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Councilor wants speed bumps on major Boston roads and a citywide speed limit of just 20 m.p.h.
By adamg on Thu, 01/16/2025 - 12:55pm
City Councilor Ed Flynn (South Boston, South End, Chinatown, Downtown) said yesterday the city should expand its side-street speed-hump program to the city's main thoroughfares - and lower the citywide speed limit - to reduce the number of pedestrians sent to the grave by impatient speeders.
Flynn pointed to several pedestrian deaths over the past couple of years, including a young child outside the Children's Museum last year and a pedestrian killed in Andrew Square on Sunday - as proof the city needs to do more to contain its wild-in-the-street motorists.
In calling for a formal hearing on pedestrian safety, he also pointed to L Street in South Boston - and his parents Ray and Kathy:
"My parents tell me almost every day of them walking up to the South Boston public library from their home five or six blocks and when they're in the middle of an intersection walking up L Street, a car would go right by them, just missing two elderly people," he said. "We also see that happening when young families are in the crosswalk, little kids, people are just so impatient that they have to go 30 miles an hour up L Street and take people's lives in jeopardy."
Flynn called for a hearing at which to consider steps that would include reducing the citywide speed limit to 20 m.p.h. from the current 25, expansion of the city's "safety surge" speed-hump program from side streets to main streets and bus lanes and installation of "rapid flash beacon" pedestrian-crossing lights, raised crosswalks and pedestrian islands in the wider roads.
Referring to the four-year-old killed by the driver of a pickup outside the Children's Museum, he said it's good the city put a speed hump on Sleeper Street, but that it should also install them on Congress Street - along with a raised crosswalk right at the museum.
Flynn said he's talked to the Boston Fire Department and that it would have no problems with putting speed bumps or raised crosswalks on major streets - city officials had cited BFD concerns in the past about extending the "safety surge" traffic-calming projects to thoroughfares.
Flynn cautioned he is not calling for "road diets" all across the city, such as the one on Centre Street in West Roxbury, planned to reduce driver speeds and pedestrian menace in part by reducing two travel lanes to one by adding dedicated bike lanes a center turn lane, along with restriped crosswalks and re-timed signals to slow traffic down.
"One size does not fit all" and each road would need its own specific measures, he said.
He added, though, "to be clear for the wiseguys on social media," he actually did once support a "road diet" plan, and in his district, even, on Day Boulevard. He did not specify which wiseguys on social media he was addressing. He and mayoral aide Segun Idowu recently restarted their Twitter war, but the mutual flaming was over the mayor's proposed property-tax changes, not anything to do with road safety.
Watch Flynn request a hearing on the issue:
Neighborhoods:
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| Attachment | Size |
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 Flynn's formal hearing request | 195.28 KB |
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Comments
Speed cameras now!
The state just allowed them for busses so there's no constitutional limitation.
The signs can say anything. If there isn't some method of automatic enforcement, it's meaningless. Cameras don't solve all problems but they are effective in other cities.
speed bumps
The speed bumps are the automatic enforcement in this plan.
Speed and red light cameras are about money
Not safety.
Yeah, making money off people who speed
Speeding tickets written by cops are also about money.
Exactly
People against cameras are not following the speed limit.
If the city deployed the cameras, they could set limit on revenue that would rebate back on your excise tax.
Studies say you're wrong
https://www.itskrs.its.dot.gov/2021-b01588
Hit’em where it hurts.
Because when drivers hit pedestrians and cyclists, it hurts way more.
OK with me
Call it a "sociopath tax"
Speed cameras will either be
Speed cameras will either be set to ticket people for minor infractions that people rarely get stopped for (even when police have a speed trap going), or you risk only ticketing drivers who are driving recklessly and should be stopped on the spot (and who might be drunk/impaired or guilty of more serious crimes).
No
They ticket people who are exceeding the speed limit. And most are set to not issue a ticket until you've gone more than 10mph over the limit. (You don't get a ticket for going 27 in a 25 zone.)
The only people who are opposed to traffic cameras are people who speed and think it's OK when they do it.
Question
What kind of minor infractions are you talking about?
