Courtesy Streets

Submitted by: Elizabeth Horgan

A courtesy street is a street along which the travel way is very narrow, requiring cars traveling in opposite directions to be courteous and pull over to let one another pass. There is no marked division of the travel way, but instead one wider zone for drivers of both directions. Courtesy streets encourage slower speeds because of their narrow travel way, and limit volumes because drivers do not want to be slowed by encounters (a passing of cars in opposite directions).

Courtesy streets vary in width. Many have on-street parallel parking on one or both sides of the street. For this discussion, three streets will be reviewed with different widths and travel way/parking configurations.

Street 1: Huntington Avenue - Hyde Park, Boston, MA

Reviewed from Thatcher Street to Safford Street
Curb-to-curb width: 25’8”
On-street parallel parking: both sides
Remaining travel width (assuming 7’ parking lane): 11’8”

The travel width of 11’8”, which is provided when cars are parked along both sides of the travel way, is not enough for two cars to pass without one pulling off to the side. There is no centerline, allowing for cars to travel down the center of the street when there is no opposing vehicle (Figure 1).


Figure 1: A car traveling down the center of the travel way on Huntington Avenue.  Photo taken at Safford Street, Facing North along Huntington Avenue - Hyde Park, Boston, MA



Street 2: Bradlee Street - Hyde Park, Boston, MA

Reviewed from Tacoma Street to Safford Street
Curb-to-curb width: 19’7”
On-street parallel parking: West side only
Remaining travel width (assuming 7’ parking lane): 12’7”
The travel width of 12’7", provided when there is a parked car (Figure 2), is not enough for two cars to pass without one pulling off to the side.

Figure 2: Bradlee Street at Safford Street, Facing North - Hyde Park, Boston, MA

Figures 3 and 4 depict this process – although the SUV is blocking the view, another vehicle is waiting at the end of the street for the SUV to pass the parked car (Figure 3) and move over to the parking area to allow the waiting vehicle to continue (Figure 4).



Figure 3: SUV traveling southbound blocking the car wishing to travel northbound - Bradlee Street - Photo taken at Tacoma Street, facing South - Hyde Park, Boston, MA



Figure 4: Car traveling northbound after SUV traveling southbound has moved over to the unused parking lane - Bradlee Street - Photo taken at Tacoma Street, facing South - Hyde Park, Boston, MA

Bradlee Street is parallel to Huntington Avenue. Huntington Avenue is more frequently utilized by drivers, although when cars are parked on both sides of the street the travel way is almost a foot smaller.

Bradlee Street north of Tacoma Street was under construction during the time available to be in the field, therefore no pictures or measurements are available. This section of the street is somewhat wider, but has parking on both sides of the travel way. The volume of this section is also higher, creating an environment close to that of Huntington Avenue.

Street 3: Forest Hills Street - Jamaica Plain, Boston, MA

Reviewed from Glen Road to Washington Street
Curb-to-curb width: 25’8”
On-street parallel parking: East side only
Remaining travel width (assuming 7’ parking lane): 18’8”
The travel width of 18’8”, provided when there is a parked car is enough for two cars to pass without needed to pull off to the side (Figure 5).

Figure 5: Travel way is wide enough for two cars to pass - Forest Hills Street, facing South - Jamaica Plain, Boston, MA

A very faded centerline can even be seen in some areas (Figure 6).

Figure 6: Faded Centerline along Forest Hills Street- photo taken facing South - Jamaica Plain, Boston, MA

Often larger vehicles will ignore the centerline and travel closer to the middle of the street (Figures 7 and 8).

Figure 7: School bus van traveling the middle of the travel way of Forest Hills Street - photo taken facing South - Jamaica Plain, Boston, MA

Figure 8: Truck traveling the middle of the travel way of Forest Hills Street - photo taken facing South - Jamaica Plain, Boston, MA

When parked cars are closely parked to the curb, most encounters can pass without pulling over, however, most vehicles slow to an almost complete stop to allow for passing (Figures 9 and 10). This aids in discouraging drivers from using the street as a cut-through to avoid peak hour traffic along Washington Street and keeps speeds low enough to still allow for pedestrian crossings almost anywhere (limitations come from blocked sight-lines caused by the cars parked on the street and the curvature of the roadway).

Figure 9: Slowing passing vehicles - Forest Hills Street - photo taken facing South - Jamaica Plain, Boston, MA

Figure 10: Slowly passing vehicles - Forest Hills Street - photo taken facing North - Jamaica Plain, Boston, MA