Recent Streetsblog MASS posts about Vision Zero

A Black man in a dark navy suit holds a microphone while listening to a curly-haired white woman in a red suit while she gestures with one hand and holds a microphone in the other. They are sitting on a stage in a conference room in front of a light blue banner that reads "NACTO Designing Cities 2022"

An Inside Look at Federal Highway Officials’ Efforts to Encourage Safer Streets

By Christian MilNeil | Sep 28, 2022 | No Comments

The annual conference of the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO) conference in Boston earlier this month offered a sort of homecoming for Stephanie Pollack, the former leader of MassDOT who left for Washington in early 2021 to lead the Federal Highway Administration in President Biden’s administration. Pollack’s return to Massachusetts coincided with the […]

The Massachusetts State House in downtown Boston.

Gov. Baker Sends Traffic Safety Bill Back to Legislators With Objections to Safer Speed Limits and Passing Rules

By Christian MilNeil | Sep 26, 2022 | No Comments

The Governor proposed several amendments, including a simpler 3-foot minimum distance for motor vehicles passing bikes and pedestrians, and striking language that would let cities and towns reduce speed limits to 25 mph on state-owned roadways, including the Department of Conservation and Recreation's dangerous "parkways."

A double-parked Lyft driver waits outside of the South Station bus terminal on Thursday, August 8, 2019.

State Data Show Uber and Lyft Drivers Were Involved in Over 1,000 Crashes in the City of Boston Last Year

By Christian MilNeil | Sep 20, 2022 | No Comments

A state compilation of Uber and Lyft data from 2021 data indicates that those companies' drivers were involved in 2,267 crashes across Massachusetts last year. Nearly half of those crashes – 1,098 – occurred in the City of Boston.

Legislature Approves Long-Stalled Traffic Safety Bill With Compromises on Bike Light Requirements

By Sam Mintz | Sep 16, 2022 | No Comments

The version of the legislation which passed both the House and Senate this week includes a compromise: the new lighting rules can’t be the primary purpose for a police stop, and can’t be used as conclusive evidence of contributory negligence in a civil suit.

Map of the Davis and Teele Square neighborhoods in Somerville. Holland Street, College Avenue, and Broadway form a triangle north of Davis Square, with Holland running northwest from Davis to Teele Square, College Avenue running northeast from Davis to Powder House Square, and Broadway running east-to-west at the top of the triangle from Teele to Powder House, a few blocks south of the Tufts campus..

Somerville to Build Protected Bike Lanes Near Davis Square After Fatal ‘Dooring’ Crash

By Christian MilNeil | Sep 2, 2022 | No Comments

Holland Street is scheduled to be repaved this fall; until this week, the project would have created a single paint-only bike lane next to parked cars, similar to the street layout on nearby Broadway.

Driving is the New Smoking: Lessons From America’s Public Health Victory Over Tobacco

By Nick Sementelli | Sep 2, 2022 | No Comments

Smoking, once a celebrated totem of American culture, is increasingly an ostracized habit of the marginal few. Getting there, though, took deliberate vision, coordinated efforts, and persistent policy trial and error over decades — and those efforts reveal a partial roadmap for breaking our country’s similarly dangerous addiction to cars.

Show More Stories