A smiling black woman with long braided hair wearing a black-and-yellow plaid patterned sweater

Meghan Volcy

A map of MBTA communities, with dark blue indicating compliant municipalities, blue striped ones indicating those that are conditionally compliant, light blue indicating zoning plans that have been adopted and/or submitted for review, red indicating noncompliant municipalities, grey indicating adjacent small towns whose zoning plans that were due as of December 31st of 2025, and white indicating inapplicable areas.

MBTA_Comm_status_12_26_25

Housing

MBTA Communities Act Holdouts Are Losing State Funding

Temporary fencing lines the sidewalk on the DCR-controlled approach to the Beades Bridge. Google Street View imagery suggests that the temporary fencing has been there for nearly 8 years. Photo by Tony Dutzik.

Beades Bridge West Sidewalk

Highways

MassDOT Highway Administrator Discusses Challenges of Aging Highways and Rising Costs

A look at the Fitchburg Commuter Rail Line from the Sherman Street grade crossing in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The train tracks with a white utility truck and industrial buildings on the right and trees, shrubs, and a small parking lot on the left.

shermanstreetstudyarea_mbtacrossing_enhanced

Accessibility

Trump’s Budget Cuts Won’t Stop Cambridge From Bridging Its Communities

<p>Got tips? Send them to me via Signal, the encrypted messaging app, at 207-310-0728. You can also follow me on <a href="https://better.boston/@cmilneil" rel="me">Mastodon.</a></p>


PROMO-milneil

Christian MilNeil

A police officer stands next to a police car parked under a traffic light in a wide multi-lane intersection

Roxbury Crossing crash scene 12.18.2024 credit Rev. Laura Everett

Crashes

Ambulance Data Reveals That Boston Drivers Are 4 Times More Likely to Run Over Pedestrians From Black Neighborhoods

A group of people hold handmade signs at a public rally advocating for public transit funding. Signs read "FUND TRANSIT NOW!" "TRANSPORTATION FOR ALL!" and "Don’t leave us STRANDED! Save transit."

20170516-untitled-6118-reduced

Equity

Black Transportation Justice: How Mobility Affects Housing, Health, and Freedom in a Modern World

Three young black people standing in front of a row of parked bicycles. The woman in the center is wearing a blue t-shirt and glasses and holding a microphone in one hand and raising her other hand high.

YouthBikeSummit_

Black Transportation Justice Boston Spotlight: Mattapan Food and Fitness

streetsblog-mass-logo-alt

streetsblog-mass-logo-dark

lede_post_card_default

lede_post_card_stacked

lede_post_card_featured_post

lede_post_card_featured_post_3:2

lede_post_card_featured_post_1:1

lede_post_card_featured_posts_hero

lede_post_card_featured_posts_hero_3:2

lede_post_card_featured_posts_hero_1:1

lede_post_card_featured_posts_sidebar

lede_post_card_highlighted_post

lede_post_card_horizontal_a

lede_post_card_horizontal_c

lede_post_card_related_post

lede_post_card_square

lede_article_featured_16x9

lede_article_featured_16x9_full_width

lede_article_featured_3x2

lede_article_featured_3x2_full_width

lede_article_featured_1x1

lede_article_featured_1x1_full_width

lede_article_featured_flexible

lede_article_featured_flexible_full_width

lede_article_content

lede_article_content_wide_width

lede_article_content_full_width

lede_byline_avatar_post_card

lede_byline_avatar_highlight

lede_profile_coral_avatar

lede_logo

lede_logo_banner

lede_logo_footer_banner

lede_logo_simple_header

lede_sponsorship_logo

lede_sponsorship_logo_river_card

lede_sponsorship_homepage_card_logo

lede_sponsorship_homepage_card

lede_leaderboard

Header

Streetsblog Network

Connecting people to information about how to improve walking, biking, and transit

streetsblog-mass-logo

Streetsblog Massachusetts

Support StreetsblogMASS

SB-Donation-500px-wide

Donate to StreetsblogMASS house ad – homepage

River card donations house ad

A row of armed masked police in confront a row of protesters on a snowy winter street.

Renee Good protest confronts ICE in Minneapolis credit Chad Davis

Policing

‘Kavanaugh Stops’ Are Making Streets More Dangerous

Complete-Streets

Daily headlines

Tuesday’s Headlines Become More Affordable

<div><span class="im">Aman Shankardass is a Master’s student at Boston University interested in transportation planning and human-centered urban design. Last year, he founded Boston Cafe Bikers, a Boston-based community that promotes city exploration and bike safety, aimed at building confidence in sustainable commuting. Find him on Instagram: <a href="https://www.instagram.com/bos_cafe_bikers">@bos_cafe_bikers</a>.<br />
</span></div>


Aman Shankardass

NorthamptonMainSt_creditMayorNarkewicz

Op-ed

Guest Column: Imagine More Forgiving Neighborhoods

A crowd of people are seated at desks arranged in a semicircle facing a speaker in a red jacket standing at a dias in the front of a large, ornate room.

Governor Healey at State of the Commonwealth on Jan. 22, 2026.

Elections and Politics

Healey’s ‘State of the Commonwealth’ Boasts About MBTA Turnaround, Promises to Fill Budget Shortfall

A bar chart showing three pairs of bars (with a red bar for "expenses" next to a stacked pair of bars of an equal combined hight, with a green bar for "revenues" and a black bar on top of the green for "budget gap". The x axis shows three budget years: FY2026, FY2027, and FY2028. The y axis runs from 0 to 4K and is labelled "Millions of dollars". The bars get progressively taller over the three years, but the red and black bars (expenses and deficits) grow more than the green bars (revenue). The left set of bars shows $3,103 million in expenses, $2,864 in revenues, and $239 in deficit. The right set of bars (FY2028) shows $3,640 in expenses, $2,802 in revenue, and $837 in deficit.

mbta-2026-budget-forecas

Another Year, Another Budget Gap: Gov. Healey Still Needs A Long-Term Solution for Funding the T

A photograph of a bridge construction zone in winter. In the foreground a metal crash barrier and chain link fence separate a concrete sidewalk (left) from a multi-lane roadway (right). In the middle distance another fence blocks the sidewalk, with an orange "detour" sign pointing right towards the roadway behind an orange construction barrel. In the distance, a crash barrier in the roadway separates car traffic from a temporary sidewalk across the bridge. On the left edge of the photo a second pedestrian bridge joins with the sidewalk.

Revised Cambridge St Bridge sidewalk closure Jan 20 credit Emily Jacobsen

Bicycling

Update: MassDOT Improves Allston Construction Detour Following Streetsblog Coverage

Become a subscriber today to get unlimited access

Thanks for reading!

post

IMG_8527

A group of Black women in white dresses standing on the street, holding banners for the Ladies Auxiliary of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters.

2db7cbd9-5e72-4c2e-a125-c2f1c5c3012c-banner

Black Transportation Justice: A Closer Look at Intersectional Labor Movements