More Than 100 Bike From Cambridge to Boston to Demand Better Traffic Safety

BOSTON — More than 100 cyclists biked from Cambridge Common to the Massachusetts State House on Sunday, where they joined a tearful rally commemorating bikers and pedestrians who have died after being hit by cars in the Boston area.

The 6.64 mile ride — on the occasion of the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims — passed by the sites of the three bike fatalities the city has seen since June: the Boston University Boathouse, Hampshire Street and Portland Street, and Mt. Auburn St. and DeWolfe Street.

The “Ride for Your Life” was organized by Cambridge Bicycle Safety, a local advocacy group that has lobbied for better bike infrastructure throughout Cambridge. At the rally, CBS volunteer Alexa Gomberg addressed the death of her friend Minh-Thi Nguyen, an MIT graduate student who died while biking through a Kendall Square intersection this June.

“Biking through that intersection has been so painful to me every day,” said Gomberg, an MIT Ph.D. student who organized the bike ride. “Now instead, I want to fill that intersection with memories of you all biking through and filling it with joy and gathering — so thank you.”

At the rally, multiple state legislators — including State Rep. Manny Cruz, who represents Salem, and State Sen. William N. Brownsberger ’78, who represents the 2nd Suffolk and Middlesex District — called for better enforcement of traffic laws, including the use of automated traffic cameras.

On Monday, the Cambridge City Council is set to discuss whether to draft and submit a home rule petition which would allow the city to enforce traffic laws using automatic cameras — something which is currently forbidden by state law. The city’s previous attempts to implement automated enforcement have been rejected by the state legislature.

Brownsberger said he has been trying to allow cities to conduct automated enforcement since 2014, but has encountered significant resistance. He added that police enforcement has declined overall following the police killing of George Floyd in 2020.

“Police officers are, in fact, demoralized in the wake of George Floyd and the horrors and the reaction against the actions of a few really bad apples, but there’s a lot of police officers that — now, they’re just not making traffic stops,” Brownsberger said.

Getting to zero traffic fatalities, Cruz said, requires “establishing a system of accountability that yes, protects civil rights, but does the thing that’s most important: protects all of you — the residents of our commonwealth, our children, our neighbors, our friends — to ensure that when you come home to the dinner table, that seat is not empty.”

Attendees at the rally also called for city officials to build on the Cycling Safety Ordinance — a 2020 local law requiring the construction of 25 miles of separated bike lanes throughout the city.

Volunteer and 50-year Cambridge resident Randy A. Stern said he hoped the CSO’s completion — slated for November 2026 — would just be one of many steps the city would take to continue improving traffic safety.

“I think there’s more work to do beyond the basic what the Cycling Safety Ordinance asked for,” Stern said, calling out intersections as a key point of concern for CBS.

Stern, riding in remembrance of his best friend who died in a fatal bike crash in 2006 — whose name was displayed prominently on his bike — said improving traffic safety was especially important as the number of Cambridge bikers continues to increase.

“The number of accidents per cyclist-mile traveled is not going up,” Stern said.

“But, as there are more and more cyclists, the number of actual accidents probably will go up over time, because there’s just so many more people who are going to be out there so more opportunity for an accident,” he added.

—Staff writer Benjamin Isaac can be reached at benjamin.isaac@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @benjaminisaac_1.

—Staff writer Avani B. Rai can be reached at avani.rai@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @avaniiiirai.