existing concrete sidewalk on both sides of Tacoma Street and Oakwood Street; 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
- New Landscaping plan updated to include trees and plantings
Our design includes:
- A raised intersection, with high visibility pedestrian crossing markings and curb extensions on all corners of the intersection
- New landscaping areas with added street trees
- Realigning and straightening out the Safford Street and Parker Street intersections
- New accessible pedestrian ramps at all corners
- Preserving access for all existing driveways
Our design includes:
- A raised crosswalk across Wood Avenue, north of Humarock Way and across Westminster Street
- Curb extensions to shorten pedestrian crossings
- New accessible pedestrian ramps at all corners
- Preserving access for all existing driveways
- Retain existing guardrail
- Move parking to the western side of the street
Our 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 the approach of Ellard Road
- New accessible pedestrian ramps at all corners
- Preserving access for all existing driveways
- Moving parking to the western side of the street
Our design includes::
- A raised crosswalk across Wood Avenue south of Danbury Road and north of Edwardson Road
- Curb extensions around Danbury Road in order to realign and straighten the approach to and from Wood Avenue
- New accessible pedestrian ramps at all corners
- Preserving access for all existing driveways
- Moving parking to the western side of the street
Curb Ramps
We've expanded the project to include upgrading all curb ramps on Wood Ave to be fully accessible. This work includes changes to the curb and sidewalk in order to make room for the new curb ramps and shorten pedestrian crossings. This work is happening at:
- Taunton Avenue
- Tina Avenue
- Geraghty Terrace
- Frazer Street
Street Lighting
As a part of this project we are adding over a million dollars in conduit and foundations for the Street Lighting department. After our work is complete they will be upgrading the street lighting at a time to be determined.
Repaving
We are working in coordination with our repaving program to repave the entirety of Wood Ave at the same time we install the project work. Utility and drainage work will begin this summer and last until the fall moratorium.
Events
EventsPast updates
Past updatesPresentation: April 28, 2025
Presentation Boards: April 30, 2025
We presented the updated designs for safety improvements to Wood Avenue online on April 28th, 2026 and in-person on April 30th, 2026. Community members asked important questions and shared their experiences and opinions about the project. The next phase of work will incorporate your feedback in the design and work towards finalizing the plans and engaging a construction contractor. We will be finalizing the design over the next few months and look to have a construction contract in place by Fall 2026. We will work with the contractor and Public Works to complete all pre-construction work including utilities, drainage, and sidewalk repair over the Summer and Fall of 2026. We aim to begin construction in 2027.
APRIL 28, 2026: Virtual Meeting
The project team presented the designs and answered questions from community members. Approximately 25 people were in attendance.
Interpretation was available in Spanish and Haitian Creole.
April 30, 2026: In-person meeting at 912 River Street Community Room
At this meeting, we heard feedback and answered questions about the designs from approximately 25 people.
We presented the preliminary designs for safety improvements to Wood Avenue in person on June 26th and online on July 10th, 2025. Community members asked important questions and shared their experiences and opinions about the project. The next design phase will incorporate feedback on the design. We will hold another set of meetings when the revised design is ready for review.
June 26, 2025: In-person meeting at 912 River Street Community Room
At this meeting, we heard feedback and answered questions about the designs from approximately 40 people.
July 10, 2025: Digital Meeting
The project team presented the designs and answered questions from community members. Approximately 20 people were in attendance.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Who's Involved
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