Boston was one of two Bay State cities that had the highest number of pedestrian fatalities last year, according to a new report.
In both Boston and Springfield, nine pedestrians were killed as they tried to cross the street, according to WalkBoston, a pedestrian advocacy group.
“The data sadly confirm that crashes are happening throughout the commonwealth, with the same municipalities emerging again and again as higher risk,” said Stacey Beuttell, executive director of WalkBoston.
“Every life lost is tragic, but the data also gives us confidence that by implementing proven road safety improvements and lowering speed limits, it is absolutely possible to reduce or even eliminate pedestrian deaths in Massachusetts,” Beuttell told the Herald.
The report, Fatal Pedestrian Crashes in MA, reviews fatal pedestrian crash data from 2021 released by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation’s IMPACT Crash Portal and Fatal Crash Information Dashboard. The locations were then cross-referenced in the MassDOT Road Inventory Tool to determine the road jurisdiction and speed limit. Google Street View was used to find other local context.
Among the 47 Massachusetts cities and towns that had a fatal pedestrian crash in 2021, more than half happened in Boston (9), Springfield (9), Lowell (3), Brockton (3), and Dedham, Framingham, Lawrence, New Bedford, Oxford, Saugus, Weymouth and Yarmouth (2 each). Thirty-five other communities had one fatality each.
Improving road design and safety would especially protect older adults, according to WalkBoston. Adults over the age of 65 were disproportionate pedestrian crash victims, making up 36% of those killed while representing only 17% of the population.
“If we truly want to help older adults age in the community, we need to look at this data as an opportunity to create safer streets not just for older adults but everyone,” said James Fuccione, senior director of the Massachusetts Healthy Aging Collaborative. “… And investing in age-friendly designs that support just that should be the norm.”
Speed is also a common factor in pedestrian crashes. More than half of fatal pedestrian crashes (50.67%) occurred on streets with 30 to 35 mph speed limits. Many local roads with those speed limits are prime for speeding and hostile to people walking or in wheelchairs, WalkBoston said.
Road safety upgrades can be done quickly and without requiring major capital investment, according to WalkBoston. Recent examples include a traffic circle made out of cones in Arlington – no construction required – that dropped the number of people speeding by 65%.
In Salem, narrowing a road via new bike lanes encouraged safer driving behaviors and reduced speeding in a school zone by 61%.
