
Action Alert: Contact MassDOT to Support Safer Trucks

In the past few weeks, two lives have been taken on Cambridge streets after truck drivers hit and killed people biking on our streets. Our hearts are with the victims and their loved ones.
Safer infrastructure will certainly protect vulnerable road users. However, large trucks are undeniably dangerous and pose risks that safer street design cannot always prevent. Trucks need to include crucial safety features like truck side guards, convex mirrors, and cameras. Without these features, large vehicles should not be allowed to travel on our public ways.
Last year, MassBike worked with the Vision Zero Coalition, MassDOT, and state legislators to pass An Act to Reduce Traffic Fatalities, which requires large trucks owned, operated, or contracted by the Commonwealth to have side guards, improved mirrors, and backup cameras. This requirement is slated to take full effect in January 2025, but pushback on these changes could change or delay the implementation regulations. We need your support to ensure that all state-contracted trucks meet this requirement. Please join us in speaking up this week!
This Friday, July 12th, MassDOT is hosting a public hearing on the new truck safety requirements. We need you to send in your personal stories about why you support increased truck safety measures by 5p on Friday in order to help keep these regulations in place.
We need safer trucks and safer streets now.
Take Action
- Email written comments in support of sideguard and safety device requirements on all state-contracted trucks to [email protected] by 5 p.m. on Friday, July 12.
- Join the Public Meeting on Friday, July 12 at 10 a.m., virtually https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86258327009 or in-person 10 Park Plaza, MassDOT Board Room, 2nd Floor, Boston, Massachusetts 02116
Key Talking Points to Include
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A personal anecdote as to why you personally support truck safety devices examples include:
- As a bicyclist, you fear for your safety and mourn the loss of fellow riders and want to ensure the roads are safer for all riders
- As someone who walks in your community, you want to be able to cross the road safely without fear of getting struck and killed by a large truck
- As a parent, you want your child and their friends to be able to walk/bike to school safely
- Large trucks are more dangerous. In 2024 in Massachusetts, 11 people have been killed in crashes with large trucks—and nearly 400 people have been killed in large truck crashes in the past 10 years. In the past 10 years in Massachusetts, 28% of fatal bicyclists crashes have involved large trucks.
- As far back as 2017, Federal safety researchers recommended rules to require side-guards on all new trucks, nationwide. Numerous lives have been lost since then due to inaction.
- The goal of the requirements is to have as many trucks as possible comply with these safety measures, though the legislation was only able to reach a determined segment due to jurisdictional challenges, so any waiver process should be rigorous and stringently reviewed.
- Massachusetts should amplify the successes of the cities of Boston, Cambridge, Somerville, and Newton, which have already adopted similar requirements for municipal agencies and contractors under local ordinances.
Share this post with your network and encourage them to send in comments of support. The truck lobby is strong and has already delayed Federal efforts to mandate side guards nationwide, we need your support to ensure safer trucks in Massachusetts.