From the Somerville Alliance for Safe Streets steering committee

Thank You, Somerville!

Somerville has gotten some wonderful and deserved press recently from StreetsblogMASS, The Boston Globe and the Christian Science Monitor, among other publications. In August, Somerville marked four years without a bicyclist or pedestrian death, and city data shows that serious injuries caused by motorists have dropped by half over the past decade. While not having residents and visitors mowed down by motorists on city streets should be a baseline expectation, our success is in contrast with the towns around us. It merits celebration, but also some reflection on how Somerville achieved this milestone, and what we can do to protect those gains.

Our neighboring towns have not fared so well. According to a report released in June by nonprofit LivableStreets Alliance, there have been at least 47 pedestrian or bicyclist crash deaths in Cambridge and Boston from 2023 to 2025. Boston, Cambridge and Somerville have all committed to becoming “Vision Zero” cities, eliminating all traffic fatalities and severe injuries, while promoting safe and healthy mobility for all. The number of serious injuries in Cambridge (including pedestrians, cyclists, and motorists hit by other motorists) are nearly the same as they were a decade ago. Boston pedestrian fatalities doubled 12 in 2024 from six in 2023, with 11 in 2025. The July killing of Louisa Gag, a Boston city employee and longtime safe streets advocate, thrust Boston’s inaction on safe streets into the news.

So what has Somerville done right?

According to LivableStreets Alliance, Somerville’s success owes to a number of factors. Somerville has consistently and unwaveringly committed to physical traffic calming improvements, from quick-build projects (paint, flex posts) to redesigning deadly intersections with permanent materials. Even as you read this, “clear corners” – legally mandated no-parking areas between 20 and 30 feet ahead of crosswalks that allow drivers to see crossing pedestrians – are being painted across the city. The city has passed laws and regulations that strengthen safety, such as the 2024 Safe Streets Ordinance, and lowered the speed limit to 25 mph citywide (and further to 20 mph in safety zones).

Perhaps most importantly, Somerville has committed human capital to the Vision Zero goal. Bolstered by investment in staff and budget, Somerville’s Mobility division has increased the number of street interventions it completes annually. Mobility’s community engagement moves projects through public meetings, uses innovative outreach strategies to reach community members who are often overlooked and adapts street redesigns to accommodate feedback, all while maintaining the north star of Vision Zero. Mobility engages directly with official city advisory bodies and advocacy groups (such as ours) and the business community to ensure that there are no surprises about street changes. Other city departments vital to the success of Vision Zero – engineering, parking, public works, fire and police – have incorporated Vision Zero in their operations. Meanwhile, elected officials, including city councilors, three sequential mayors and the city’s state representatives, have actively and consistently supported progress on safe streets.

We concur with the conclusions of LivableStreets Alliance. We also recall that Somerville hasn’t always been like this and those deaths still reverberate in our community. Allison. Cheryl. Kevin. Leah. Marshall. Stephen. Each is a person with families and friends and rich lives who were killed on Somerville streets between 2019 and 2022. To quote the director of mobility, “we say their names so that we can remember why we do this work.”

We remain committed to the cause of safe streets in Somerville because there is still more to do. We want a future in which pedestrians and bicyclists of all ages and abilities can safely travel throughout the city, people using mobility devices can travel without hindrance on our sidewalks and across streets and a lack of crash deaths is the baseline instead of surprising good news.

You can help ensure that Somerville stays, as Livable Streets Alliance writes, “Not just in Massachusetts, but nationally … a leader in safe streets implementation.”

Thank a public servant. Whether it’s taking a moment to thank an employee staffing a public meeting that has dragged on late into the evening or replacing a crushed flex post, let them know that their work – which is hard and often involves being yelled at – matters.

Get involved. Speak up for safe streets issues that matter to you. Attend a public meeting, fill out every survey that appears on Somervoice, let your city councilor and the mayor know that safe streets is a voting issue for you. Throw a block party and talk to neighbors about your hopes for your street, submit a neighborhood petition for traffic calming. Attend a meeting of the Somerville Pedestrian and Transit Advisory Committee or the Somerville Bicycle Advisory Committee. Join an advocacy group (we recommend the Somerville Alliance for Safe Streets)!

Be kind. Consider the humanity of your fellow street users – slow down, put down the phone, follow rules of the road and give way. Whether you are on foot, using a wheelchair, riding a bicycle or driving a vehicle, your behavior contributes to, or detracts from, Somerville’s Vision Zero progress.

Moving through our city has gotten safer for everyone, and this is something that we’re grateful for every day.

Somerville Alliance for Safe Streets is a coalition united by a common belief: None of us should rest until the streets are safe for everybody. We are pedestrians, cyclists, transit users and drivers. We are able bodied and disabled, young and old, parents, caregivers, students, teachers, business owners, residents and commuters. It is at somervillesafestreets@gmail.com.