Nobody said there was a
Nobody said there was a constitutional limitation. Speed cameras have a legal limitation, as the legislature hasn't legalized them.
NYC has them all over the place. Yet I don't feel safe walking there, except in areas where there are a lot of pedestrians so there's safety in numbers.
There can be cameras all over the place, and the roads will still be dangerous if they're badly designed.
Agreed
Traffic enforcement is beneath BPD and its why people routinely ignore the rules of the road, including cyclists.
I'll concede to cyclists having to get license plates so they too can be ticketed by the cameras but in exchange, we must let citizens submit photos of violations like double parking, blocking bike/bus lanes that results in fines being doled out to the violators.
Also, lets increase the fines so they have some teeth and tie them to the violators income like in Finland. The fine is based on the driver's disposable income. The more a driver is over the speed limit, the more fines they receive.
Some examples:
In 2015, a businessman was fined €54,000 for driving 103 km/h in an 80 km/h zone
In 2023, a wealthy businessman was fined €121,000 for driving 50 km/h in a 30 km/h zone
Cameras Aren't the Answer
Nor are speed bumps. The plain, straight truth is that the RMV gives out far too many licenses to people who simply lack the responsibility to have them. I started driving again after not having driven for over ten years. I go the speed limit and people tailgate me like I'm keeping them from evacuating prior to a mass weather event. Speed cameras and red light cameras also penalize car owners, not car operators. The only solutions I really think make sense are testing drivers more often, granting fewer licenses when drivers show a lack of skill on the road, and banning driving in heavy pedestrian areas such as most of downtown Boston.
since when has taking a license prevented driving?
It comes down to enforcement. There are too many cars to police. Camera enforcement is the only way. We need to start advancing plans that pair enforcement with control of data and make specific plans for the revenue. NO PRIVATE ENFORCERS.
We've tried your method
People are still being killed by entitled reckless drivers.
Thumbs up.
Thumbs up Boston_res / “Cameras are not the answer”
Traffic cameras are a bad omen, a bad sign that we’re responding to our flagging morality shown in the wanton disregard for law by putting our resources into automated, dispassionate enforcement not moral education.
Cameras are not progress. They are a hallmark of greed and the false promise of progressivism.
I don’t know if you’re familiar with ‘The Search for Spock,” but the current strain of progressivism contains a disastrous flaw like the Genesis Device in that progressivism is built upon a shortcut akin to to David’s fool hearty, impatient and immature use of “protomatter.” There’s no shortcut to building a better, more moral, and freer society. All this feel-good, progressive political mana is doing is masking most politicians’ motives and baking in a future crisis, future inequality that will set us back centuries without a guarantee we can recover our exceptional blessings.
I caution that we may become the very snarling, ugly masses shouting down morality in our purity over not having the Ten Commandments taught in schools. I believe wholeheartedly in disestablishmentarianism, but the greater portion of our fund of moral and ethical learning is rooted in religious thought. I’m not advocating for putting the Ten Commandments in schools, or in government buildings, what I am saying is Big Brother, “social credit” traffic cameras are corrosive to the minds and spirit of free people and we should be teaching civics, respecting people’s religious beliefs instead of myopically and ignorantly summing up religion as oppressive, irrational and negative.
You know that “Organize” poster? The one with the little fish being chased out of the frame by the bigger fish only to return with a bigger fish shaped school to turn the tables? Just like unions are rational leveling the playing field and giving the worker lawyers and manpower religion is rational fighting oppressive tendencies of a state out of balance, of the raucous majority and, any nascent oligarchy. Today traffic cameras and tomorrow much worse.
me, I'm the problem
South Boston would benefit from dedicated bus lanes and more bus service.
I don't know how he expects to increase safety without restricting parking at intersections and crosswalks.
It is an improvement to at least express concern for pedestrian safety.
I agree, but...
I'm generally in favor of dedicated bus lanes everywhere, but Southie is one of the few neighborhoods that really can't reasonably accommodate new bus lanes.
Broadway is already one lane in each direction. Where are we putting these dedicated bus lanes? We'd have to eliminate literally all parking on Broadway, and while I'm for sure good with eliminating parking in general in favor of bus lanes, in this case I think it would be too extreme.
