Kudos to Councilor Ben Weber of Jamaica Plain and his City Council colleagues for demanding answers to the city’s prolonged pause on street safety projects in an April 22 hearing. What began as a 30-day review has now stretched beyond a year, with inexplicable silence and mounting delays to urgently needed safety improvements.

At that hearing, Interim Chief of Streets Nick Gove shared one particularly troubling revelation: the city has decided to remove planned bike lanes from its Egleston Square Redesign project.

There is currently no safe way for bicyclists to get from the Southwest Corridor to Egleston Square and Franklin Park, an obvious gap this project was meant to close. With the White Stadium renovation, the need is even greater: both BPS students and thousands of professional women’s soccer fans will need a way to safely bike to the stadium.

This also affects me personally. Two years ago, I was struck by a car while biking up School Street – one of the streets slated to receive a bike lane in this project. That lane would make the street safer for everyone who uses it.

This project, which is also supposed to include numerous traffic calming and street redesign components, has been in development for over five years. It has included extensive community outreach and feedback. To make such a dramatic change after such an extended process is deeply disappointing. The city should follow through on its commitment to safety and restore these needed protections.

Sincerely,

Chris Vaughan

Jamaica Plain

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