Boston has made “promising, but uneven” progress toward its 2030 mobility goals, according to a report released by nonprofit organization LivableStreets.
In 2017, the city launched Go Boston 2030, which outlined 33 mobility-related targets the city would work toward. LivableStreets executive director Stacy Thompson said the nonprofit evaluated each of those original goals “to the best of our ability” for their latest accountability report, Not on a Shelf 2023.
The city reduced fatal crashes involving bicyclists and pedestrians by 46%, according to the report. In 2017, the city aimed to reduce the number of fatal crashes by 30% by 2030. The accountability report found that in 2022, there were nine fatal crashes in Boston.
Thompson said the finding “is especially notable because nationally trends are moving in the opposite direction” making Boston “an outlier in a very positive way.”
Nearly half the goals set in 2017 have been met or are making considerable progress, according to the report. But the city is lagging behind its goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The goal was to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from transportation to 50% of 2005 levels by 2030. As of 2019, the city had only reduced emissions by a little over 3%.
“This is one of those targets that we're really encouraging the city to reassess and also think about how they can better align with the climate team and other departments within the city to get this back on track," Thompson said.
Thompson said city and state agencies were a great resource while they worked on the report.
“I will say we had 100% compliance from all of the city and state agencies that we reached out to asking for data,” she said. “And if they didn't have the data, or if there were problems with the data, they were transparent about it.”
In a press release, Boston’s Chief of Streets, Jascha Franklin-Hodge thanked LivableStreets for “keeping us accountable to the vision laid out in Go Boston 2030.”
He also said the city would unveil Go Boston 2030 ReVisioned, “which will allow us to update the plan and assure we reach and expand our goals.”