Facts and Maps
Getting Around Cambridge street map
Example of GIS map created transportation information. This map includes the locations of MBTA Red Line and Green Line stops, MBTA bus routes, bike paths and walking paths. Also included are arrows giving the direction of one way streets found throughout the city. View the map.
Learn more about the use of GIS and maps in planning.
Planning for the future of Cambridge requires describing, illustrating and projecting the conditions of the community. The complexity of real world circumstances presents obstacles this process. By measuring aspects of the environment and turning collected data into usable information, planners model that complexity and provide tools to assist the decision-making process.
Data useful for different aspects of planning takes many different forms, but all boil down to different methods of mathematically measuring and representing existing or projected conditions “on the ground”. The tables, maps, charts and other products found here provide a window into the information compiled from data collected by, among other techniques:
- Counting members of a population or their characteristics;
- Converting land use and other physical conditions into digital form;
- Measuring the value of economic transactions; and
- Evaluating the characteristics of the built environment.
Data compiled into a useful form becomes information, and information is available here in a number of formats, including tables, reports, presentation slides, and maps. The data lying behind this variety of products comes from a number of primary sources. Significant ones include the U. S. Census Bureau, the Massachusetts Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development, the Cambridge Assessing data system, the Cambridge Geographic Information System (GIS), the Cambridge Inspectional Services Department, the Cambridge Public Schools Department, and Cambridge-based post-secondary educational institutions.
The Facts and Maps section of the Community Development web site shares some of the wealth of data collected about Cambridge and points users to a number of other locations, both within the City of Cambridge web site and elsewhere on the internet, where useful information about different facets of Cambridge is found.
For More Information
For more information about the maps found here and elsewhere on the CDD web site or the GIS data used to develop those map products, contact Brendan Monroe, bmonroe@cambridgema.gov, at 617/349-4641.
For information about the data tables, profiles and slide shows found here or obtain answers or assistance with other data related questions, contact Cliff Cook, ccook@cambridgema.gov, at 617/349-4656.