Memorial Drive should be one of Cambridge’s greatest public spaces, not a dangerous high-speed commuter road. Recent data shows that many drivers travel 15 to 25 mph over the speed limit. That has real consequences: since 2014, four people have died and more than 400 people have been injured.
We call on the Department of Conservation and Recreation to redesign Memorial Drive as a safer, more accessible, and greener riverfront:
Pilot a safer neighborhood-road design with fewer high-speed lanes, improved crossings, slower turns, and traffic calming.
Fix the dangerously narrow paths with continuous, wide, fully separated multi-use paths from JFK Street to the Longfellow Bridge.
Unlock major new riverfront parkland by piloting a new configuration near MIT that turns underused median space into accessible public open space.
By adding my name, I urge the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation to make Memorial Drive safe, green, and accessible by redesigning it with safer crossings, traffic calming, continuous protected paths, and more usable riverfront parkland.
To learn more about DCR's mission and the very real need to repurpose Memorial Drive for people, not just cars, click here.
