How a One-Month Street Redesign Is Helping Harrisonburg Repair and Reimagine
This summer, something remarkable is happening on North Mason Street in Harrisonburg. While it might look like a few cones, bollards, and plastic bags over stoplights at first glance, what’s really being tested is a transformation in how we design and share our public spaces.
North Mason Street is undergoing a one-month pop-up redesign to slow traffic, create safer crossings, and reconnect the Northeast neighborhood in Harrisonburg, long divided by wide, fast roads. It’s a bold and hopeful experiment, and it’s exactly the kind of work that sits at the heart of the Shenandoah Valley Bicycle Coalition’s mission: reclaiming streets and public spaces for people.
A Street That Was Built to Divide
For decades, North Mason Street has been a prime example of how car-centric planning shapes our cities, too often at the expense of the communities who live there. Five lanes of fast-moving traffic created a harsh and unwelcoming environment for anyone not behind a windshield.
Worse, this stretch of Mason Street was cut through the historically Black Northeast neighborhood, a community that has borne the brunt of Harrisonburg’s urban renewal policies. These policies, like the R4 Urban “Renewal” project, displaced families and businesses, leaving behind wide roads, abundant parking lots, and deep scars still visible today.
When we talk about rebuilding Mason Street, we’re not just talking about infrastructure. We’re talking about reconnecting a community, restoring the connective tissue that makes a neighborhood whole, and righting past wrongs by building a more equitable present.
A Community-Centered Redesign
This pilot project, led by the City of Harrisonburg with support from Harrisonburg Downtown Renaissance, Northeast Neighborhood Association, and the Shenandoah Valley Black Heritage Project, isn’t your typical top-down transportation plan.
Instead, it’s a community-driven collaboration, a living, breathing experiment in what might be possible.
The temporary redesign includes:
- Reduced travel lanes to slow down traffic -> from 4 lanes to 2
- Curb extensions for safer pedestrian crossings
- Freshly marked crosswalks
- Space reclaimed for walking, biking, and gathering
- Two roundabouts to replace stoplights
It’s simple, low-cost, and powerful. Because it doesn’t take millions of dollars or years of planning to make a street feel different, it just takes the will to try. This is one of the most extensive and most impactful temporary or “pop-up” projects the city of Harrisonburg has ever embarked on.
We love to see it and continue to advocate for more transformational pop-up projects in communities throughout the valley.
🗣️ Harrisonburg Wants to Hear From You!
Help Shape the Future of North Mason Street
The City of Harrisonburg is collecting public feedback on the temporary redesign of North Mason Street. Your voice matters—whether you walk, bike, roll, drive, or live nearby.
👉 Take the short survey here
(It only takes a few minutes!)
Your input will help guide the city’s next steps. Let’s make sure this project reflects the needs, hopes, and experiences of our whole community.
A Block Party That Felt Like the Future
The city and its partners hosted a block party (on Saturday, July 12) in the newly redesigned space to kick off the project. Music played. Kids drew chalk murals in the middle of the street. Neighbors gathered around tables and shared food. People filled and reclaimed the street on a human scale, not only for cars.
And that’s the thing about projects like this: They don’t just change the street; they change the story we tell ourselves about what’s possible. When people experience public space differently, they begin to demand something better.
Healing Past Harms, Building Future Joy
We can’t erase the harm caused by decades of planning that ignored or actively harmed marginalized communities. But we can choose to do better now.
This redesign is one small act of repair in a much larger process of reckoning with our history and reshaping our future. This project must center the Northeast neighborhood in location and voice.
Too often, traffic calming and “livability” investments are focused on affluent areas. North Mason Street flips that script. It says: every neighborhood deserves safety, dignity, and public space that invites connection.
What Comes Next?
This pilot lasts one month, and community feedback will help determine what elements stay and how the design evolves. Please take the survey to let Harrisonburg know that this is a wonderful project. These temporary changes are only as powerful as the community’s support behind them.
We believe this work doesn’t end with Mason Street. It’s just the beginning. Streets are our largest public spaces, and they should reflect our shared values: inclusion, sustainability, and connection.
Why the Bicycle Coalition Cares
You might be asking, what does this have to do with biking? The answer is everything.
When we talk about safer streets for bikes, we’re also talking about safer streets for people walking, using wheelchairs, pushing strollers, and waiting for the bus. We’re talking about kids getting to school safely, elders crossing the street without fear, and local businesses thriving because their storefronts are more accessible.
The Bicycle Coalition exists to build a region where biking, walking, and public space serve everyone. This isn’t just a street project. It’s a vision for a more joyful, just, and connected community.
And if that means fewer lanes for cars and more room for people? We’re all in.
Have thoughts about the Mason Street redesign? We’d love to hear from you. Shoot us a message or tag us in your photos of the new street in action. This is your street. Let’s shape it together.
