Who manages transportation in Boston & Massachusetts?
Statewide
- Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT): State transportation agency that oversees roads/highways, public transit, aeronautics, and transportation licensing/registration. Created in 2009 by Governor Deval Patrick as a merger of six former state transportation agencies.
- Massachusetts Department of Conservation & Recreation (DCR): State agency that manages parks and other natural recreation facilities, including a network of "parkways" intended as either recreational travel areas or roads connecting parks to each other. In 2020, the DCR released its Parkways Master Plan to improve parkway equity, environmental benefit, and public safety.
Regional
- Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA): Division of MassDOT that provides subway, bus, commuter rail, ferry, and paratransit service to eastern Massachusetts and parts of Rhode Island. Largest transit system in Massachusetts.
- Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO): Conducts the federally required metropolitan transportation planning process for the Boston metropolitan area, encompassing 97 cities and towns. Decides how to allocate federal and state transportation funds.
- Regional Transit Authorities (RTAs): 15 RTAs provide bus, subway, and/or paratransit service in different regions of Massachusetts, including the Cape Cod RTA, Merrimack Valley RTA, Pioneer Valley RTA, Worcester RTA, and more.
Municipal
Each municipality throughout Massachusetts manages the roads within their jurisdictions, with the exception of state-owned roads and highways managed by MassDOT and DCR. In these cases, municipalities and state agencies coordinate with one another. Below is a selection of municipal transportation offices in and around Boston (it is by no means comprehensive).
Find Books
For books, search for full titles or keywords in HOLLIS, Harvard's library catalog.
When you've found a relevant book, click on the linked subject terms in the book's HOLLIS record or scroll to "Shelf View" at the bottom of the record to find related books.
![Transportation Planning in Boston: A Paradigm of Progress, Opposition, and Reversals [Chapter]](http://syndetics.com/index.aspx?isbn=9781472469564/LC.GIF&client=springshare)
Find Articles & Reports
- Bicycle and Pedestrian TransportationLong-range bicycle and pedestrian planning from MassDOT.
- Boston Planning & Development Agency (BPDA) Research PublicationsPublications on the most requested economic and demographic data for Boston including historical neighborhood trends, redlining, poverty, immigration, and more.
- Code of Massachusetts Regulations (CMR) by SubjectList of regulations governing various elements of Massachusetts' operations, including those pertaining to transportation. Browsable alphabetically.
- LivableStreets AllianceReports and policy recommendations on Vision Zero, fare-free transit, micromobility, and transportation equity in the Boston area.
- MassDOT Financial Statements and ReportsStatements and reports on MassDOT's financial disclosures, debt management policies, bond ratings, and more.
- MassDOT Research ProjectsList of current and completed research projects carried out since 2016 on a wide range of transportation infrastructure topics in Massachusetts.
- MA State Transportation LibraryOnline catalog of public information from Massachusetts's various transportation agencies.
- Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC)Transportation-related research from the regional planning agency of Metropolitan Boston. Covers topics like autonomous vehicles, e-commerce, public transportation, parking, biking, walking, and more.
- Statewide PlansStatewide planning projects undertaken by MassDOT, including those related to bicycling, walking, rail, and freight.
- StreetsBlog MassDaily news site focused on transportation in Massachusetts, including Greater Boston. Like its parent site StreetsBlog USA, it provides "information about how to reduce dependence on cars, promote human-centered, equitable, and environmentally sustainable places, and improve conditions for walking, biking, and transit."
Find Data
- Analyze BostonCity of Boston's open data portal. Includes datasets from the Boston Transportation Department on Blue Bikes ridership, traffic flows, pedestrian counts, and more.
- Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO)Collection of spatial and tabular data used to inform regional transportation planning and policy decisions.
- Cambridge Open DataCity of Cambridge's open data portal. Includes transportation datasets on commuting modes, bicycle ridership, traffic counts and speeds, parking, and more. Some geospatial data included.
