Shift Towns · Massachusetts

Walking, biking & transit in Melrose

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

Get involved in Melrose

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

In Melrose

City committees you can join

Meetings & comment pathways

Your transportation department

  • Melrose DPW Engineering Division — The city division that designs and maintains Melrose roadways, sidewalks, traffic signals, street lights and drainage, and issues permits for work in the public way.
  • City of Melrose Complete Streets Program — The city program that plans and funds sidewalk, crossing and bike improvements across Melrose, and where residents can see which projects are prioritized.
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 Melrose

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: 4300streetcar / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0 (cropped)

Northern Strand Trail

Starts 3.9 mi from central Melrose · Bike · 9.3 mi route · 1 hr · Everett · Lynn

A paved rail trail from the Mystic River to Lynn, straight across the Rumney Marsh

Photo by Alex Jones on Unsplash

Somerville Community Path

Starts 4.7 mi from central Melrose · 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 5.1 mi from central Melrose · Walk + transit · 4 mi route · 36 min · Somerville · Cambridge

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

All roams →
#11 of 26
Massachusetts towns by shift rate in October
7
active trips so far in October
33.2
active miles
30
lbs CO₂ avoided*
3
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 Melrose— 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 Melrose by week ending, last 5 completed weeks.

Sep 20Sep 27Oct 4Oct 11Oct 18

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. Melrose is 21 points behind #1.

  1. 1Cambridge94%
  2. 2Somerville94%
  3. 3Everett91%
  4. 4Boston91%
  5. 5Salem87%
  6. 6Malden86%
  7. 7Brookline86%
  8. 8Medford83%
  9. 9Revere81%
  10. 10Watertown75%
  11. 11Melrose73%
  12. 12Lincoln73%
  13. 13Arlington70%
  14. 14Newton68%
  15. 15Stoneham66%
  16. 16Saugus61%
  17. 17Waltham55%
  18. 18Westborough54%
  19. 19Wakefield43%
  20. 20Quincy42%
  21. 21Lexington32%
  22. 22Newburyport28%
  23. 23Peabody25%
  24. 24Natick24%
  25. 25Framingham11%
  26. 26Danvers5%

How Melrose moves

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

Share of trips

29%
29%
43%

Share of miles

21%
78%
Walking
2 trips · 0.3 mi
Biking & scooting
2 trips · 7.1 mi
Train
3 trips · 25.9 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 Melrose's totals on this page, earns you rewards at local businesses, and enters you into seasonal prize drawings.

Help Melrose climb the board.

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

Download on the App StoreGet it on Google Play

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