Better Bike Lanes: Year One of Quantitative Evalutation
September 30, 2025
In July of this year, the City of Boston published the Better Bike Lanes Year One Quantitative Evaluation report, which assesses the safety and traffic impacts of seven recent bike infrastructure projects on City streets. The City of Boston launched the Better Bike Lanes initiative in 2022 with a goal of adding 9.4 miles to Boston’s bike network along with speed calming treatments in some areas. In 2023, seven key corridors received upgrades, including separated lanes, contraflow access, and speed humps to calm motor vehicle speeds. This evaluation describes the positive impacts for cycling and road safety, with negligible effects on car traffic.
A word about methodology:
This report compares baseline data collected in September 2022 with post-install data collected in September, 2024. In addition, the report contains control location data from 15 Boston streets of various size and type that have similar characteristics to the project streets but did not receive any bike infrastructure improvements during the study period. Note that control streets compare volume data only, as speed data was not available. Key takeaways from the report are summarized below:
Bicycling Volumes Increased Dramatically
- Biking rose by 44% on average across project corridors after improvements, while control streets (those without changes) saw a slight 3% decrease
- Streets with new contraflow bike lanes saw the highest gains, averaging 482%
- Six of the seven upgraded corridors saw an increase in daily cyclists, with some locations experiencing as much as a 194% jump. In the one corridor that saw a dip, the decline was just ten percent.
Road Safety Improved
- Speeding significantly decreased: six out of seven projects saw major drops in the fastest . . .
Event Recap: Built to Lead: Lessons in Building Decarbonization in Existing Buildings
September 25, 2025
On Wednesday, September 24th, A Better City convened an informative and inspiring event to kick off the new "Built to Lead: Lessons in Building Decarbonization and Resilience" series, showcasing the climate leadership of A Better City member companies and institutions in advancing innovative and replicable strategies.
This first event in our series focused on decarbonizing existing buildings, we explored an array of strategies—from temperature control, to new window technology, to equipment optimization, to waste heat recovery, to innovative retrofit phasing. Thank you to our panelists for sharing their time and expertise:
• Torey Lee Brooks, Pembroke
• Saagar Patel PE, LEED AP BDC, WELL AP, CCP, Equity Residential
• Al Scaramelli, Beacon Capital Partners
• Neetu Singh Siddarth, BXP, Inc.
•Kailash Viswanathan,
I-90 Allston Multimodal Project Update
September 23, 2025
A Better City remains committed to advancing the I-90 Allston Multimodal Project, which is a once-in-a-generation chance to replace a structurally deficient elevated highway with safer transportation connections and expanded access to the Charles River for Allston residents. The project also includes a new multimodal transportation hub at West Station that will improve transit connections for commuters throughout the region and support future development in nearby Beacon Park Yard.
The enactment of the so-called "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" in July eliminated billions of dollars in unobligated funding for the federal Reconnecting Communities grant program—including all but $8 million of a $335 million grant for the I-90 Allston Multimodal Project. The rescinded federal grant represented approximately 17% of the total project cost, but there is still overwhelming support to deliver this project, including a commitment from Governor Healy to “
Updates to BERDO Regulations and Policies and Procedures
September 18, 2025
At the September 17 meeting of the Air Pollution Control Commission, updates to BERDO regulations and policies and procedures were passed unanimously. The process for these updates kicked off in May, 2025, and covered topics that relate to the flexibility measures application processes, third-party verification, and clarification of language to already existing BERDO procedures. Throughout this process, thanks to member engagement, A Better City submitted two sets of comments: July 14, 2025, and August 28, 2025.
In a nutshell, the approved changes included:
- Streamlining requirements for third-party verification for Buildings’ first emissions compliance year (Regulations, Section VII).
- Modifying application deadlines for all flexibility measures (Regulations, Section XI-XIII).
- Enabling building owners to request to extend the BERDO Review Board’s voting timelines for all flexibility measures (Regulations, Section XI-XIII).
- Removing the requirement to record decisions related to flexibility measures in the Registry of Deeds for flexibility measures (Regulations, Section XI-XIII).
- Enabling the Review Board to grant exemptions on BERDO solar requirements without a Hardship Compliance Plan (Regulations, Section X).
- Clarifying roles between the APCC, the BERDO Review Board, and the City of Boston Environment Department (Regulations, throughout; Policies and Procedures, throughout).
- Update of projected grid emissions . . .
Boston City Council Passes Heat Safety Ordinance for City Workers & Contractors
September 18, 2025
On August 27th, 2025, Boston City Council unanimously passed Docket #0135, An Ordinance to Protect Workers from Heat-Related Illness and Injuries in the City of Boston. Since an initial hearing on heat and worker protections in June 2024, Councilor Benjamin Weber’s office and other co-sponsors have been working with the City’s Office of Worker Empowerment, Office of Climate Resilience, and Office of Emergency Management, to draft and revise ordinance language that would protect city workers and contractors from the impacts of extreme heat. With initial ordinance language filed in January 2025, the intent was to finalize and pass the ordinance in summer 2025, with sufficient time for worker heat safety planning and implementation by summer 2026. The ordinance was written to go into effect 6 months after the day of passage, which will be February 27, 2026, giving relevant employers and contractors several months to design and implement heat illness prevention plans for summer 2026.
Some high-level takeaways from Boston’s heat safety ordinance for workers include:
- As of now, the heat safety ordinance only applies to city employees, contractors, and workers associated with city leases/sub-contracts. It is intended to encourage private employers to protect their workers in extreme heat as well but they are not yet mandated to do so.
- The threshold for protections is lower than emergency declaration protocol thresholds. The worker safety ordinance threshold kicks in at periods of extreme heat qualified as 80 degrees F or higher.
