Support Safe Street Legislation
February 7th, is the deadline for legislative committees to act on bills, and An Act to Reduce Traffic Fatalities remains in front of the Joint Committee on Transportation.
The Boston Cyclists Union, along with other advocates and allies in the Vision Zero Coalition, worked closely with Senator Brownsberger and Representatives Hecht and Rogers to develop a comprehensive traffic safety bill that will prevent serious and fatal crashes and protect vulnerable road users. Act now and help us enact these street safety measures into law!
Send an email or call the Massachusetts Joint Committee on Transportation and your state legislators (see template email provided below). Emails should be sent to the committee chairs, copying your Representative and Senator. Find out if your legislators are co-sponsors of the bill. Please copy info@visionzerocoalition.
About the Bill
An Act to Reduce Traffic Fatalities (S1905/H2877) will ensure basic, but necessary traffic regulations to guarantee that everyone on our streets can expect to get from point A to point B safely. The bill’s provisions that we and the entire Vision Zero Coalition believe will make the biggest difference to the safety of people biking and walking and that we support strongly are:
- Equipping state and state-contracted trucks with safety side-guards and convex mirrors to reduce bicyclist & pedestrian fatalities
- Lowering default speed limit on state highways and parkways in thickly settled areas from 30 mph to 25 mph
- Allowing municipalities to install limited traffic safety cameras exclusively for speeding and red light & right turn violations
- Prohibits usage of mobile devices, except those in hands-free mode, while operating a motor vehicle
- Vulnerable road user language
The fact that 10 of the 16 bicyclist fatalities in Boston and Cambridge over the past 6 years have involved large trucks, and may have been able to be prevented with truck side-guards and/or better visibility, should be a mandate to our lawmakers to pass this bill.
What’s Next?
If the bill is reported favorably by this committee, it will be sent on to the House or Senate Ways and Means Committee. If it is reported unfavorable or “studied,” it would essentially be dead for the remainder of this legislative session. Again, action must be taken by the Joint Committee on Transportation on this bill by February 7th, or all of the hard work that has gone into this will not matter and the bill will stall permanently.
Email Instructions & Sample Text
CC: Your State Senator and Representative (if you don’t know who they are, click here); info@visionzerocoalition.org ; info@bostoncyclistsunion.org
Recommended email subject: Support of An Act to reduce traffic fatalities S1905/H2877
Sample email text:
Dear Senator Boncore, Representative Straus, and members of the Joint Committee on Transportation,
I am writing to urge a favorable report for An Act to reduce traffic fatalities, (S1905 – Brownsberger, H2877 – Hecht and Rogers).
Serious injury and deaths from traffic crashes continue with troubling frequency on our streets. An Act to reduce traffic fatalities S1905/H2877 is a comprehensive piece of legislation which aims to create safer streets for all users, including bicyclists, pedestrians, and passengers of motor vehicles.
The fact that 10 of the 16 bicyclist fatalities in Boston and Cambridge over the past 6 years have involved large trucks, and may have been able to be prevented with truck side-guards and/or better visibility, should be a mandate to our lawmakers to pass this bill.
[Tell your own story here. Why is this bill important to you?]
Thanks again for your consideration, and I urge a favorable report for this bill.
[full name
street address
city/town, state, zip
phone:
email: ]
Thank you for taking action with us! Together we can make Massachusetts streets safer.
Coming from the Netherlands I believe there is a huge need to invest in education in general in Boston. Basic things like Uber/Lyft drivers not stopping in the middle of bike lanes, not stopping in middle of crossings, respecting crossings in general… Violation penalties should be invested back in education programs which would pay back long term.