Metropolis Councilor Ed Flynn (South Boston, South Finish, Chinatown, Downtown) mentioned yesterday town ought to increase its side-street speed-hump program to town’s most important thoroughfares – and decrease the citywide velocity restrict – to cut back the variety of pedestrians despatched to the grave by impatient speeders.
Flynn pointed to a number of pedestrian deaths over the previous couple of years, together with a younger little one outdoors the Youngsters’s Museum final yr and a pedestrian killed in Andrew Sq. on Sunday – as proof town must do extra to comprise its wild-in-the-street motorists.
In calling for a proper listening to on pedestrian security, he additionally pointed to L Avenue in South Boston – and his dad and mom Ray and Kathy:
“My dad and mom inform me nearly day-after-day of them strolling as much as the South Boston public library from their house 5 – 6 blocks and after they’re in the course of an intersection strolling up L Avenue, a automobile would go proper by them, simply lacking two aged folks,” he mentioned. “We additionally see that occuring when younger households are within the crosswalk, little children, persons are simply so impatient that they must go 30 miles an hour up L Avenue and take folks’s lives in jeopardy.”
Flynn referred to as for a listening to at which to think about steps that would come with decreasing the citywide velocity restrict to twenty m.p.h. from the present 25, enlargement of town’s “security surge” speed-hump program from facet streets to most important streets and bus lanes and set up of “fast flash beacon” pedestrian-crossing lights, raised crosswalks and pedestrian islands within the wider roads.
Referring to the four-year-old killed by the driving force of a pickup outdoors the Youngsters’s Museum, he mentioned it is good town put a velocity hump on Sleeper Avenue, however that it must also set up them on Congress Avenue – together with a raised crosswalk proper on the museum.
Flynn mentioned he is talked to the Boston Hearth Division and that it will don’t have any issues with placing velocity bumps or raised crosswalks on main streets – metropolis officers had cited BFD considerations previously about extending the “security surge” traffic-calming tasks to thoroughfares.
Flynn cautioned he’s not calling for “street diets” all throughout town, such because the one on Centre Avenue in West Roxbury, deliberate to cut back driver speeds and pedestrian menace partly by decreasing two journey lanes to 1 by including devoted bike lanes a middle flip lane, together with restriped crosswalks and re-timed alerts to sluggish visitors down.
“One dimension doesn’t match all” and every street would want its personal particular measures, he mentioned.
He added, although, “to be clear for the wiseguys on social media,” he truly did as soon as assist a “street weight-reduction plan” plan, and in his district, even, on Day Boulevard. He didn’t specify which wiseguys on social media he was addressing. He and mayoral aide Segun Idowu just lately restarted their Twitter struggle, however the mutual flaming was over the mayor’s proposed property-tax modifications, not something to do with street security.
Watch Flynn request a listening to on the difficulty:
