Join The Vision Zero Movement

Got this in the email. For far far too long Americans have had an at best un-examined relationship with the effects of the cars they drive. Vision Zero highlights the most tragic effect of our transportation choices.  We should commit to zero deaths on our streets.

A Tough Start to the Year: How you can get Involved

There have been more than two dozen pedestrian fatalities statewide in 2016, including the tragic death of a child near Tufts Medical Center last Saturday. Another person was hit this morning at the corner of Mass Ave & Albany Street – part of the 1.6 mile stretch of Mass Ave from Melnea Cass Blvd to Beacon Street that has been highlighted as a Vision Zero Priority Corridor. While we are seeing some positive incremental progress, we still have a tremendous amount of work to do to bring the number of fatalities and serious crashes down to zero in Boston and throughout the state.

To help you can:

• Submit your safety concerns on the City of Boston’s new interactive Vision Zero safety concerns map. You can pick a location and comment on specific street safety concerns in Boston with this tool. Now you can report safety concerns, near misses, and incidents – valuable data that can be added to existing police and EMS crash data.

• Read the City Of Boston’s Vision Zero Action Plan and share it with others via Facebook, email or Twitter. Spreading the word is an important first step in making sure everyone is working to reduce traffic fatalities.

• Contact your city councilors, legislators and other local leaders to encourage them to pass and support the legislation and policies above related to Vision Zero, and to focus efforts and funding on infrastructure that is safer for people walking and biking.

• Share this email with your friends and encourage them to sign up for updates from the Vision Zero Coalition.

Boston City Councilors Support Lowering the Speed Limit to 20 MPH

Boston city councilors held a hearing two weeks ago to lower the default speed limit to 20 miles per hour on city streets.

The measure would decrease the speed limit from 30 miles per hour in residential areas and thickly populated business districts where there are no posted signs. In school zones, the speed limit would be lowered from 20 miles per hour to 15 miles per hour.

Several members of the Vision Zero coalition spoke at the hearing: Jackie DeWolfe from LivableStreets, Wendy Landman from WalkBoston and Becca Wolfson from the Boston Cyclists Union.

The City Council has unanimously passed the proposal, which now goes to Mayor Martin J. Walsh. The measure will also also require the State Legislature’s approval, because speed limits are set by state law.

Giving communities the option to set lower default speed limits is one more tool that can help make our streets safer for everyone.  It should be paired with real infrastructure improvements to change driver behavior and force driving at safer speeds.

We’ll keep you updated as this progresses!

Boston Commits Funds to Vision Zero

Just a few days ago, the City of Boston announced they would set aside $3.1 million for Vision Zero in their 2017 budget, a significant increase from the $500,000 that was in this year’s budget. Another $9.3 million will go toward the project over the next three years.

“The underlying philosophy of Vision Zero is that our streets should be welcoming and safe,” said Boston Transportation Commissioner Gina Fiandaca.

Increasing the Vision Zero budget was one of the key recommendations the Massachusetts Vision Zero Coalition made to the city. Click here to read the full list of recommendations.

Cambridge Announces Commitment to Vision Zero

Joe Barr, Director of Traffic, Parking, and Transportation for Cambridge, announcing the commitment to Vision Zero

In March, the Cambridge City Council unanimously passed resolutions to formally adopt Vision Zero and Complete Streets policies! Cambridge follows more than a dozen other cities nationally that committed to Vision Zero.

To read the full text of the resolution click here (resolution starts on p.54). 

We are excited that Cambridge has committed to Vision Zero and hope that other towns and cities throughout the state will follow suit!

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Video Shines Spotlight on Dangerous LMA streets

Check out this great video highlighting the often dangerous streets conditions for people biking in the Longwood Medical Area.

Recent studies show that more than 20 percent of rush hour traffic in the LMA is on bicycle. The video highlights the needs for better street designs that will accommodate emergency vehicles as well as everyone moving to and through the LMA no matter how they get around.

Thank you for helping make our streets safer for everyone!

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They Caught That Asshole Hit And Run Driver!

The driver in this #CambMA crash was IDd; Will be summonsed for A&B w/Dangerous Weapon Causing Serious Bodily Injury pic.twitter.com/kkCkKyz0KB

— Cambridge Police (@CambridgePolice) November 18, 2015

Woo!  Now all we can hope for is that this attempted murder gets treated as such, instead of the more usual case of having the charges thrown out or reduced to a ridiculous degree.  Trying to kill someone with your car should be treated in the same way that trying to kill someone with anything else is, seriously.

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Police Are Looking For An Asshole In A Truck

Who hit a cyclists on purpose and then drove off.

(From U-Hub)

Cambridge Police report they are looking for the driver of a pick-up they say swerved towards a bicyclist on Webster Street shortly after 7 a.m. on Sept. 29:

Just before the hit and run, the operator of the pickup yelled, honked his horn and then made contact with the bicyclist’s handle bar, causing him to fall.

The bicyclist, Geren Stone of Somerville, is a doctor at Mass. General. He required surgery for injuries to his left arm, police say.

Read more about this here, anyone with info call the Cambridge police at: 617-349-3364.

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World Naked Bike Ride Last Night

Got a good glimpse of some amazing and awesome naked riders last night. Way to go everyone! Bikes + anything = awesome. Especially if that anything is naked people having innocent fun on a warm summer night.

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Cambridge Installs Bike Counters!

Saw this little gem on the way home, I was lucky biker 267!  They had just gotten done filling in the dirt, so that is 267 bikers since around 4pm or so (it was about 5:20pm when I took this).  Not bad!

From the Cambridge bike count website:

Counting into the future

In 2015, Cambridge installed a permanent bicycle count station in Kendall Square, on Broadway.

The “Eco Totem” counter (made by the Montreal-based company Eco-Counter) counts cyclists via in-ground loop detectors and displays on the monitor how many cyclists pass by. The counter displays daily and cumulative totals and also captures weather data to use for analytical purposes. The data can be used in many ways:

• To publicly show how many people are bicycling and make a statement that “bicyclists count”
• The 24/7 data can be used to analyze daily, weekly, monthly and seasonal patterns. This can be used to help extrapolate data from other counts
• The data assist with determining crash rate analyses

Live tracking of the counter will be available in July 2015.

More People Bicycling

The percentage of Cantabrigians who commute by bicycle has also been rising steadily over the past two decades. The 1990 US Census reported that 3% of residents commuted by bicycle; by 2000 that number rose to 4%; the American Community Survey for the three year period 2009-2011 shows 7% of residents commuting by bike.

Additional local surveys of Cambridge residents suggest that from 7% to 9% of Cambridge residents commute to work by bike. Local surveys also found a lot of bikes in Cambridge: for every 100 households, there are approximately 150 bicycles.

Traffic counts conducted by the city found that between 2002 and 2012, rush hour bicycle trips in Cambridge tripled in number. In 2014, the total numbers actually took a dip down, although detailed analysis seems to identify construction impacts as a primary cause. Click here for more information.

For more information on trends in bicycling in Cambridge, look to our Bicycle Counts Report.

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