The article below was written by BikeLoud PDX Vice-chair Kiel Johnson and was first published in that organization\u2019s newsletter.<\/em><\/p>\n On July 9th, 36 year old Louisa Gag (above) was struck and killed by a truck driver<\/a>. She was riding in a painted bike lane on a street in Boston that the city had long identified as dangerous. There was a funded plan to dramatically improve this street, which the mayor\u2019s administration had halted and then defunded after backlash from businesses and community groups. Gag worked for the advocacy group LivableStreets and was a transportation planner for the city. She spent her career trying to prevent tragedies like the one that claimed her life.\u00a0<\/p>\n In 2021, the mayor of Boston was elected on a platform to improve street safety, but paused and backed away<\/u><\/a> from making improvements after community and business complaints about loss of parking and car lanes. For people in Portland, this story is very familiar<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n We mourn the loss of Louisa Gag and stand in solidarity with Boston\u2019s transportation advocates. Her death is a heartbreaking reminder that our decisions about street design have real human consequences. We have\u00a0solutions to prevent tragedies like this one. In Boston they had the plan and even the money. What they lacked was the political will.\u00a0<\/p>\n Her death is a heartbreaking reminder that our decisions about street design have real human consequences.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Transportation safety is either a priority or it isn\u2019t. Growing the number of people who bike is either a goal or it isn\u2019t. When elected leaders pledge to build safer streets but retreat when car-centric opposition arises, those commitments become little more than words. Little by little, this erodes our\u00a0faith in leadership. Every delayed project and\u00a0every watered-down design leaves dangerous conditions in place. In Portland, the list of missed opportunities continues to grow.\u00a0<\/p>\n After Louisa\u2019s death, Boston\u2019s transportation advocates wrote a powerful letter<\/u><\/a> calling on their city to match its values with its actions. We couldn\u2019t help but think it could have been written about Portland and we\u00a0wanted to share it with you.<\/p>\n Dear Mayor Wu,<\/p>\n Enough is enough.<\/p>\n We are parents, families, and neighbors from across Boston. Many of us have met you \u2014 at safety walks, at community meetings, on\u00a0Hyde Park Avenue<\/u><\/a>\u00a0and on corridors like it across the city. For years, we have told you, in public and to your face, that continued delay on street safety would cost lives.<\/p>\n Last week it cost the life of\u00a0Louisa Gag<\/u><\/a>\u00a0\u2014 a transportation planner in your own administration, a person who devoted her career to making our streets safe. Louisa was killed on her bicycle blocks from an intersection your administration has\u00a0studied and stalled<\/u><\/a>. She was not the first. We have been losing neighbors to these streets for years, and we have been warning you, specifically and repeatedly, that more deaths were coming.<\/p>\n You know as well as anyone how beloved Louisa was. She began her career in public service on your own staff, when you were a city councilor, and she spent it working tirelessly for the residents of Boston \u2014 beside the advocates she organized, her colleagues in City Hall, and neighbors across this city whose streets are safer because of her. She was killed on the streets she spent her career trying to fix. Years ago, one of her professional responsibilities was keeping the list of\u00a0people killed by cars in Boston<\/u><\/a>. Now her name has been added to it.<\/p>\n For at least eighteen months, your administration has\u00a0stalled and re-studied<\/u><\/a>\u00a0safety projects that were\u00a0designed and funded<\/u><\/a>. You have told us these projects need more process, more consensus, more perfection. But consensus never arrives for the dead, and a study protects no one.<\/p>\n\n
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