Application Information Online for Shared Streets and Spaces Grant Program; Applications Open June 22nd
MassDOT, in partnership with the Barr Foundation, announced a new funding program last week, "
Shared Streets & Spaces," to provide technical and funding assistance to help cities and towns conceive, design and execute shared streets and spaces projects and engage residents and businesses in that process.
The quick-launch/quick-build grant program will provide grants as small as $5,000 and as large as $300,000 for municipalities to quickly launch or expand improvements to sidewalks, curbs, streets, on-street parking spaces and off-street parking lots in support of public health, safe mobility and renewed commerce in their communities. These improvements can be intentionally temporary, in the style of tactical urbanism, or can be pilots of potentially permanent changes to streets and sidewalks.
Types of eligible projects include:
- Shared Streets and Spaces: supporting increased rates of walking and/or biking by increasing safety and enabling social distancing
- Outdoor Dining and Commerce: calming roadways, modifying sidewalks and streets, and/or repurposing on- or off-street parking to better support curbside/sidewalk/street retail and dining
- Better Buses: supporting safer and more reliable bus transit, including expanded bus stops and lanes dedicated for bus travel, (extra scoring credit will be granted for dedicated bus lanes)
- Safe Routes to School: creating safe routes to schools (and childcare and programs for children and youth), including safer walking and biking networks with lowered vehicle speeds
Shared Streets & Spaces grants will be made expeditiously and on a rolling basis. Once awarded, funding will be made available as simply and quickly as possible so that projects can be built and used this summer and fall. MassDOT has allocated $5 million for this 100-day program.
Although projects of all types and sizes are welcome and may be funded, preference will be given to projects that can be operational within 15-30 days of award, projects in designated Environmental Justice areas and projects that show strong potential to be made permanent.
The Shared Streets & Spaces emergency funding program is modeled after the Baker-Polito Administration’s Complete Streets Funding Program, created in February 2016, which, as of January 2020, had awarded a total $46 million to cities and towns for municipal projects improving infrastructure to improve safety for pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists and public transportation customers.
