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.

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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.

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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>


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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."

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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.

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Black Transportation Justice Boston Spotlight: Mattapan Food and Fitness

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Streetsblog Network

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Streetsblog Massachusetts

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<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

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Op-ed

Guest Column: Imagine More Forgiving Neighborhoods

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Daily headlines

Monday’s Headlines Fund Transit (Mostly)

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

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StreetsblogMASS

StreetsblogMASS Welcomes Three New Board Members

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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.

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Black Transportation Justice: A Closer Look at Intersectional Labor Movements