Just when I thought we'd made it through 2019 without a fatality, our town's dangerous roads and greater Boston's terrible drivers teamed up for a buzzer-beater, smashing a giant SUV into a cane-toting 81-year-old 🚶♀️ on the morning of December 31. #ArlingtonMA #ZeroVision
Assuming I haven't missed any, Tuesday's crash brings the total people killed least year by 🚗🚚🚛🚍 drivers while walking in Boston, Cambridge, and bordering municipalities to 19, and the state-wide total to 64. (Numbers from @WalkBoston and @paulswartz zero-vision-boston-clock.glitch.me)
Chestnut Street and Chestnut Terrace, the site of Tuesday's fatal crash, is a known sore spot for people walking. Neighbors complain about difficulty crossing the street due to automobile drivers who are unwilling or unable to follow the rules of the road.
Even when rush hour traffic volume makes it impossible for car drivers to speed through without yielding, drivers stuck in traffic congestion will creep forward towards the intersections, blocking the crosswalks with their cars, trucks, and SUVs.
There is also a persistent problem with drivers who park in the daylight space surrounding the crosswalks, or even directly on top of them, reducing visibility for people walking who want to cross the street.
Alternatives to the uncontrolled crosswalk at Chestnut Terrace include a traffic signal at the intersection with Mystic Street, and a bucket of orange flags 🚩 at the intersection with Medford Street.
For those who say our victim might have been safer had she crossed at the light, take a closer look at that intersection, which involves a terrifying 3-stage, multi-beg-button crossing traversing the end of Chestnut street and two separate slip lanes. 
Located just inside the Arlington Center HSIP Pedestrian Crash Cluster, where dozens of people have been injured by automobile drivers in the past decade, this intersection has persistent box blocking and red light running by 🚗🚚🚛 drivers.
At the busy intersection with Medford Street, car drivers often proceed around the corner at potentially lethal speeds when not slowed by congestion. A bucket of orange flags serves as a stand-in for more effective safety measures.
Of course 🚩 are an embarrassingly flimsy intervention for a crosswalk in a school zone, proximate to a high injury crash cluster, elderly residences and attractions, and elevated motor traffic speeds and volumes.
I am tremendously frustrated that as a town we have collectively allowed the conditions which force our most vulnerable residents, workers, and students to choose between personal safety and their right to travel between home, work, church, and school.
This entire area needs big changes. We can, and we should fix these problems. There's no need to wait until the next person is maimed, crippled, or killed. We must do better. Faster. Sooner. #DemandMore
