Wu, facing blistering criticism from advocates in wake of cyclist’s death, tearfully vows to make Boston streets safer

Amid a vigil of mourners, Mayor Michelle Wu said late Thursday that the city will analyze the road design on Tremont Street where a truck driver hit and killed city planner and cyclist Louisa Gag last week, as part of what she called an enhanced effort to improve street safety while police investigate the crash.

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Wu also announced plans to ramp up enforcement of blocked bike lanes across the city, and to install and replace protected bike lane infrastructure. Her administration will share more details in the coming days, she said.

Wu spoke through tears as she addressed a crowd of hundreds who had gathered at City Hall Plaza for a vigil in honor Gag’s life and legacy, and said her administration will work to “accelerate” street safety projects she has been accused of slow-walking for more than a year.

The crowd‘s attention was locked in on the visibly emotional Wu as she vowed to deliver on street improvements that a frustrated audience in front of her had come to demand long before last week, and now on behalf of a woman who dedicated her work to the cause.

Gag “devoted her life and career to building a Boston where every resident and every visitor could move through our city safely, with comfort and dignity and confidence, and she was killed on our streets,” said Wu. “I can’t stop thinking about Louisa. We owe Louisa more than our grief. We owe her action. We have to do better.”

The Globe has previously reported that Wu began requiring her personal approval for most street projects involving design changes 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. Some city employees and transit advocates who spoke to the Globe raised the alarm that Wu was stalling a number of projects they said would deliver badly needed safety upgrades to dangerous roads.

Wu has said street safety remains a priority for her administration, but her remarks Thursday evening were a notably explicit commitment to take concrete steps towards that end.

Kim Foltz, Gag’s boss on the team that oversees the city’s public bike share system, was among the many colleagues and loved ones Thursday who shared their memories of Gag — particularly her kindness, warmth, and passionate drive to expand bike access and safety in Boston. But Foltz also hinted at the recent turmoil in the city’s so-called Streets Cabinet under Wu’s leadership.

“Even before last Thursday, the Streets Cabinet was a pretty challenging place; we’ve been in transition for the last 18 months,” Foltz said. “We have all had to navigate through frustration, anger, ambiguity. When I found myself struggling, the person I would turn to was Louisa.”

“Her kindness, her joy, her empathy, her sense of integrity — these are things I cherished in her, and they are things I will continue to draw on,” Foltz continued. “Maybe, if we really try to do like Louisa would do, together we can prevent the next unthinkable, preventable tragedy.”

Wu appeared to acknowledge the frustration bike and transit advocates have felt with her administration, saying she “struggled” to decide whether to go to Thursday’s vigil, unsure if her presence “would help the healing that is so needed for a community in such grief and pain.” She said she ultimately chose to attend after Gag’s parents encouraged her to do so, and emphasized her commitment to achieving Gag’s dream of a Boston where no pedestrian, cyclist, or motorist loses their lives on the city’s streets.

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That’s “the city that she was working toward to build every day, the city that she would have built over the next few decades if she could,” Wu said. “That is the city of Boston that we will make real. I’m so sorry for all of your loss.”

Stacy Thompson, who hired and closely worked with Gag during her time at the nonprofit LivableStreets, told the Globe Friday that Wu and her office have been working closely with advocates since Gag’s death on what policy steps would achieve that goal.

While many are still frustrated with Wu, her words Thursday left some advocates with “trepidatious, cautious optimism,” Thompson said. “The proof will be in what the mayor is able to produce over the next couple of weeks. … Advocates have been loud and clear about what they want and need, and now they’re they’re waiting for more details.”

Ahead of Thursday’s vigil, advocates went to Wu’s office to deliver a blistering open letter signed by 4,000 people — about 2,300 of whom are Boston residents — demanding that Wu take a series of actions to address street safety issues in the city.

“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.”

The letter has five specific demands of Wu and her administration: unpause all delayed streets projects within 30 days and publicize construction timelines; restore 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.

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

“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.”

In the week following Gag’s death, authorities have released few details about the circumstances surrounding the crash, citing the ongoing investigation. But new information came to light Thursday night, when two sources familiar with the investigation told the Globe that a driver of an 18 wheeler recycling truck hit and killed Gag after maneuvering around another car on Tremont Street.

Both sources shared details about the fatal crash on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about the case.

It was not immediately clear if officials began considering for the area in 2023 would have prevented the crash. The driver of the truck has not been identified and has not been charged with any crime. The new details do not indicate whether there was any wrongdoing.

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Sean Cotter of the Globe staff contributed to this report.