City of Boston street segments data from the Street Address Management (SAM) system. Updated nightly.

Description of data fields in the Boston street segment data

This layer represents all the public and many of the private roadways in Massachusetts, including designations for Interstate, U.S. and State routes. Formerly known as the Massachusetts Highway Department (MHD) Roads, then the Executive Office of Transportation - Office of Transportation Planning (EOT-OTP) Roads, the MassDOT roads layer includes linework from the 1:5,000 road and rail centerlines data that were interpreted as part of the 1990s Black and White Digital Orthophoto project. The Massachusetts Department of Transportation - Office of Transportation Planning, which maintains this layer, continues to add linework from municipal and other sources and update existing linework using the most recent color ortho imagery as a base. The attribute table includes many "road inventory" items maintained in MassDOT's linear referencing system. The data layer published in November 2018 is based on the MassDOT 2017 year-end Road Inventory layer and results of a 2014-2015 MassDOT-Central Transportation Planning Staff project to conflate street names and other attributes from MassGIS' "base streets" to the MassDOT Road Inventory linework. The base streets are continually maintained by MassGIS as part of the NextGen 911 and Master Address Database projects. MassGIS staff reviewed the conflated layer and added many base street arcs digitized after the completion of the conflation work. MassGIS added several fields to support legacy symbology and labeling. Other edits included modifying some linework in areas of recent construction and roadway reconfiguration to align to 2017-2018 Google ortho imagery, and making minor fixes to attributes and linework.In ArcSDE this layer is named EOTROADS_ARC.From this data layer MassGIS extracted the Major Roads and Major Highway Routes layers.

Areas that are within 10 minutes of an exit are emphasized on this map, to give an indication of how accessible neighborhoods are by highway. The colors represent 1, 3, 5 and 10 minute increments from the exits, based on posted exit speeds and local road speeds in ideal conditions. The areas were calculated using ready to use services hosted in ArcGIS which feature a road network from HERE. A simple geoprocessing tool sent 40,000+ exit locations to the service, which returned the 160,000+ polygons. ---------------------The Civic Analytics Network collaborates on shared projects that advance the use of data visualization and predictive analytics in solving important urban problems related to economic opportunity, poverty reduction, and addressing the root causes of social problems of equity and opportunity. For more information see About the Civil Analytics Network.

The Street Lighting Division of Public Works maintains 40,000 out of the City's 67,000 electronic streetlights, and oversees the contracting for the rest. It also takes care of 2,800 gas lights and 1,500 fire-alarm lights. This is a legacy dataset containing lattitude and longitude data for over 74,000 City streetlights.

Boston Main Street districts are a network of 20 Main Street Organizations that use a comprehensive revitalization approach to create, build, and sustain healthy commercial districts.

Street trees, from Treekeeper Web Feature Service. Updated daily.

This dataset is from the City of Boston's Street Address Management (SAM) system, containing Boston addresses. Updated nightly and shared publicly.

The Census Bureau does not recognize or release data for Boston neighborhoods. However, Census tracts can be aggregated to approximate Boston neighborhood boundaries to allow for reporting and visualization of Census data at the neighborhood level. Census tracts are created by the U.S. Census Bureau as statistical geographic subdivisions of a county defined for the tabulation and presentation of data from the decennial census and the American Community Survey. The 2020 Census tract boundary files for Boston can be found here. These tract-approximated neighborhood boundaries are used for work with Census data. Work that does not rely on Census data generally uses the Boston neighborhood boundaries found here.

