Belmont High School is a 224,000-square-foot facility built in 1970, serving about 1,350 high school students in the picturesque suburb west of Boston. The school site is bordered by the MBTA commuter rail tracks on the north and Claypit Pond and Concord Avenue on the south. Several current transportation and parking issues inhibit the ability of students, parents, teachers, and staff to access the school safely and efficiently. These issues include high demand for parking during school hours, long traffic queues in all directions during peak pickup/drop-off periods, dangers for people crossing by foot and by bike across adjacent streets, and unwanted parking spillover onto neighboring residential streets.
With a clear picture of existing conditions, the firm compared the transportation impacts of the planned school expansion—both the no-build and build scenarios—and developed recommendations for improving access and safety to the school. These recommendations included signalization at a key intersection; improved walking, biking, and transit access; and new traffic circulation patterns.