Traffic calming and Vision Zero

Updated November 8, 2026

What's happening

Somerville hasn't had a traffic death since 2022, and the city now admits in writing that the bike network meant to keep it that way will miss its legal deadline. The 2026 Safe Streets Ordinance annual report lists 14.83 of the priority network's 28.79 miles as still to be built between 2028 and 2030. In several places it says staff, engagement timelines and money will push the work past the ordinance's December 31, 2030 deadline. The ordinance allows one one-year extension, and the city has to claim it by March 1, 2029 (Tufts Daily, Oct 6). The city says it is still hitting its yearly target: the 3.26-mile annual benchmark for separated bike facilities was met, and 3.2 miles are planned for 2026.

The speed-hump program is shrinking some of its oldest humps. The Mobility Division's October 20 newsletter says the city has built 139 speed humps since the annual program began in 2021, and that field checks found the early ones on Lowell Street, Morrison Avenue and the westernmost stretch of Powder House Boulevard exceed current design standards. After interdepartmental talks, the city will rebuild them to standard, Powder House and Lowell this fall, for "a more reliable experience for both emergency personnel and general-purpose traffic." It's a quiet concession to the firefighters' union (below). New humps go on Craigie Street, Paulina Street, Clarendon Avenue, Perry Street, Wyatt Street, Heath Street, Lexington Avenue and Victoria Street in 2027, with plans for later 2027 and 2028 drawn up over the winter and shown on the city's traffic-calming map (Mobility Division newsletter, Oct 20). That is the closest thing yet to the citywide priority list Mobility Director Brad Rawson promised the Traffic and Parking Committee for late summer (June 22); a ranked list itself still isn't in our sources.

Meanwhile the police enforcement grant councilors have soured on is back. On October 16 the state awarded the Somerville Police Department $60,313 from its Municipal Road Safety program, the same pot behind the $65,000 the Council accepted in January (Mass.gov). If it comes to the Council for acceptance the way January's award did, it's the vote At-large Councilor Jonathan Link said on October 8 he probably wouldn't cast again (see below). The same release gave the Somerville YMCA $36,424 for traffic-safety education.

The Council approved the annual $255,045 FY27 Vision Zero appropriation on September 24, after Finance recommended it 5-0 on September 22 (Sept 22 digest). The money comes from the flat 20-cent fee on every Uber and Lyft ride, and Rawson says it pays for design consultants the operating budget can't cover. It goes to three projects: the Broadway–Magoun reconstruction and quick-build separated bike lanes on Somerville Avenue and Washington Street (Mobility projects).

The people closest to the work say the slip comes from capacity, not lost nerve. Ward 3 Councilor Ben Ewen-Campen, the Council's liaison to the Pedestrian and Transit Advisory Committee (PTAC), blamed interest-rate spikes and the Winter Hill School rebuild: "If I thought that this slowdown was for political reasons, or for cowardice, then you would hear me saying that clearly." PTAC Chair Alessandra Seiter pointed to the Mobility Division's eight staff: "The people who work in Mobility are kind of maxed out." Ewen-Campen leaves the Council December 31 (Three Council seats turn over).

The story

The numbers, and a dispute about them

The city's open crash data shows no fatal injuries in 2023, 2024, 2025 or the first seven months of 2026, after one death in each of 2020, 2021 and 2022. Reportable crashes are flat, not falling: 389 in 2023, 395 in 2024, 397 in 2025 and 220 through July 2026. Rawson's own series, cited at the June 17 budget hearing, shows crashes down 15% from 2024 and 35% from 2019. The counting rules differ, but every series agrees that nobody has died. In 2025 the city built 70 traffic-calming features, four miles of separated bike lanes and 49 clear-corners treatments.

The advocates are claiming the record. In a September 7 op-ed, the Somerville Alliance for Safe Streets marked four years without a pedestrian or cyclist death, against at least 47 such deaths in Boston and Cambridge from 2023 through 2025, and credited physical calming, the 2024 ordinance, the 25 mph default and a funded Mobility Division (the causal claims are the authors'). Seiter says residents mostly ask for more calming, faster; the complaints are about parking lost to bumpouts and floating bus stops, and seniors uneasy sharing sidewalks with bikes and scooters.

