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Advocates to Feds: We Need a New Traffic-Control Manual

By Kea Wilson | Mar 24, 2021 | No Comments

A coalition of leading transportation professionals is pushing for an overhaul of the manual that sets many of the most dangerous design guidelines for our car-focused roads — and rejecting a piecemeal public comment process that they say will only put a band-aids over the gaping wounds in our unsafe national transportation standards.

A bus rider pays their fare with their phone during a test of the T's new fare system on an MBTA bus in downtown Boston in January 2021.

‘Do Not Track’ Report Offers Privacy Guidance for the T’s New Fare System

By Christian MilNeil | Mar 24, 2021 | No Comments

The MBTA’s new fare payment system will potentially collect a lot more personal data from riders and their cellphones, and a new report offers advice for how riders can protect their privacy.

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A wrecked pickup truck rests in the median of Route 1 in Lynnfeild following a police chase in November 2020. Photo courtesy of the Massachusetts State Police.

Nationwide Pedestrian Fatality Rate Up By Double Digits During Pandemic

By Gersh Kuntzman | Mar 23, 2021 | No Comments

Thanks to a well-documented increase in reckless driving on less-congested roadways during the pandemic, the pedestrian fatality rate rose 22 percent in the first half of 2020 compared to the same period a year earlier, according to a new report by the Governors Highway Safety Association.

Washington Street in Brookline with new sidewalks and protected bike lanes.

New ‘Controlling Criteria’ Will Require Sidewalks, Bike Lanes In State Road Projects

By Christian MilNeil | Mar 22, 2021 | No Comments

The newly-adopted controlling criteria for bike, pedestrian, and transit facilities lay out minimum standards to help ensure that all roadway users are considered from the beginning of a project's design process.

Bike Light Legislation Renews Debate Over Policing’s Role In Traffic Safety

By Christian MilNeil | Mar 19, 2021 | No Comments

"There are concerns we have that this would be enforced through police interactions, and we know those to be inherently inequitable, and that they lead to more drastic incidents for people of color."

Appleton-Mass. Ave. safety improvements alternative 1

Town of Arlington Considers Quick-Build Improvements to Deadly Mass. Ave. Intersection

By Christian MilNeil | Mar 17, 2021 | No Comments

After last summer's fatal crash, the town's Select Board convened a new design review committee “to study and make recommendations for both short term and long term improvements to the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Appleton Street.”

Downtown Malden sidewalk blocked by a snowbank, credit WalkBoston

Boston Council Discusses Ideas to Improve Sidewalk Snow Clearance

By Christian MilNeil | Mar 16, 2021 | 1 Comment

Councilor Kenzie Bok, who represents Back Bay and Mission Hill, requested the hearing before the Council's Committee on City and Neighborhood Services after a large Nor'easter last December left some of her constituents housebound for days.

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Chicago to the Feds: New Roadway Design Guide Is Way Too Car-Centric

By John Greenfield | Mar 16, 2021 | No Comments

Riders protest the elimination of the MBTA's Route 55 bus on Sunday, March 14, 2021. Photo courtesy of Boston City Councilor Kenzie Bok.

T Service Cuts Take Effect; Riders React to Crowded Trains, Missing Buses

By Christian MilNeil | Mar 15, 2021 | 1 Comment

“I’ve talked to my colleagues and they are furious about this,” said 8th district Congressman Stephen Lynch, who helped pass the American Rescue Plan relief bill in Washington just days before the service cuts took effect.

Mayoral candidate and Boston City Councilor Andrea Campbell

Councilor Campbell’s Mayoral Campaign Releases Transportation Platform

By Christian MilNeil | Mar 11, 2021 | No Comments

One of the more unique concepts in Councilor Campbell's platform is her endorsement of "15-minute neighborhoods," places where more jobs, services, and amenities are located within 15 minutes of everyone's home.

Plan for Franklin Park Would Ban Cars From Circuit Drive

By Christian MilNeil | Mar 10, 2021 | No Comments

"We want to elevate multimodal routes for bikes and pedestrians," said Lydia Gikas Cook, a landscape architect working on the plan, on Wednesday.

The proposed Northampton Street Residences is one of the handful of housing developments that Boston approved in 2020 that will include no on-site parking lots or garages. The project will replace a surface parking lot with 47 new affordable apartments adjacent to the Southwest Corridor Park and the Mass. Ave. Orange Line station. Rendering by Höweler + Yoon Architecture, courtesy of the BPDA.

Boston Planners Approved Over 11,000 New Parking Spaces in 2020

By Christian MilNeil | Mar 9, 2021 | 1 Comment

The development projects that Boston planners approved in 2020 would add enough parking to store up to 11,162 more cars within the city limits – and the vast majority of new parking garages will be built in areas within easy walking distance of an MBTA rail station.

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