- Although some may say that this encourages misalignment with Boston’s heat emergency declaration protocols (with Boston’s heat advisories . . .
Built to Lead: Lessons in Building Decarbonization and Resilience
September 11, 2025
On September 24, A Better City is hosting the first in a series of five in-person panel events to showcase the climate leadership of A Better City member companies and institutions, Built to Lead: Lessons in Building Decarbonization and Resilience. Over the last three and a half years, A Better City members have been focused on helping to shape new and updated climate policies that relate to large buildings. This panel series will move from policy to implementation by showcasing how climate leaders are both decarbonizing and fortifying their building stock. The series aims to provide inspiring and replicable strategies for all large building owners.
The series includes:
- Built to Lead: Lessons in Building Decarbonization in Existing Buildings, Wednesday, September 24, 2025 @ 9-10:30 AM at 290 Congress St, Fort Point Room, Boston, MA 02210
- Torey Brooks, Pembroke—relaxing temperature settings in back-of-house pilot
- Saagar Patel, Equity Residential—new window technology pilot
- Al Scaramelli, Beacon Capital—building equipment optimization pilot
- Neetu Siddarth, BXP—waste heat recovery project
- Kailash Viswanathan, Consigli—retrofit phasing pilot in . . .
A Better City Joins City of Boston Response to U.S. Department of Justice Threats
August 20, 2025
On August 19, 2025, Kate Dineen, President & CEO of A Better City, joined Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and community leaders to respond to a letter from the U.S. Department of Justice threatening to prosecute City officials and withhold federal funds unless Boston cooperates with carrying out mass deportations. In her remarks, Kate reaffirmed the power of our cities and uplifted the economic contributions of Greater Boston's immigrant communities.
"We believe in the power of our cities to drive progress and innovation and economic growth—and to unite us not to divide. Our city drives our region, and our immigrants drive our city.
From learning at our world-class universities, to powering our world-class hospitals, to building our world-class skyline, Boston is a global city, because of (not in spite of) the immeasurable contributions of immigrants. The vibrancy and strength of our economy is a reflection of every single person who has come to our city and made it home.
According to a recent Boston Indicators report, immigrants contribute roughly $103 billion annually, about 21 percent of regional GDP, and comprise 28 percent of all business owners in Greater Boston.
The American economy has always been powered by people who come here with a belief in possibility. Turning our back on that legacy means turning our back on what has made us strong."
Cambridge BEUDO Regulations Update
August 20, 2025
Cambridge is going through the regulatory process for its Building Energy Use and Disclosure Ordinance in 3 phases. A blogpost earlier this year provided an update on Phase 1 of the regulations that related to carbon emissions calculations and ways in which owners can purchase renewable energy to offset emissions created from grid electricity.
Phase 2 regulations and procedures related to property ownership and configuration, third party verification, alternative baseline selections, and updates to previously drafted sections regarding emissions factors and renewable energy purchases. A Better City provided comments to the draft language in this phase, based on member feedback.
Final phase 2 regulations and procedures were posted on August 6.
Draft Phase 3 regulations that relate to campus designation, applications for hardship and deferral plans, and appointments to the Review Board will be developed in the fall.
Please reach out to Yve Torrie if you have any questions or would like to be part of A Better City’s Buildings Policy . . .
Governor Healey Files Nearly $3B Environmental Bond Bill
August 19, 2025
On June 24th, Governor Healey held a press conference to launch S.2542, An Act to Build Resilience for Massachusetts Communities, also known as the Mass Ready Act. This $2.9B environmental bond bill authorizes $2.9B in climate resilience funding over the next 5 years, with significant investments in existing programs, new programs, as well as outside sections (sections that are not related to funding authorizations) that advance various policies. The 2025 Mass Ready Act is about 20% larger than the last environmental bond bill from 2018. As with all bond bills, bill authorizations do not necessarily mean that such funds will be spent, as they still need to be allocated funding through state capital plans, often released annually in late June.
After significant action on climate mitigation through 2021, 2022, and 2024 Climate Acts in Massachusetts, the Mass Ready Act is a welcome investment in climate resilience, seeking to protect vulnerable communities and infrastructure against the impacts of extreme weather events in particular. In addition to investing in resilient critical infrastructure like roadways, dams, culverts, and bridges, the Mass Ready Act also establishes a revolving loan fund for climate resilience, known as the Resilience Revolving Fund. This non-budgetary Fund would be administered by the Mass Clean Water Trust and would provide low or no-cost loans to municipalities and public water and wastewater districts for resilience infrastructure projects. In outside policy sections of the bill, Mass Ready Act also streamlines permitting processes for housing, culvert, and marsh restoration projects, but this does not include other climate resilient waterfront projects. It also establishes climate resilience expertise on the Board . . .
I-90 Allston Project Update
July 25, 2025
On July 22, 2025, MassDOT organized an I-90 Allston Task Force meeting to provide updates on the project schedule and overall finance plan. Luisa Paiewonsky, the Executive Director of MassDOT’s Megaproject Delivery Team, previously released a statement affirming support for the project, despite the recent news that Congress and the Trump Administration would be rescinding a federal infrastructure grant for the project. At this meeting, three things were clear:
- There is still overwhelming support to deliver this project: from MassDOT leadership, to the City of Boston, to community leaders, to our peer environmental and transportation advocacy organizations the message is consistent that this project should move forward.
- In the next few months, MassDOT will be continuing the preliminary design phase and the environmental permitting process. Concurrently, MassDOT will be conducting an independent engineering review that will look at layover options in Beacon Park Yard, rail alignment, construction staging, among other issues.
- During the review of the overall design, there will be plenty of time to revise the current project finance plan. At the July 22ndTask Force meeting, Tom Nally stated that we feel very confident there are multiple options for funding this project and when we consider the economic benefits, we know the project . . .