Speed humps versus Local 76

The city's first humps went on Powder House Boulevard in 2019, after a fatal pedestrian crash at the Hardan Road crosswalk. On April 23 Local 76 President Mike Jefferson said each speed bump delays response by 3 to 10 seconds and that flex posts are "ripping lines out from under our trucks." Fire leadership hasn't backed him. Chief Charles Breen said on May 26 that potholes are likely a bigger factor in truck damage, and Assistant Chief Tierney said on July 1 that neither maintenance records nor response-time data show a significant impact. Rawson conceded the 2019–2020 humps had quality-control problems; the city now designs to an 18–20 mph crossing speed on routes coordinated with the fire department, and the fall 2026 rebuilds bring the worst early humps down to that standard. See the fire department's own equipment fight.

The queue

Councilors keep filing speed-hump orders. Lowell Street was prioritized in January; Vernon and Elmwood Streets were closed in June without a date; Link's Boston Street order passed on June 25 after a speeding driver hit a car carrying children. None of those three is on the 2027 list. Rawson ranks streets by proximity to schools, parks, senior housing and transit. A Neighborway runs about $250,000 a mile in 2022 dollars after 12 to 18 months of engagement.

Enforcement, and its limits

The Council accepted the $65,000 Municipal Road Safety grant on January 20, most of it for enforcement overtime, after Ward 2 Councilor JT Scott, a past no vote, was told that 147 of 6,101 citations in 2025, about 2.4%, went to cyclists. In February the Council ordered SPD to report enforcement data every year for demographic and neighborhood disparities.

Support has eroded since. On October 8 the Council sent Traffic and Parking an order from Ward 5 Councilor Naima Sait and Link, cosponsored by At-large Councilor Ben Wheeler, asking police how the money is spent. Link said he was "not totally happy" with its use, citing reports of cyclists stopped for crossing during pedestrian signal phases, and that as things stand "I don't think I would" vote for it again. Wheeler said past understandings have limited grant-funded officers to enforcing against cyclists and pedestrians rather than the drivers endangering them, and that he has asked the grants director to rewrite the city's application around safety for all street users (Oct 8 digest). Meanwhile the Somerville Alliance for Safe Streets wants more enforcement citywide, and Sait expects to take Community Path enforcement up in November (Independent, Oct 6).

The city's citation data show at least one recent operation aimed at drivers. Between 7:31 and 10:04 a.m. on September 2, officers at Broadway and Ryan Road wrote 38 crosswalk violations, 35 of them warnings. Several were on tickets that also cited the driver for a missing inspection sticker, an unregistered car, no license in hand or no seat belt (citation data). The data don't say whether grant money paid for it, which is the kind of answer the Sait–Link order asks police for.

The tool the city actually wants is cameras. H.4179, state Rep. Christine Barber's home-rule bill, would let Somerville use automated enforcement. Its reporting deadline has been pushed to January 5, 2027 (bill page), which means it is going nowhere this session (Beacon Hill bills).

Snow

The 68-inch winter ran about $3.46 million over budget, closed with transfers and free cash recommended 5-0 on June 16. Contractor parking is on Mobility projects.

What's next

Fall 2026: the oversized humps on western Powder House Boulevard and Lowell Street are rebuilt to standard; Community Path speed strips and markings (Mobility projects). Sait plans a November Traffic and Parking meeting on enforcement.
Undated: Council acceptance of the $60,313 Municipal Road Safety award; the police update on the grant at Traffic and Parking; the next application, which Wheeler wants reworded; the Morrison Avenue hump rebuild.
Winter 2026–27: speed-hump plans for later 2027 and 2028.
November 30, 2026: RFA 27-08 for 2026–28 snow plowing opens.
January 5, 2027: reporting deadline for H.4179 in Joint Transportation.
Calendar 2027: new humps on eight streets; the Somerville Avenue and Washington Street quick-builds; Broadway–Magoun construction starts.
March 1, 2027: next Safe Streets Ordinance annual report.
March 1, 2029: last day to claim the one-year extension of the December 31, 2030 priority-network deadline.
Undated: SPD owes Wheeler its enforcement hotspot list and quarterly statistics.