Recent Streetsblog MASS posts about Vision Zero

A heat map of harsh braking incidents recorded by the City of Boston's "Safest Driver" app in 2019. Courtesy of the City of Boston.

‘Safest Driver’ Data Reveal Where Boston’s Most Dangerous Driving Is

By Christian MilNeil | Feb 20, 2020 | No Comments

Data collected from a city-sponsored safe driving competition reveal that Boston’s notoriously bad drivers are at their worst behavior on major high-speed state roadways that lie outside of the city’s direct control. In 2019, the City of Boston’s Office of New Urban Mechanics re-launched its “Boston’s Safest Driver” contest, an app-based competition that challenged travelers […]

The aftermath of a truck crash on I-290 in Worcester.

America’s Mayors: Cars are Ruining Our Cities — But We Won’t Do Much About It!

By Gersh Kuntzman | Feb 18, 2020 | No Comments

“I was really struck … about [the mayors’] unwillingness to support or implement things that we in transportation planning know are evidence-based ways to make roads safer for vulnerable road users,” said Katherine Levine Einstein, a Boston University political science professor.

Morning view of Hyde Park Avenue in Forest Hills, Boston.

Boston Starts Outreach For Hyde Park Ave. Bus and Bike Improvements

By Christian MilNeil | Feb 17, 2020 | No Comments

Planners from the City of Boston and the MBTA held their first open house on Tuesday evening in the city’s Hyde Park neighborhood to solicit ideas for “complete streets” and transit-priority improvements to Hyde Park Avenue, a major transit corridor and one of the only north-south routes into the neighborhoods of Hyde Park and Readville. […]

A map of current pedestrian routes (highlighted in red) through the junction of McGrath Highway and Mystic Ave. in Somerville, the city's most dangerous intersection for crashes.

State Proposes Modest Tweaks to Somerville's Deadliest Intersection

By Christian MilNeil | Feb 13, 2020 | 1 Comment

A $5 million safety improvement project for the dangerous intersection of Mystic Avenue and McGrath Highway will provide basic accessibility upgrades to sidewalks and crosswalks, but largely will not address the reckless, high-speed driving behavior that killed two people in hit-and-run crashes in the area over the past year, according to plans presented by MassDOT […]

Eliel Square in Helsinki. Photo by by 'citymaus,' is licensed under a CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 license.

Helsinki Accomplished ‘Vision Zero’ in 2019

By Christian MilNeil | Feb 12, 2020 | No Comments

Helsinki, home to 631,695 people, recorded zero pedestrian or cyclist fatalities on its streets for the entire calendar year.

A ghost bike memorializes Paula Sharaga, the former children’s librarian at the Coolidge Corner Library, who was killed by a truck driver at the intersection of Park Drive and Brookline Avenue. The intersection, which marks the northern edge of a recent repaving project by the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR), features crowded sidewalks, long crosswalk wait times and inadequate bike facilities.

Baker Administration Promotes Montgomery As New DCR Commissioner

By Christian MilNeil | Feb 5, 2020 | No Comments

The Baker administration today announced that Jim Montgomery has named as the new Commissioner of the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR), an agency in charge of managing the Commonwealth’s parklands as well as several high-speed “parkways” in the Boston region. Montgomery had been serving as the interim DCR commissioner since the retirement of former […]

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