Shift Towns · Massachusetts

Walking, biking & transit in Medford

See the routes Medford neighbors actually walk, ride and take transit on, what's happening locally, and how the town is trending — built from real trips logged in the Shift app.

Keep a pulse on Medford. New street projects, meetings worth your voice, and how Medford is moving. One or two emails a month.

Get involved in Medford

Safer streets are made by neighbors who speak up. Start small:

Happening nowWed, Oct 28 · 7:00 PM · virtual

Bicycle Advisory Commission Meeting (Medford)

Medford's Bicycle Advisory Commission meets over Zoom, giving residents a chance to raise concerns or ideas about biking conditions in the city.

Join the Zoom meeting→

In Medford

Advocacy groups

  • WalkMedford — Medford's volunteer pedestrian-advocacy group, which has championed Safe Routes to School, the Clippership Connector riverside path, and safer crossings across the city.

Commuter perks & fare help

  • Lower Mystic TMA — Free commuter services — trip planning, incentives, and the GoMassCommute app — for employees, tenants, and residents of member properties in Everett, Medford, Malden, Chelsea, and Charlestown. (info@lowermystictma.com)

Meetings & comment pathways

  • Medford Traffic Commission — The city board that decides on parking rules, signs, and signals — residents can bring a petition to request changes on their own street. (aerickson@medfordpolice.com · 781-391-6409)

Your transportation department

  • Traffic & Transportation Division, City of Medford — The city's transportation team within the Engineering Department plans Medford's bike lanes, safer crossings, traffic calming, and Bluebikes — and Director Todd Blake takes resident requests for new safety improvements directly. (tblake@medford-ma.gov)
Regional & statewide groups, 8 more

Advocacy groups

  • Mystic River Watershed Associationregional — The watershed nonprofit building out the Mystic Greenways network of riverside walking and biking paths through Medford, with volunteer events and paddles all season long. (617-865-6580)
  • LivableStreets Allianceregional — The Metro Boston advocacy group for people-centered streets and transit, whose research and comment letters cover projects across the region.
  • TransitMattersstatewide — The transit advocacy group pushing for faster, more reliable buses and trains across Greater Boston, with data-driven campaigns anyone can join.
  • Transportation for Massachusetts (T4MA)statewide — A statewide coalition of community groups advocating for safe, affordable, and reliable transportation choices in every corner of the state.
  • WalkMassachusettsstatewide — The statewide walking advocacy organization that leads walk audits and pedestrian-safety campaigns, with open network meetings on Zoom the third Wednesday of each month.
  • MassBikestatewide — The statewide bicycling coalition — a way to plug into bike advocacy, group rides, and Bike Month events across Greater Boston and beyond.

Commuter perks & fare help

  • MBTA reduced faresstatewide — Reduced-fare programs for seniors, riders with disabilities, people aged 18–25 on low incomes, and middle and high school students. Most cut the fare roughly in half.

Get updates

  • MBTA accessibility alertsstatewide — Live notices when an elevator or escalator is out of service, plus how to arrange a shuttle when one is. Worth subscribing to if a lift is part of how you get to the platform.

Events near Medford

A few picks over the next 30 days — the full calendar has everything.

All community events →

Roams to try

Self-guided routes. Preview the full route here, then check in at each stop in the Shift app to unlock the badge.

Photo by Alex Jones on Unsplash

Somerville Community Path

Starts 1.3 mi from central Medford · Bike · 4.3 mi route · 29 min · Somerville · Cambridge

Davis Square to Lovejoy Wharf, end-to-end on the new Somerville extension.

Photo by Arthur Tseng on Unsplash

A City of Squares

Starts 1.8 mi from central Medford · Walk + transit · 4 mi route · 36 min · Somerville · Cambridge

Four Cambridge squares, end to end, on the Red Line.

Photo: John Phelan / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)

Minuteman Bikeway

Starts 1.9 mi from central Medford · Bike · 6.4 mi route · 42 min · Cambridge · Arlington · Bedford

Follow the road the British marched in 1775, Alewife to Lexington Center.

All roams →
#9 of 30
Massachusetts towns by shift rate in October
466
active trips so far in October
852
active miles
759
lbs CO₂ avoided*
40
neighbors active so far in October

Shift Rate is the share of trips taken actively (walk, micromobility, transit). Counts cover October 1 through today, based on trips logged by Shift community members that start or end in Medford— a growing sample, meant as an interesting local signal, not an official or census-level count. *CO₂ avoided is estimated from active miles traveled (EPA 404 g/mi baseline).

Where Medford moves

New to Medford? You're joining a town that moves — neighbors logged 18,254 trips on foot, by bike, and on transit in the last 90 days, and Somerville Community Path, Massachusetts Avenue and Somerville Avenue are where you'll find them. A corridor appears only once three or more different people have traveled it — and it follows Medford residents wherever they go, including into neighboring towns, within about six miles of the town center.

  13. New to Shift: stretches of this route are mostly traveled by people who joined Shift in the last 90 days.
Fewer neighborsMore neighbors

Momentum

Active trips in Medford by week ending, last 5 completed weeks.

Sep 27Oct 4Oct 11Oct 18Oct 25

Friendly competition

Massachusetts towns by shift rate so far in October, the share of trips taken actively. Every town here has its own page: local stats, popular routes, events, and ways to get involved. Medford is 16 points behind #1.

  1. 1Somerville94%
  2. 2Cambridge94%
  3. 3Boston91%
  4. 4Everett91%
  5. 5Salem90%
  6. 6Malden86%
  7. 7Brookline85%
  8. 8Revere81%
  9. 9Medford78%
  10. 10Melrose75%
  11. 11Waltham75%
  12. 12Watertown70%
  13. 13Lincoln70%
  14. 14Arlington68%
  15. 15Newton65%
  16. 16Stoneham62%
  17. 17Saugus60%
  18. 18Concord59%
  19. 19Westborough53%
  20. 20Quincy40%
  21. 21Lexington38%
  22. 22Wakefield37%
  23. 23Newburyport31%
  24. 24Bedford30%
  25. 25Natick23%
  26. 26Peabody21%
  27. 27Winchester17%
  28. 28Burlington14%
  29. 29Framingham8%
  30. 30Danvers8%

How Medford moves

Active trips and miles so far in October, by mode.

Share of trips

63%
22%
10%

Share of miles

26%
36%
9%
30%
Walking
292 trips · 221.2 mi
Biking & scooting
104 trips · 304.9 mi
Bus
24 trips · 73.2 mi
Train
46 trips · 252.7 mi

What is this?

Shift is a free app from Green Streets Initiative, a nonprofit that has celebrated walking, biking, and transit since 2006. Shift automatically counts your walks, rides, and transit trips — every trip adds to Medford's totals on this page, earns you rewards at local businesses, and enters you into seasonal prize drawings.

Help Medford climb the board.

Every walk, ride, and transit trip counts automatically. Download Shift free and put your trips on Medford's board.

Download on the App StoreGet it on Google Play

Community stats reflect trips by Shift community members that start or end in Medford and refresh hourly. Municipalities and community groups can request aggregate data at info@gogreenstreets.org. A project of Green Streets Initiative, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.