“I really struggled with whether I should come here tonight or not, whether it would help the healing that is so needed for a community in such grief and pain, and whether I would be able to get any words out at all,” Wu said tearfully during a vigil for Gag on July 16.

Wu said Gag’s mother encouraged her to attend the vigil to lay out her vision for safer streets, and that her administration has been working with advocacy organizations and community members on the issues. In addition to a police investigation into the crash, she said the city will do a full analysis of street design “and build this in as a standard practice, one that we hope can be a model everywhere.”

The city will install or replace protected barriers for cyclists, according to Wu, who has assigned two senior members of her administration to a so-called Streets Cabinet “to accelerate policies, planning and capital delivery work that will make our streets safer.”

The crash involved an 18-wheeler recycling truck that moved around another vehicle turning left before hitting Gag on a downhill stretch where the bike lane’s solid line becomes a dashed line. The driver has not been charged with a crime, according to the Boston Globe, which also reported that the truck had just left the demolition site of the One Joslin Place project in the city’s Longwood medical area. Suffolk is building a $1.7 billion, 14-story hospital for Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, with the 450,000-sq-ft facility to include 300 inpatient beds and set to open in 2031.

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu spoke at a vigil outside City Hall for Louisa Gag, a city transportation planner killed after she was hit while riding her bike. Photo by Justin Rice for ENR

Before Wu spoke, Brennan Kearney, executive director of WalkMassachusetts and a part of the Massachusetts Vision Zero Coalition, told the crowd of hundreds that Gag is one of 156 people to be killed in road crashes in Massachusetts this year. He added that 354 people died on state roadways last year, with more than 2,000 road crash fatalities since 2021. “Hundreds more each year suffer serious injuries,” he said. “This is a street safety crisis in our commonwealth. What are our decision makers waiting for?” 

Kearney said the city should restart its speed hump program, and the legislature should pass laws that allow municipalities to use safety cameras to catch excessive speeders. “I'm sad, and I'm frustrated,” he said. “But we aren't helpless.”

The crash occurred near offices of the Boston Cyclist Union, which advocates for cycling safety infrastructure. “The safety infrastructure that we enjoy today, in large part, Louisa had something to do with,” said Tiffany Cogell, its interim executive director, adding that improvements in street design and safety infrastructure save lives. " We know that these deaths are preventable. 
That knowledge makes the loss all the more painful, and all the more urgent."


She added: "By refusing to accept preventable traffic deaths as the cost of moving through our cities, and demanding that streets protect every person, whether they are walking, biking, rolling, riding in transit or driving. … let us commit ourselves to building the safer, more just city that Louisa worked so hard to create."
 
Wu said Gag “devoted her life and career to building a Boston, where every resident and every visitor could move through our city safely ... and she was killed on our streets. We owe her action. We have to do better.”