Here’s what’s happening:
The City of Boston is currently reviewing all bus and bicycle infrastructure projects, and has so far primarily heard from a minority of Boston residents who want this infrastructure removed. We need to speak up now to defend livable, accessible, and safe streets for Boston residents.
Here’s what to do:
Identify a few improvements that have made your life better in Boston — ideally something that’s changed for the good in the last three years. You might be thinking of an improved or dedicated bus lane, safer routes for cyclists, speed humps, or other forms of traffic calming in your neighborhood. Here are some you can consider!
Write a short note to Superintendent of Streets Mike Brohel (michael.brohel@boston.gov), Mayor Michelle Wu (michelle.wu@boston.gov), Chief of Streets Jascha Franklin-Hodge (jascha.franklin-hodge@boston.gov), and Director of Stakeholder Engagement Mohammed Missouri (mohammed.missouri@boston.gov) about the street improvements that have improved your life in Boston. (We’ve made it easy for you to write by clicking here!) Be specific about what’s helped you or your family or your neighbors! Consider cc:ing your City Councilors, too — if you don’t know who they are, check here.
Share your feedback with us so we can keep track of your responses — please forward your note to bostonbetterstreets@gmail.com and let us know if we can use your testimony in our own advocacy work in the future. If you have photos of how you or your family have benefited from this work that you are okay with our using, please send them along! (Even if they are just pictures of the infrastructure itself.)
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Here’s the full context:
Since 2021, Mayor Michelle Wu’s administration has embodied bold leadership on one of the most vital issues facing the City of Boston: safer streets and better transportation for Boston residents of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds. Building on important groundwork in the Menino and Walsh administrations, the Mayor’s administration has worked thoughtfully and with careful community outreach to ensure that Boston’s transportation network is safer, more reliable, greener, and more equitable for the city’s residents.
Boston has revitalized its infrastructure through dedicated repair programs, reduced neighborhood traffic hazards, expedited public transit improvements, eliminated bus fares on key routes, pioneered AI-driven traffic management, and cracked down on dangerous delivery vehicles, and has built upon fifteen years of multimodal street design with the goal of moving more people safely through a vibrant, historical city. This work has been instrumental in making Boston the most family-friendly city in the country, and accessible to people of all abilities.
We — pedestrians, bus and subway riders, cyclists, and drivers — have been beneficiaries of these changes. Even as progress has not been as quick as many of us would like, we have enjoyed safer streets for ourselves and our families, quicker and more reliable commutes, and improved infrastructure that allows us to live, work, learn, and play in a world-class city that is home to people of all backgrounds, ages, and abilities.
This progress is now being threatened. As the Boston mayoral election approaches, multimodal transportation — including sidewalks, bus lanes, and bike infrastructure — is being used as a wedge issue to divide Bostonians who share so many of the same goals. Despite robust community engagement, Boston's transportation progress now faces organized opposition. Well-resourced neighborhood groups and people who do not live in Boston have secured negative media coverage and special access to officials, resulting in a hasty 30-day review of all planned mobility projects. This “review” threatens to derail years of data-driven planning for bus lanes, bike infrastructure, and pedestrian improvements—undermining the administration's own commitment to safer streets for all Bostonians. Rolling back these changes will have immense negative consequences for the increasingly accessible and family-friendly transportation that so many Bostonians value.
We do not want to see fifteen years’ progress thrown away for political expediency. We urge the city to continue prioritizing multimodal transportation and better infrastructure for the benefit of all Bostonians, including the families and people of different abilities who rely upon it. We ask the city to continue using data alongside the robust community feedback and engagement that has characterized the City and the Administration’s work. We are from different neighborhoods and diverse backgrounds, but each of us can speak to the ways in which improved infrastructure has improved our lives in Boston. We urge the Mayor’s administration to continue to prioritize the overwhelming majority of people who prioritize better streets for all users.
BETTER INFRASTRUCTURE FOR ALL BOSTONIANS