Mayor Wu announces new speed hump street safety program
BOSTON - Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and her Chief of Streets, Jascha Franklin-Hodge, announced a new street safety program aimed at curbing traffic related injuries and deaths.
It is called Safety Surge and will install speed humps on streets across 10 city zones per year. The zones are picked based on crash data and neighborhood demographics.
"We're releasing a new speed hump policy and design directive that designates speed humps as part of our standard street design. Whenever it's technically appropriate to install them, we will make the effort to do so," Franklin-Hodge said.
The program will also upgrade 25 busy intersections with new safety features such as signals with a leading pedestrian interval allowing walkers to have a head start to cross streets before cars get a green light.
This comes as the state saw a 35% increase in pedestrian crashes between 2021 and 2022.
Serious crashes in Boston are down but nearly 3,300 crashes occurred in Boston last year resulting in eight fatalities, according to data from Boston Emergency Medical Services and the Boston Police Department.