Boston’s Mayor Wants to Cut the City’s Speed Limit
Boston has a rep for being a hard-driving city — but Mayor Marty Walsh is working to change that image and make The Hub a safer place for pedestrians and motorists alike. How? He’s proposing to cut the Boston speed limit from 25 mph to 20 mph.
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Previous slowdowns
Back in 2017, Walsh and the City of Boston Transportation commissioner Gina N. Fiandaca succeeded in lowering the Boston speed limit down from 30 mph to 25 mph. The policy change was meant to save lives — research shows that pedestrians struck by vehicles traveling 25 mph are half as likely to die as those hit at 30 mph. Lo and behold, in the first year of the speed limit chance, Boston saw a drop in traffic fatalities from 21 to 14.
Vision Zero
While it’s impressive that Boston managed to shave off one-third of its traffic fatalities, Mayor Walsh and the Boston Transportation Department have bigger goals. As part of their safety initiative entitled Vision Zero, they’re working eliminate fatal and serious traffic crashes in the city altogether. The initiative is also working to install speed bumps and other traffic-calming devices in problem areas. Other branches of the Vision Zero project involve rezoning street parking and improving bike lanes by designing them with larger buffer zones.
Safety first
Currently commuting at 25 mph, Bostonians are tied with Angelenos and New Yorkers. If the Boston Transportation Department succeeds in dropping the speed limit to 20 mph, they’ll be on par with drivers in London, Paris, Berlin, and Tokyo — all pedestrian-heavy cities with a low number of traffic fatalities.
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Will these policy changes save lives and prevent crashes in Boston? Tell us what you think in the comment section below.
Sources: Boston Magazine, Boston.gov, Boston.gov
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