Brown Policy in Action, 2026

A quieter way to read
the rhythm of Boston's main streets.

An academic heat map of visitor activity across Boston's neighborhood commercial districts, produced by Brown University's Policy in Action program with the Boston Main Streets Foundation and the City of Boston's Mobile Enterprise team. Built for city staff, business district leaders, and researchers, not for marketing, benchmarking, or commercial redistribution.

Enter the research map → How it was built

Academic Use Attestation Required before entry

Before you enter the research map.

This heat map is a research output of Brown University's Policy in Action program, produced in partnership with the Boston Main Streets Foundation and the City of Boston's Mobile Enterprise team. It incorporates foot-traffic data provided by Dewey Data Inc. and sourced from Advan Research, licensed to the project strictly for academic research purposes.

By entering this site I acknowledge and agree that:

This map is available strictly for academic and non-commercial research review. Any commercial, operational, or investment use of the underlying data is prohibited.
I will not distribute, publish, or otherwise make available the Licensed Data to any third party, whether in raw form or otherwise. Only summary visualizations are displayed here.
I will not use this data to evaluate, compare, benchmark, or verify the accuracy or completeness of any other data source, nor publish any such results.
I will not use the data for targeted advertising, to build a profile of any individual or device, or in connection with any financial instrument, investment activity, or financial service.
If the City of Boston, Boston Main Streets Foundation, or any other party wishes to use Dewey or Advan Research data for operational, commercial, or ongoing municipal purposes, a separate commercial license must be obtained directly from Dewey Data Inc. (deweydata.io) and its data partners. This research site does not grant, imply, or substitute for any such license.

About the project

A student research tool built for the people running Boston's main streets.

Boston Foot Traffic was developed by a Brown University Policy in Action research team working alongside the Boston Main Streets Foundation and the City of Boston's Mobile Enterprise team. The goal is simple: give district level practitioners a clearer picture of when and where visitors move through commercial corridors, using data they would not otherwise be able to assemble.

Who it's for

Main Streets district directors, City of Boston staff working on neighborhood economic development, and researchers studying small scale urban activity. Not intended for retail site selection, marketing, or investment analysis.

Partners and researchers

What it shows

A weekday by weekday heat map of estimated visitor activity at the neighborhood commercial district level. Visualizations are summary only. No individual, household, or device level data is displayed or downloadable from this site.

Aggregated, summary views

How it got here

Brown's Policy in Action program pairs graduate students with public agencies and civic partners. This project was completed during the 2026 cycle under the supervision of Grant Cohen, with data access arranged through Dewey Data Inc. under an academic license.

Brown Policy in Action, 2026

Data sources

Licensed foot traffic data, used under academic terms.

The estimates shown on the map draw on foot traffic signals licensed for academic research. We are transparent about what is and is not permitted, and we do not redistribute the underlying data in any form.

Dewey Data Inc.

Dewey provides the research license under which this project accesses Advan Research's foot traffic panels. Use is limited to this academic engagement, and any operational or commercial application requires a separate license directly from Dewey.

deweydata.io, academic license

Advan Research

Advan supplies the underlying panel of visitor activity signals that feed the map's estimates. Signals are aggregated to the neighborhood level before display. Nothing on this site reveals or can reconstruct visit level records.

Aggregated panel, weekly cadence

City of Boston geography

Neighborhood boundaries follow the City of Boston's published planning districts. Main Street commercial corridor definitions are provided by the Boston Main Streets Foundation and its member districts.

Public boundary data

Why this works for civic partners

Built for the kind of reading city staff actually do.

The map is designed to be useful on a Tuesday afternoon in a district office, not in a pitch deck. Small choices in how the data is shown, and in what is deliberately left out, reflect that.

Day by day, not a single number

Visitor activity shifts sharply between, for example, a Wednesday lunch hour and a Saturday afternoon. The map lets you step through each month, day of the week, and hour of the day, rather than collapsing everything to one average.

Neighborhood level, always

Estimates are aggregated to Boston's neighborhood commercial districts. That is coarse enough to protect against identifying individual visitors and fine enough to support district level policy conversations.

Transparent about uncertainty

The display is intentionally restrained. We show relative activity, not precise visit counts, because the underlying panel is a sample. The visualization reflects what the data can honestly support.

Access stays with the partners

The site is password gated. Access is granted by the Brown Policy in Action research team in coordination with Boston Main Streets and the City, and access can be rescinded at any time. There is no public API and no data download.

Contact

Requesting access, reporting an issue, or asking about the research.

Access is managed by the Brown Policy in Action research team. For approved partners, this is also the right contact for data or methodology questions, and for reporting anything on the map that looks off. General press and commercial inquiries should be directed to Dewey Data Inc.