MassGIS is working very closely with the State 911 Department in the state’s Executive Office of Public Safety and Security on the Next Generation 911 Emergency Call System. MassGIS developed and is maintaining the map and address information that are at the heart of this new system. Statewide deployment of this new 9-1-1 call routing system was completed in 2018.Address sources include the Voter Registration List from the Secretary of the Commonwealth, site addresses from municipal departments (primarily assessors), and customer address lists from utilities. Addresses from utilities were “anonymized” to protect customer privacy. The MAD was also validated for completeness using the Emergency Service List (a list of telephone land line addresses) from Verizon.The MAD contains both tabular and spatial data, with addresses being mapped as point features. At present, the MAD contains 3.2 million address records and 2.2 million address points. As the database is very dynamic with changes being made daily, the data available for download will be refreshed weekly.A Statewide Addressing Standard for Municipalities is another useful asset that has been created as part of this ongoing project. It is a best practices guide for the creation and storage of addresses for Massachusetts Municipalities.Points features with each point having an address to the building/floor/unit level, when that information is available. Where more than one address is located at a single location multiple points are included (i.e. "stacked points"). The points for the most part represent building centroids. Other points are located as assessor parcel centroids.Points will display at scales 1:75,000 and closer.MassGIS' service does not contain points for Boston; they may be accessed at https://data.boston.gov/dataset/live-street-address-management-sam-addresses/resource/873a7659-68b6-4ac0-98b7-6d8af762b6f1.More details about the MAD and Master Address Points.Map service also available.

The Census Bureau does not recognize or release data for Boston neighborhoods. However, Census block groups can be aggregated to approximate Boston neighborhood boundaries to allow for reporting and visualization of Census data at the neighborhood level. Census block groups are created by the U.S. Census Bureau as statistical geographic subdivisions of a census tract defined for the tabulation and presentation of data from the decennial census and the American Community Survey. The 2020 Census block group boundary files for Boston can be found here. These block group-approximated neighborhood boundaries are used for work with Census data. Work that does not rely on Census data generally uses the Boston neighborhood boundaries found here.

City of Boston traffic signals.

Boston Fire Department (BFD) district boundaries per general order of the fire department. New districts went into effect on 8/3/2011. This data was last updated on 9/22/2015 by BFD personnel. Boundaries are coincident with the Street Address Management (SAM) conflated street centerline data. Purpose was for use in new CAD system provided by Intergraph. Boundaries of districts created using newest version of city boundary provided by 2010 Census data.

March 2025

Traffic-related data collected by the Boston Transportation Department, as well as other City departments and State agencies. Various types of counts: Turning Movement Counts, Automated Traffic Recordings, Pedestrian Counts, Delay Studies, and Gap Studies.

~_Turning Movement Counts (TMC)_ present the number of motor vehicles, pedestrians, and cyclists passing through the particular intersection. Specific movements and crossings are recorded for all street approaches involved with the intersection. This data is used in traffic signal retiming programs and for signal requests. Counts are typically conducted for 2-, 4-, 11-, and 12-Hr periods.

~_Automated Traffic Recordings (ATR)_ record the volume of motor vehicles traveling along a particular road, measures of travel speeds, and approximations of the class of the vehicles (motorcycle, 2-axle, large box truck, bus, etc). This type of count is conducted only along a street link/corridor, to gather data between two intersections or points of interest. This data is used in travel studies, as well as to review concerns about street use, speeding, and capacity. Counts are typically conducted for 12- & 24-Hr periods.

~_Pedestrian Counts (PED)_ record the volume of individual persons crossing a given street, whether at an existing intersection or a mid-block crossing. This data is used to review concerns about crossing safety, as well as for access analysis for points of interest. Counts are typically conducted for 2-, 4-, 11-, and 12-Hr periods.

~_Delay Studies (DEL)_ measure the delay experienced by motor vehicles due to the effects of congestion. Counts are typically conducted for a 1-Hr period at a given intersection or point of intersecting vehicular traffic.

~_Gap Studies (GAP)_ record the number of gaps which are typically present between groups of vehicles traveling through an intersection or past a point on a street. This data is used to assess opportunities for pedestrians to cross the street and for analyses on vehicular “platooning”. Counts are typically conducted for a specific 1-Hr period at a single point of crossing.