Traffic Calming & Roadway Safety

About the Program

The Town of Brookline has a strong history of implementing safety improvements on our residential streets to enhance the safety and improve the quality of life of our residents. The Town of Brookline is committed to:

  • Encouraging citizen involvement in all phases of neighborhood traffic management
  • Influencing driver behavior through education and design
  • Ensuring that limited Town resources are utilized in a cost-effective and efficient manner
  • Implementing traffic calming techniques that are both effective and compatible with the character of the affected neighborhoods and improve public safety without jeopardizing emergency response needs, creating hazards, or reducing mobility
  • Improving the livability and safety of Brookline neighborhoods by mitigating the impact of traffic and promoting safer conditions for residents, motorists, bicyclists, and pedestrians
  • Installing traffic calming measures on streets where their implementation will reduce traffic speeds, minimize cut-through traffic, or improve the safety of movements by pedestrians and bicyclists

Brookline Improves Safety for Residents

When a resident or neighborhood association states its desire for safety improvements on a street, they are expressing their belief that motorists are not driving at the speed limit, or that their street is experiencing an unnecessarily high volume of traffic that is not generated by adjacent properties. If these conditions are confirmed to exist, the DPW Transportation Division will work with the impacted neighborhood to develop and implement a safety improvement plan.

A safety improvement plan is a list of actions or devices found to be effective in reducing vehicle speeds, changing traffic flows, or altering driver behavior so as to create safer conditions for pedestrians, bicyclists, and motorists on a specific street or streets.

Requesting Safety Improvements

If you or your neighborhood association would like to request that a safety improvement measure or measures be evaluated for application on a specific street or streets, complete the Traffic Calming Request Form (PDF) and submit it to:
DPW - Transportation Division
333 Washington St.
4th Floor
Brookline, MA 02445

Based on current staffing levels and the study and public process requirements of the Traffic Calming Policy, staff typically conducts 1 to 2 studies per year.