Thousands sign letter demanding Wu address street safety concerns ahead of City Hall vigil for Boston transit planner

As of Thursday morning, 4,000 people — about 2,300 of whom are Boston residents — have signed a blistering open letter to Mayor Michelle Wu demanding that she take a series of actions to address street safety issues in the city, one week after a truck driver hit and killed Boston transportation planner Louisa Gag as she was biking on Tremont Street.

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Boston residents, cyclists, and transit advocates plan to deliver a physical copy of the letter to Wu’s office ahead of a planned vigil for Gag at City Hall plaza Thursday evening. Hundreds gathered over the weekend at Adams Park in Roslindale, where Gag grew up, to grieve and honor her memory.

Gag’s death has devastated, and further infuriated, bike and transit advocates who have expressed outrage over the Wu administration’s move to delay many street infrastructure projects for more than a year.

The letter is titled “Enough is enough,” and emphasizes that the majority of the signatures are from Boston parents and residents who have pleaded with Wu for street safety upgrades for years.

“We have told you, in public and to your face, that continued delay on street safety would cost lives,” the letter reads. “Last week it cost the life of Louisa Gag – a transportation planner in your own administration who devoted her career to making our streets safe.”

“For at least eighteen months, your administration has stalled and re-studied safety projects that were designed and funded,” it continues. “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.”

Advocates have emphasized that the area of the crash was known to be dangerous by cyclists and officials alike. The section of Tremont where Gag was killed has a painted bike lane as it approaches Parker Street that then transitions to a dotted line roughly 70 feet from a crosswalk.

That intersection was part of an area in Mission Hill that the city had identified as in 2023, but the project does not appear to have advanced since then, and is on a list of projects advocates say have been paused, or the city has not provided updates on, for more than a year.

Wu’s office has said that where Gag was hit was not covered by the planning project for the area, nor were there plans proposed for flex posts or a protected bike lane there.

The letter emphasizes that Gag, 36, was “beloved,” and had a long career in public service, including interning for Wu while she was a city councilor. Now, her name is on a list of people who have been killed by cars in Boston — a list Gag had previously been tasked with keeping up to date.

The letter has five specific demands of Wu and her administration: unpause all delayed streets projects within 30 days and publicize construction timelines, restore cut funding for those projects in the city’s budget, implement a “build-fast-and-fix-later” approach to the projects instead of “waiting for perfect designs and unanimous approval,” appoint a permanent Chief of Streets who will prioritize eliminating traffic deaths, and publish a timeline for improvements for every high-crash roadway.

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“None of us is willing to raise our families in a city whose leadership will not answer for preventable deaths on its own streets,” the letter reads. “We are asking you to do what is right. And if you cannot or will not, you will have forfeited the trust a mayor needs to govern – and no study or prolonged consensus project will win it back.”

The letter demands that Wu respond in writing to the requests by July 31.

The safe transit nonprofit Massachusetts Vision Zero Coalition organized Thursday evening’s memorial for Gag to honor her life and legacy, and also urge city leaders to take more urgent action to eliminate deaths from car crashes.

As part of the vigil, convoys of cyclists plan to bike to City Hall plaza from several spots around the city.

“There is deep grief and anger across our community, and both are justified,” Tiffany Cogell, interim executive director of the Boston Cyclists Union, said in a statement.

Wu and other city officials have provided few details of the circumstances surrounding the crash that led to Gag’s death. Gag was hit near the intersection of Tremont and Parker streets near the Roxbury Crossing MBTA stop last Thursday, but many questions remain, including how the crash happened, who the driver was, and who owns the vehicle.

Boston Police released more information Wednesday evening, saying the truck that hit Gag was a Peterbilt 389 tractor trailer. Both Gag and the construction vehicle were traveling on Tremont approaching Parker Street when the truck “made contact” with Gag near the intersection of the two streets.

In response to questions from reporters Wednesday morning, Wu declined to offer further details, citing the ongoing investigation.

Some city employees and transit advocates spoke out months ago to raise the alarm that a number of transportation safety projects have been slow-walked under Wu. The Globe previously reported Wu began requiring her personal approval for most street infrastructure work to move forward last year, as she faced vocal criticism over new bike and bus lanes, from both her then-mayoral opponent and from some residents and motorists.

Wu has said street safety remains a priority for her administration, and in a statement from Wu’s chief of communications Veronica Yoo late Friday, said the city “will honor Louisa’s legacy by carrying forward the work that she believed in so deeply.”

Wu has also previously defended the broader slowdown of streets projects as an appropriate response to feedback that the city moved too quickly on earlier initiatives.

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