State Street in Springfield ranks as one of the Commonwealth's deadliest streets, and it runs through the middle of the city's historically Black neighborhoods. A city proposal would introduce measures to calm traffic, but it's limited to just one block on the edge of the city's downtown.
The latest proposal, as described in the ENF, would reconstruct a 0.8-mile length of Memorial Drive and its multi-use pathways between the Eliot Bridge and the Anderson Bridge (JFK Street).
The Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC), a public regional planning agency based in Boston, estimates that the proposed guidelines would collectively create a zoning capacity for 344,000 multifamily housing units across the region.
Sustainability leaders are furious at the United States Postal Service for dragging its feet on ditching gas-powered mail trucks and other vehicles — and the agency doesn't seem to be seriously considering non-automotive mail delivery options, either.
"When their acts and omissions put the safety of community members and their own employees at risk, sometimes the only means of driving change is through the courts, and public demands for action," said DA Rollins in a statement announcing the criminal probe.
Local stakeholders in an advisory working group expressed a desire to see less asphalt and fewer lanes through the intersections in MassDOT's proposed designs.
A new report from the Massachusetts Office of the State Auditor calls for more spending on rural roads, but fails to address related and more urgent needs for more energy- and cost-efficient transportation in rural areas.