Our Attorneys Are Advocates of the Traffic Safety Initiatives of Boston Vision Zero

Traffic crashes should never happen. This is the idea behind Vision Zero, Boston’s commitment to eliminate serious auto accidents by 2030. Feinberg & Alban PC is a seven-decades-old personal injury law firm that fully supports Boston’s innovative Vision Zero strategies. One death is too many.

Creation of Vision Zero

Boston announced its Vision Zero program in 2014 as part of its framework for the Go Boston 2030 initiative. The program was launched the following year. In its efforts to eliminate Boston auto accidents, the program comprises several action plans including:

• Reduce speeds and build safer streets — through street design and enforcement
• Reduce distracted and impaired driving — through education, enforcement and truck safety
• Engage Bostonians in Vision Zero — through community engagement
• Hold ourselves accountable — through data collection and information sharing

In our practice, we constantly consider ways to make our city more transit-friendly to protect our clients from accidents.

2016 progress report shows improvements

The Massachusetts Vision Zero Coalition, which works closely with Boston on meeting its goals, evaluated the city’s performance in 2016. Accomplishments during its first year include:

• Lobbying lawmakers successfully to reduce the speed limit on certain city streets from 30 mph to 25 mph
• Assembling a task force to effectively engage the community
• Conducting Rapid Response visits, putting Vision Zero investigators quickly on the scene of serious accidents
• Creating an interactive online crash map that tracks deaths and injuries, along with a sister safety concern map to gather and share information about potential safety hazards
• Launching the Boston Safest Driver application that promotes public awareness and offers an incentive for driving safely
• Initiating the new measures that have improved traffic safety in Codman Square and along Massachusetts Ave.

These milestones have made Boston a more transit-friendly place, which is the overriding objective of the Vision Zero plan. However, to meet the goal of eliminating traffic fatalities by 2030, the Massachusetts Vision Zero Coalition recommended that the city allocate more staff or more funding to departments involved in the program’s implementation. Boston has committed $9 million in three annual installments to Vision Zero for the next three years.

What more can we do? This is a question our lawyers are always asking. We want to make Boston’s streets safer for you and, if you are injured in an accident, to protect your interests in the court of law.

Learn more about your rights to safe Boston streets

Boston’s Vision Zero initiative is a positive step in the right direction. However, accidents are still common in and around the city. If you were injured in an auto crash, call Feinberg & Alban PC at 617-232-5950 or contact us online to discuss your claim at a free consultation.