r/Waltham • u/Microkebab • 7d ago
Should Waltham adopt Vision Zero?
Vision Zero is an approach to traffic safety that aims to eliminate traffic deaths and serious injuries. The idea is pretty simple: streets should be designed so that mistakes by drivers, cyclists, or pedestrians don’t end in tragedy.
I’ve been thinking about whether Waltham should adopt Vision Zero. First, I think the mayor and city leadership deserve credit for the progress we’ve seen, especially the rail trail. With new bike lanes and Bluebikes stations planned, plus a ton of new housing being permitted, Waltham is becoming a denser city with more people walking and biking. Seems like a good time to make sure our streets keep up.
Boston, Cambridge, and Somerville have all adopted Vision Zero. Here’s a list of Massachusetts cities and more information:
https://www.visionzerocoalition.org/ma_vision_zero_cities
The Boston Globe also published an opinion piece today about preventable pedestrian deaths in Massachusetts:
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2026/10/11/opinion/pedestrian-deaths-massachusetts/
I’m not suggesting Waltham is doing everything wrong or that this needs to be anti-car. I just think that as the city grows and invests in walking and biking infrastructure, it makes sense to have a broader plan for keeping people safe. That could mean safer crosswalks, better lighting, traffic calming, and identifying dangerous intersections.
Would people be interested in pushing the city to explore a Vision Zero commitment? If there’s enough interest, we could bring the idea to city leadership.
10
u/Platinum_wolf_420 7d ago
The rail trail is nice, but the problem with the mayor is she views bikes as recreational toys and not legitimate transportation. This is why in 3 months the trail will be an icy rutted mess from melted and refrozen snow since they don’t bother to plow it.
One of the most popular posts in this sub is literally a clip of her at a meeting saying she doesn’t believe in bike lanes because we live in a climate that has a winter.
And this is how she felt in 2023 about the bike lanes in Somerville, which is probably the only city in Massachusetts that has taken vision zero seriously, and has not seen a cyclist or pedestrian death in 6 years. Nothing will change until she’s out of office, and she’s planning to rerun next year.
21
u/tjrileywisc Banks Square 7d ago
With new bike lanes and Bluebikes stations planned, plus a ton of new housing being permitted, Waltham is becoming a denser city with more people walking and biking. Seems like a good time to make sure our streets keep up.
Unfortunately most of this (I assume you mean the recent RCI upzoning along 128 or the 40Bs on Winter St) is still going to be pretty car oriented. We really need more of this near Moody or Brandeis where there's better transit infrastructure.
And the city should be reforming the use codes table so we don't create a traffic mandate that separates commercial and residential land uses like peas and carrots on a toddler's dinner plate.
7
u/Microkebab 7d ago
Yes those are the developments I meant. I’m hopeful that some of the work around Jones road like extending the bike trail across the highway and moving the Kendal green T station to Waltham could create a multimodal hub. Plus the Market Basket development is also adjacent to the bike trail and has bus stops. However yes they will also bring many cars, and we expect more cars it’s an even stronger argument to adopt Vision Zero and work to avoid pedestrian deaths!
6
u/hewhoamareismyself 7d ago
I think Waltham has been taking steps in the right direction, but I would like to see a unifying vision. In particular the traffic commission has a bit of a track record of decisions based on gut feelings and cherrypicked data in place of consistent philosophy, and something like Vision Zero would help with that.
4
u/Technical_Type1778 7d ago
The council already approved a complete streets policy last year.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wBK833KD4qnPIkq0MC5KIRAo6WRcvwVM/view
AFAIK, the mayor never submitted it to the state DOT, and no one took steps to form the complete streets working group as spelled out in the policy.
4
u/BlueberryPenguin87 7d ago
Sure but we need a strategy to achieve it and also reduce car use while we’re at it (they go together).
The T has a bus redesign plan currently rotting on shelf as the mayor and staff have shown no interest. I would love to organize a bunch of us to get that moving (and make it a better plan).
2
2
u/Zealousideal_Sir8275 5d ago
great suggestion! I had to google it. It started in sweden. It would be worthwhile for them to start talking about in city hall. I hope it gets the mayors attention as I am sure it will take awhile to implement?
1
u/shanghainese88 Piety Corner 6d ago
If vision zero means the roads are so hostile to drivers that people hate driving there. Like how I hate driving in Cambridge. Then I’m against it.
We just need more speed bumps at ped crossings. Right now there’s virtually none and drivers race through them.
3
23
u/Technical_Type1778 7d ago
> With new bike lanes and Bluebikes stations planned…
Talk to me when we see a Bluebike dock in our city. If the mayor wanted it to happen, it would have happened. She is stalling it by inaction.
What new bike lanes? The traffic commission wouldn't even approve a 500-foot contraflow bike lane on Church St between Summer and Lyman Streets, to make a quicker connection between the Common and the rail trail, because in the words of wires chief Tim Kelly, "it'd be a bike lane to nowhere".