Shift Towns · Massachusetts

Walking, biking & transit in Burlington

See the routes Burlington 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 Burlington. New street projects, meetings worth your voice, and how Burlington is moving. One or two emails a month.

Get involved in Burlington

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

In Burlington

Clubs & ride groups

  • Cycle Loft — Organizes group rides in and around Burlington.

Meetings & comment pathways

Your transportation department

  • Burlington DPW – Highway Division — The town division that maintains Burlington's roads, sidewalks, drainage, street signs and snow plowing, and is who you contact about street conditions.
  • Town of Burlington Complete Streets Policy — The adopted town policy committing Burlington to design streets for walking, biking and transit as well as cars, useful if you want to cite town standards when asking for a crosswalk or bike accommodation.
Regional & statewide groups, 7 more

Advocacy groups

  • 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 Burlington

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: Seasider53 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Battle Road Trail

Starts 5 mi from central Burlington · Walk · 6 mi route · 2 hr · Lexington · Concord

Walk the path of the American Revolution, from Lexington to Concord

Photo: Karl Alexander

Mystic River Greenway (Alewife to Medford)

Starts 7.6 mi from central Burlington · Bike · 6.7 mi route · 41 min · Arlington · Somerville · Medford

Two rivers, two T stations, and 300 years of history between them

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

Minuteman Bikeway

Starts 7.8 mi from central Burlington · Bike · 6.4 mi route · 42 min · Cambridge · Arlington · Bedford

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

All roams →
4
active trips so far in November
23.3
active miles
21
lbs CO₂ avoided*
1
neighbors active so far in November

Burlington joins the Massachusetts board once it logs 20+ trips in a month. Shift Rate is the share of trips taken actively (walk, micromobility, transit). Counts cover November 1 through today, based on trips logged by Shift community members that start or end in Burlington — 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).

Momentum

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

Oct 4Oct 11Oct 18Oct 25Nov 1

Friendly competition

Massachusetts towns by shift rate so far in November, the share of trips taken actively. Every town here has its own page: local stats, popular routes, events, and ways to get involved.

  1. 1Waltham95%
  2. 2Boston92%
  3. 3Somerville92%
  4. 4Cambridge91%
  5. 5Everett89%
  6. 6Malden88%
  7. 7Medford88%
  8. 8Brookline87%
  9. 9Quincy79%
  10. 10Newton78%
  11. 11Arlington60%
  12. 12Newburyport45%
  13. 13Watertown35%
  14. 14Lexington24%

How Burlington moves

Trips and miles neighbors logged so far in November, by mode.

Share of trips

14%
14%
71%

Share of miles

16%
83%
Walking
2 trips · 1.8 mi
Bus
2 trips · 21.6 mi
Driving
10 trips · 111.6 mi

What is this?

Shift is a free app from Green Streets Initiative, a Somerville nonprofit since 2006, for finding better ways to get around. Every walk, bike ride and transit trip people take with Shift adds to Burlington's totals on this page. Shift counts trips on its own.

Put Burlington on the board.

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

Download on the App StoreGet it on Google Play

Community stats reflect trips by Shift community members that start or end in Burlington 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.