Boston is preparing to choose a new operator for its street-furniture network, with the proposed contract focused on expanding shelter coverage and updating the way public information and advertising appear on sidewalks. The city's request for proposals calls for more than 500 additional bus shelters over the life of the deal, along with green roofs, shade and a shift toward digital screens rather than print newsstands.
A Contract Two Decades in the Making
The current street furniture contract covers maintenance of bus shelters, wayfinding maps and advertising kiosks across the city, and it expires May 1, 2027, according to Streetsblog Massachusetts. JCDecaux has held the Boston contract since 2001, the report said. In 2025, the company paid the city a fixed annual fee of $1.5 million plus a percentage of local advertising revenue, for total payments of $2.7 million, according to the same account.
The city issued its formal request for proposals earlier this month, and per Streetsblog Massachusetts, officials aim to select a preferred contractor by December 16. Proposals from bidders are due November 4. Boston's outdoor advertising market is worth an estimated $136 million annually, according to industry data cited in the report.
Mayor Wu's Pitch: Comfort and Accessibility
The Existing Network and Its Boundaries
Boston's current inventory provides a baseline for the proposed expansion. According to the City of Boston Property Management Department, the program includes 281 bus shelters, 106 city information panels, three newsstands and 47 digital billboards. The city says its original Street Furniture Program launched in 2001 and was among the first of its kind in North America. Those records establish the network's current scale, but the materials cited here do not provide a complete account of which shelters or other elements have been added, removed or redistributed since 2001. The shelter program also operates alongside other agencies and providers rather than defining every bus-stop responsibility. The city notes that bus stops may be designed by Boston, the MBTA or private entities. That distinction matters in a city where the Boston Transportation Department says the MBTA system has more than 300,000 daily bus boardings, with more than half occurring in Boston.
Mayor Michelle Wu framed the new contract around accessibility, saying, according to the same account, “every street block in our city has the potential to be more accessible and welcoming for everyone.” Wu also said the RFP connects essential street amenities with public art to make infrastructure more comfortable, inviting and accessible, per the report.
The new RFP seeks a balanced geographic distribution of new bus shelters, and the city has flagged specific corridors it wants prioritized: Warren Street in Roxbury and the Route 23 corridor along Washington Street in Dorchester, according to Streetsblog Massachusetts. Boston added 30 green roofs to bus shelters along the Route 28 bus line in Mattapan and Roxbury in 2024, the outlet reports, and the new RFP asks bidders to maintain those existing green roofs while expanding the feature to more shelters.
Shade Structures, Bike Parking and Mobile Furniture
Bidders are also being asked to price out and design 40 standalone shade structures, per the report. The city has been planning 20 new bike parking shelters, with locations planned for the Seaport and the Longwood Medical Area, according to Streetsblog Massachusetts. Separately, an age-friendly bench program has installed more than 100 city-owned benches in public rights-of-way across Boston since 2019, the outlet notes.
The RFP also asks respondents to submit designs and prospective uses for mobile modular street furniture, which the report says could be deployed for major events, MBTA service diversions, long-duration construction projects and other disruptions. All bidder-managed bus shelters would be required to carry real-time transit and travel information under the new terms, according to Streetsblog Massachusetts.
Who Else Is in the Running
The prior information-gathering process gives a broader picture of the potential field, although it did not determine the winner of the current competition. Boston received responses from six national outdoor advertising firms to a 2025 request for information, and officials said those responses helped shape the current RFP, per Streetsblog Massachusetts. JCDecaux was among the respondents. Separately, oohtoday.com reported that the city's Department of Property Management issued the RFI on August 4, 2025, to the outdoor advertising, design, technology and manufacturing industries. That outlet counted 441 pieces of street furniture citywide, including shelters, pillars and kiosks, and reported that the Coordinated Street Furniture Program dates to 2001 and had generated more than $43 million in revenue for the city over the life of the contract. A private contractor operates the program and provides and maintains the elements in exchange for selling advertising space, the outlet reported.
Intersection, a rival firm to JCDecaux, manages advertising for the Bluebikes system and MBTA-owned bus shelters, according to Streetsblog Massachusetts. The company's own marketing describes an exclusive seven-year contract with the MBTA, covering nearly 400 bus shelters and 30 interactive information kiosks, according to billboardinsider.com, which reported the deal was meant to bring real-time service information, interactive maps, trip planning and upgraded shelter maintenance to MBTA riders. Intersection's own site claims a shelter network spanning 17 Boston neighborhoods with more than 440 advertising panels and over 112 million impressions per month across all its platforms, and the company says it began selling ads at Boston Bluebike stations in 2025 across more than 250 stations in Greater Boston.
JCDecaux, for its part, advertises a Boston network of 50 digital screens throughout the Central Business District and 40 kiosks, each fitted with two backlit advertising panels, according to jcdecauxna.com. It remains unclear from available records whether JCDecaux or another firm will end up holding Boston's next street furniture contract once the city's selection process concludes in December.