Broad way is pretty wide.
Broad way is pretty wide. There is plenty of room if it is during rush hour. just remove parking. The small business get screwed over by all the car storage on Broadway. It would be a big improvement.
Dedicated lanes might fit...
Broadway is 52 feet wide, so if you do 10 feet for each bus lane, 8.5 feet for each car lane, and 7.5 feet for each parking lane, it would work. But I agree, that's pretty tight. What would easily work, though, would be single direction, rush hour only lanes like Washington Street in Roslindale has (only 44 feet wide). There would be 8 hours a day when half the parking is taken by a bus lane, 4 hours inbound in the morning, 4 hours outbound in the afternoon. It works well in Rozzie, it could work in Southie, too.
True
Yeah, that's a good point. could for sure do rush hour bus lanes in each direction.
I'm not sure I agree about how well it works in Rozzie (I don't remember ever driving down Washington Street without seeing at least one car parked in the bus lane in violation), but that's an enforcement issue, not an indication that it's a bad idea.
The bus cameras are going to
The bus cameras are going to start recording violations and citations will be issued.
"I'll be just a minute, bro!"
Yes, there are bus lane violators. However, even with them, the bus drivers are adept at moving in and out of the lane a few times on the run between the Square and Forest Hills. The rest of the time, they are able to move more quickly than the car traffic. That said, such violators may soon disappear once camera enforcement is implemented.
Speed bumps have no business
Speed bumps have no business being on public streets. They distract drivers from things in their peripheral vision, impede snow removal, and can be treacherous for two-wheeled vehicles. Additionally, one shouldn't risk damage to their vehicle while obeying the posted speed.
Be serious
Put the phone down and focus on the road, maybe slowdown, you'll be fine
Great point, lets do snow removal like Montreal and make car owners move their parked cars so snow removal can be done curb to curb.
Oh please
So don't speed, won't have an issue with the speed bumps
They're not speeding. The
They're not speeding. The scenario they're concerned about is bumps that cause damage while obeying the speed limit.
What's especially fun is when bumps are only indicated by painted markings (no signs), and the paint wears away and the city doesn't repaint it. Stealth speed bumps are the best kind, since they punish drivers for not slowing down for something they didn't know was there.
Snow removal can't be done curb to curb when there's a flexpost buffer to the left of the bike lane.
I find smooth roads to be the most important thing while biking, for safety, comfort, and stamina. More important than posts or bike lanes or tiny bike traffic lights or green paint or anything else. Those things can be worked around, but a moonscaped road cannot.
Ehhhhh
Anecdotal but when I've been driving or a passenger in a car going the speed limit over a speed bump, it hasn't been an issue.
Poorly maintained signage and road paint is on the city but isn't a good argument against speed bumps.
On those roads with flexposts, its handled by the smaller plows the city has. Skill issue for ignoring that.
Vehicular cycling works for you, which is a fine anecdote. But it ignores the safety and comfort of less experienced riders, which that infrastructure helps to encourage.
Forrester cultists
Tiresome.
Forrester was racist, sexist, ageist, and elitist. Not everyone can just plant their bike in front of a car and scold the motorist, which is suggested in the Vehicular Cycling book.
You shouldn't be "slowing down for a speed bump" anyway. You should be driving under the speed limit.
These are only issues if the driver is speeding
The speed humps are designed to be safely driven over at or below the speed limit. Don't speed, and the need to see the hump is pretty much eliminated. As for your comment about bike riding, sure, I agree that it is better for me on a bike to not hit speed humps. But the world of Boston street users is much more than you and me, and overall aggregate safety should be the goal. I can handle the humps on my bike much more easily than a pedestrian can handle being hit by a speeding car.
It sucks
You're looking at your phone and suddenly it gets bounced from your hand! /S
I actually agree that bumps aren't great compared to speed cameras. But you find it an inconvenience to need to slow down, you shouldn't be driving. Conscientious drivers don't have a problem slowing down.
I'm not driving. I'm walking,
I'm not driving. I'm walking, and I'm concerned about drivers watching the bump instead of looking for me.
