Not on A Shelf 2023

Go Boston 2030

an overhead image of downtown Boston and the Mass Ave bridge taken late in the day.
The water is a deep blue with a small flock of sailboats to on the far side of the bridge.
Light shines golden on brown buildings and dark green trees.
A handful of skyscrapers stick up from the skyline.

Not on A Shelf 2023

Evaluating Progress Toward
Go Boston 2030

Since releasing The Go Boston 2030 Vision and Action Plan six years ago, the City has confronted formidable, unpredictable obstacles such as changes in leadership, extreme climate events, and the COVID-19 pandemic—not to mention powerful racial justice movements across the nation.

Not on a Shelf 2023, our second assessment of the City's efforts toward acheiving goals set in Go Boston 2030, finds that the City has made progress despite considerable challenges, and now is the right time for the City to reset and double down on their efforts to achieve Go Boston’s goals by 2030.

donut graph of the how the Not on A Shelf 2023 report graded each of the targets identified in Go Boston 2030.

READ THE FULL REPORT HERE

A Plan ReVisioned

Not on a Shelf 2023 is being released in tandem with the City of Boston’s announcement of Go Boston 2030 ReVisioned, their plan for a comprehensive overhaul of the original Go Boston 2030 plan. We had a chance to sit down with Boston’s Chief of Streets, Jascha Franklin-Hodge to discuss their plan update.

CHECK OUT THE INTERVIEW

Report Chapters

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY INTRODUCTION PROGRESS + ANALYSIS RECOMMENDATIONS CONCLUSION NOTES + APPENDICES

Key Takeaways

Our report evaluates all 33 of the targets the City set in Go Boston 2030. Here are a couple highlights of what the City has done well and where they’re still lagging:

✓ Improving street safety by reducing fatalities and crash rates of vulnerable road users.

Since our last assessment, the number of fatal crashes in the City has decreased, opposite to trends in other U.S. cities. Furthermore, the City surpassed its 2030 target for reducing pedestrian and bicycle-related collisions by at least 30%, achieving this milestone seven years ahead of schedule. Listen to what Chief Franklin-Hodge had to say about this here!

✗ Reduction of transportation related GreenHouse Gas (GHG) emissions is severely behind.

The City needs to decrease transportation related GHG by a whopping 47% to reach their 2030 goal. Listen to what Chief Franklin-Hodge had to say about this here!

The City of Boston now has the task before them of updating Go Boston 2030 to address the changing world, and set a new course for achieving their transportation vision by 2030.

In order to be successful, their Action Plan update must:

thoughtfully recalibrate goals to reflect changing patterns in a post-COVID world, address the challenges in evaluating trends and progress, and improve data collection and metric tracking;
focus on greater cross-departmental collaboration and solutions for intersectional issues, including affordable housing access, racial injustices, and climate impacts; and
ensure the plan incorporates key issues that the original plan lacked, including a focus on bus infrastructure, curbside management, and a focus on transportation access beyond the lens of a commute to work.

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