What is the Boston Region Vision Zero Action Plan?
Transportation safety is an essential focus of the Boston Region MPO and one of the major goals identified in the MPO’s Long-Range Transportation Plan, Destination 2050. The Vision Zero Action Plan (the ‘Plan’) will address the safety-related needs identified in Destination 2050 and serve as a roadmap for the 97 communities in the region to implement projects that meet the goals of Vision Zero.
The Plan, anticipated to be completed in December 2025, will help identify transportation safety problems through a data-driven and community-based approach. In addition to setting a path for the region to work towards zero deaths and serious injuries on our roads, the regional Vision Zero plan will unlock future funding opportunities for communities through the Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) grant.
An Equity-First Approach
A key aspect of Vision Zero is that it calls on us to focus roadway safety improvements in areas and for people who are most exposed to the risks that unsafe infrastructure and policies pose. Data on crashes, severe injuries, and deaths shows us that people walking and biking, older adults, people with disabilities, people of color, and people walking in lower-income areas bear a disproportionate risk of injury or death on our streets.
In addition to data at the national level, we see these trends in the Commonwealth. According to MassDOT, the data appears to reveal racial disparities among crash types. The reasons for these patterns are complex, and could be caused, in part, by historical roadway design and investment policies.
Because we know that the severe impacts of roadway crashes are not distributed equally around the region, equity will be at the heart of the Vision Zero Action Plan. Efforts to ensure equity include a safety analysis focused on particular equity populations, stakeholder engagement and collaboration with equity populations, and development of recommendations for changes in policies, processes, and safety projects that lead to a more equitable region. As the project team continues to explore the data, more information will be added to this page to explain how equity is being addressed.
A Need for Safety Unites Us All
Data itself does not tell the full story of roadway violence. The human impacts of fatalities, severe and minor injuries, and even near-misses last long beyond what data points can show. The MPO will collect stories about victims of roadway violence to help inform the plan on how roadway violence has affected people’s lives and impacted their communities.
These experiences serve to remind us that every roadway death statistic is a person, and no one should die or be hurt on our roads.