Is the bump moving?
My friend, if they aren't watching the road for bumps, they certainly aren't looking for you.
I don't watch for the bumps
I pay attention to the speed limit and adjust my vehicle speed, instead. It isn't hard.
If we train drivers to understand speed tables at intersections, they will learn to respect intersections as hazard points.
Do you feel the same about potholes distracting motorists?
Oh, this Anon again
Hazardous for two wheeled vehicles?
Only if you are on a motorcycle doing 50mph and hit one of Somerville's famous 10mph bumps. There is one on a downhill that I take at the posted speed on my bike, no problems.
They only distract drivers when they are speeding. Go the speed limit and you don't have to look for them. I wish I had a dime for every idiot I see doing 40 in a 25 who then slams the brakes down to 15 when they could just roll over it at 25 without the drama.
Flynn's apotheosis
Admittedly I don't pay much attention to Ed Flynn, but this is the best thing I've ever heard him say.
This hearing request was sponsored by a majority of city councilors. Is it now just up to the clerk to schedule it?
Heartbreaking: The Worst
Heartbreaking: The Worst Person You Know Just Made A Great Point
It's up to ...
Whoever chairs whichever committee the "order" (that's what they call hearing requests) is assigned to. The clerk is then responsible for posting a notice about the hearing date.
Stopped clock is right twice a day
Give him credit, I guess, for getting this one right.
Progress!
It's interesting how Ed Flynn, once he is no longer running for mayor, becomes less car-brained.
To be fair ...
He has been on about this basic issue for years (he helped push for the reduction of the citywide speed limit from 30 m.p.h. to the current 25).
His jab at social-media wiseguys about road diets, though, shows bicycle advocates shouldn't count on him for help getting more bike lanes or improving the safety of the ones we already have.
Bike lanes and pedestrian safety
The thing is though, this shows the extreme limits of how much he cares or understands this issue. Protected bike lanes don't just improve safety for cyclists, they also improve safety for everyone else by narrowing roadways and creating barriers/ distance between drivers and the sidewalk: https://usa.streetsblog.org/2024/10/01/should-we-stop-calling-bike-lanes-bike-lanes
Wow, I'm actually with Ed on
Wow, I'm actually with Ed on something. The only way to slow drivers down is through the built environment. No signage is slowing anyone down.
It’s better to have lower
It’s better to have lower speed limits that the technofascists saying jawohl to automated enforcement.
Speed bumps
Countries that actually do street safety well see speed bumps as a last resort, not the end all be all of street safety as they seem to be talked about here. They instead prioritize things like daylighting intersections, bump outs, raised and narrowed crossings, alternative paving treatments like bricks, narrowing lane widths, etc. We need to start doing more of these things.
This city is becoming
This city is becoming insufferable, just like this site.
You're in luck
I just checked Logan departures and Delta has several daily flights to Atlanta, while American has several flights to Dallas/Ft. Worth, both of which will let you hop on connecting flights to Bumfuck, AL or wherever your journey may take you. Hope you have a safe flight.
Oh,
I'm missing the thumbs up!!! So here is mine.
(No subject)
Can't we return to BPD writting tickets?
Hyde park is a wild west of drivers that know you can do almost anything short of hitting a pedestrian without getting a ticket.
PLEASE , PLEASE , PLEASE enforce the existing traffic laws, add automated ticket machines if you need to...and I heard the city needs money....try writting a lot more tickets for the constant moving infractions happening around the city.
Speed bumps would also be welcome but I know from personal experience that you can still drive above the speed limit over a speed bump ( unless there is a Boston cop within 20 feet of you) so that isn't enough to slow massholes down!
We cannot afford the number
We cannot afford the number of officers it would take to enforce the streets. We need automated enforcement.
Bus lanes
I missed the bus lanes comment before. Speed bumps on bus lanes is genuinely stupid.
That was my first reaction
but then I realized that speed bumps in the other lanes but not in the bus lane will divert asshole traffic into the bus lane. I think this is more of an argument against the general proliferation of speed bumps than an argument for taking it even further, though.