- GIS Maps, Transportation Data, & ReportsProduced by MassDOT. Transportation-related spatial information throughout Massachusetts, including interactive dashboards, open data downloads, static maps, and reports.
- IMPACTStatewide crash data from MassDOT. Provides raw data and interactive dashboards, including on Statewide Crashes by Severity and Year. Data can be filtered by year, municipality, severity, and type.
- MassDOT Developers' Data SourcesTransit, highway, airport, and RMV data, in real-time and static formats.
- MassDOT Office of Performance Management & Innovation (OPMI)Reports and data on performance in MassDOT's five divisions: Highway, Aeronautics, Registry of Motor Vehicles, Rail & Transit, and the MBTA. Includes the MBTA Performance Dashboard which measures transit reliability, ridership, customer satisfaction, arrival accuracy, and speed restrictions.
- Somerville Open DataCity of Somerville's open data portal. Includes data from annual pedestrian and bicycle counts, conducted since 2010.
- TODEX MAFrom the Center for Housing Data at the Massachusetts Housing Partnership, TODEX is short for "Transit-Oriented Development Explorer." "Developed in 2019, this tool allows you to review densities at all 261 Greater Boston transit stations and picture the great opportunity we have to build more housing near transit."
- Traffic Volume and Classification in MassachusettsInteractive traffic map, historical traffic volume data, and guidance on collecting traffic counts from MassDOT.
- TransitMatters LabsData dashboards and trackers on MBTA service.
Find Primary Sources
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Between 1974 and 1988, Boston Public Schools were under court order to desegregate through a system of integration busing. Following the Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education which ruled racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional, many U.S. cities began busing students to schools with the goal of achieving greater racial diversity. The system was highly controversial in Boston, leading to declines in public school enrollment, white flight to Boston's suburbs, and political violence against Representative Elaine Noble who was the only white member of the Boston delegation to ride the buses.
- Along the Elevated: Photographs of the Orange LineCollection of photos taken along Boston's Orange Line subway route. Sponsored by the MBTA and held at the Boston Public Library.
- Archives Related to Transportation at UMass BostonUMass Boston holds a large collection of archival records related to Boston's transportation history, including activism, bicycling, transit, and more.
- Boston Transit History and DocumentsResearch guide from the Boston Public Library on the history of transit in Boston.
- Digital Commonwealth: Massachusetts Department of TransportationNearly 400 photos from 1892 through 1913 of areas in and around Boston that would later become sites of transit stations or tracks.
- Getting Around Town: Four Centuries of Mapping Boston in TransitDigital exhibit by the Leventhal Map & Education Center at the Boston Public Library based on the book Boston in Transit (MIT Press, 2023) by Steven Beaucher. In-person exhibit up between September 9, 2023 and April 27, 2024.
- Norman B. Leventhal Map Center Collection: TransportationNearly 100 maps related to transportation in Boston from the Norman B. Leventhal Map Center Collection.
- Standing Our Ground: Collections Related to Housing, Community Development, and Land Use and Planning Activism in BostonDigital collection at the UMass Boston Healey Library. "This collection and digital collection area is named after "Standing Our Ground," a 25-minute slide show by filmmaker Judy Branfman about Boston's rich and creative history of neighborhood struggles over land control and development, and the growth of empowerment and local control. Beginning in the 1950s with the vigorous Urban Renewal program, Branfman's 'Standing Our Ground' highlights, in the distinct voices of 13 community activists, a few of Boston's key struggles and victories, including Tent City and Emergency Tenants' Council in the South End, East Boston's fight against airport expansion, and the halting of the I-95 highway construction."
- Sumner Tunnel Construction Photographs, 1929-1933Digital collection at the UMass Boston Healey Library. "The photographs in this collection document the construction of the first Boston Harbor tunnel, later called the Sumner Tunnel. The tunnel was constructed to handle automobile traffic from the North End of Boston to East Boston. The tunnel opened in 1935."