About StreetsblogMASS

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StreetsblogMASS is a daily news source connecting people from all walks of life to information about how to reduce dependence on cars, promote human-centered, equitable, and environmentally sustainable places, and improve conditions for walking, biking, and transit.

Massachusetts has ambitious goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks (the state’s largest source of pollution) and to eliminate deaths and serious injuries on our streets. And yet, for all its good intentions, the Commonwealth often falls short of building the infrastructure and implementing the policies necessary to meet those goals. Our streets are public spaces, and instead of surrendering them to our dirtiest, most dangerous vehicles, we need our public spaces to favor safer, more affordable and more equitable transportation options.

Since 2006, Streetsblog has covered the movement to transform our cities by reducing dependence on private automobiles and improving conditions for pedestrians, cyclists, and transit riders. Our reporters have broken important stories about transit funding, pedestrian safety, and bicycle policy from day one. And our writing has raised public awareness and promoted reform on arcane but important topics like parking prices and induced traffic.

Today, hundreds of thousands of readers rely on Streetsblog, and our online community is the connective fiber for people all over the country working to make their streets safer and more sustainable. Streetsblog New York City, Los Angeles, Massachusetts, San Francisco, Chicago, USA, and the national Streetsblog Network connect local, grassroots transportation reform advocates with one another and to a national movement for reform.

StreetsblogMASS is independent from other Streetsblog sites, which have no control over StreetsblogMASS policies or editorial content.

Our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion

Transportation in Massachusetts reflects and exacerbates our society’s inequities. For generations, policy-makers have moved heaven and earth to make travel easier for (often) affluent, (often) white car commuters at the expense of low-income people, people of color, women, people with disabilities, youth, older adults, and those who cannot or choose not to drive.

The destruction of poor and working-class neighborhoods for highway construction; the daily rush of noisy, polluting traffic through communities of color; disinvestment in public transportation; the refusal of public officials to protect the health and safety of people traveling on foot or by bike – these are just the most obvious results of a public policy system where the voices of some people matter, and others don’t.

They are also the result of the systemic racism - from redlining to persistent residential segregation to disinvestment in Black and brown communities - that has shaped the Commonwealth in which we all live and move.

As an outlet for advocacy journalism, StreetsblogMASS aims to amplify the stories of and about those who have been left behind by our automobile-centered transportation system, and to draw attention to efforts in our communities to ensure a safer, more equitable and more sustainable transportation system for Massachusetts. At the same time, we are aware of the potential for transportation reform campaigns - and our own journalism - to reflect and perpetuate the biases in our society.

StreetsblogMASS aims to achieve diversity and inclusion, and contribute to transportation equity, by:

Covering stories in areas of the Commonwealth that are often unrepresented in mainstream media.
Developing a diverse board of directors and roster of writers/contributors to shape our coverage.
Highlighting transportation equity in our coverage, and highlighting the transportation challenges experienced by members of marginalized communities.
Periodically reviewing our coverage to ensure that the subjects of our stories, the places we cover, and the people whose voices are included in our stories represent the full and rich diversity of the Commonwealth.
Inviting our readers and other members of the community to share their thoughts on our reporting and how we can be doing better.

StreetsblogMASS is a Boston-based non-profit under the fiscal sponsorship of the Conservation Law Foundation, with financial support from generous readers like you.

You can download a copy of our fiscal sponsor's IRS Form 990 here.

We also thank our major financial sponsors: