New Somerville Safe Streets Ordinance Mandates 30-Mile Protected Bike Lane Network By 2030
Last week, the Somerville City Council unanimously endorsed a new Safe Streets Ordinance that will set a 2030 deadline for the city to build out a 30-mile network of new protected bike lanes across the city.
June 18, 2024
Declining Infrastructure Funding From Healey Admin. Puts T’s ‘State of Good Repair’ Further Out of Reach
In spite of inflation and growing maintenance backlogs, the T is facing a bleak future of dwindling infrastructure funding from the Healey administration.
June 12, 2024
Will A New Rail Bridge Across the Charles Include a Long-Promised Walkway to North Station?
The MBTA appears to be moving ahead with plans to replace a major drawbridge next to North Station without a long-planned bike and pedestrian path that would have connected riverfront parks in Boston and Cambridge.
June 5, 2024
Downtown Salem Gets Lots of Foot Traffic; Its Cops Want to Fence It In
Last month, the Salem Police Department announced a controversial new plan to manage the dense crowds of pedestrians that visit the Witch City every autumn. Police are proposing to erect two temporary fences across a major downtown crosswalk, effectively turning two busy sidewalks into enclosed corrals.
June 5, 2024
Increased State Funding Yields New Bus Routes Across the Commonwealth
Expanded state funding for regional transit authorities (RTAs) will finance several inter-regional bus routes later this year thanks to expanded funding from the Fair Share Amendment.
May 29, 2024
Critics Say MassDOT’s New ‘Beyond Mobility’ Plan Is Missing Accountability
A new long-range plan for the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) acknowledges that the agency has serious problems with safety, traffic congestion, limited access to public transit, and pollution from its roadways.
May 27, 2024
Electric Backslide: Massachusetts On Track to Miss Its EV Goals By A Wide Margin
As of January 2024, there were only 66,000 zero-emission cars registered in Massachusetts, even though the state's climate roadmap relies on Bay State drivers buying 200,000 by 2025.
May 14, 2024
MBTA Is Finally Showing Progress on Bus Operator Hiring
For the first time in years, the MBTA is growing its depleted workforce of bus operators, thanks to a more generous labor contract and expanded training programs.
May 13, 2024
Mass. Senate Proposes Fare-Free Buses for Regional Transit Authorities Statewide (But Not the T)
The budget-writing committee of the Massachusetts Senate published its 2025 spending recommendations this week, with a notable increase in funding for the state's Regional Transit Authorities (RTAs).
May 10, 2024
Eyes On the Street: Less Pavement, More Park On Hammond Pond Parkway
Earlier this week, StreetsblogMASS reader Aaron Lu shared some photos of the Department of Conservation and Recreation's Hammond Pond Parkway road diet, which is converting a a four-lane highway without any sidewalks into a calmer two-lane street with a separated 12-foot-wide shared-use path and additional greenery in lieu of asphalt.
May 8, 2024
