On January 26th, 2016, an unidentified 66 year old man was hit and killed while attempting to cross the southbound travel lanes on Old Colony Avenue. Old Colony Avenue is a DCR roadway under state jurisdiction. It is the hope of the Massachusetts Vision Zero Coalition that DCR will establish a process for responding to serious or fatal crashes. Below we've highlighted observations about the crash area.
Date of Crash
1/26/2016, approx. 6:20PM
Date of Site Visit
No Site Visit
Location
Old Colony Ave near Gavin Way, South Boston
News coverage
MSPNews.org - "Fatal Pedestrian crash in South Boston Remains Under Investigation"
Boston Globe - "Pedestrian Struck and Killed in South Boston"
Present at Site Visit
No Site Visit
Photo of area from Google Earth 
Recommendations
Old Colony Ave is very wide, next to Moakley Park on one side & housing complexes on the other. Road has parking on each side, 3 travel lanes in each direction; there is a crosswalk & pedestrian island. It is 3 lanes in each direction just for this stretch between the rotary at Columbia Road & Kosciusko Circle - the rest of Old Colony through the city is 2 lanes in each direction.
Short term:
- Recommendations submitted to DCR through DCR Urban Parkway & Path Advisory Committee for 2016 repaving and re-striping season to add protected bicycle lanes (potentially parking protected lanes) and narrow vehicle lanes to help shorten crossing distance.
Longer term:
- Toole Design Group is working on Parkway Design Study with DCR to improve safety and access for walking and biking statewide.
Improvements Completed
As of 6/11, DCR has started to re-stripe Old Colony Ave; current striping does not reflect comments from UPPC and may be from an older plan for the area.
DCR is working on Old Colony Ave in Southie. They put in a buffered bikelane on the southbound side. pic.twitter.com/88ItdCkkAg
— Lee Toma (@LeeToma) June 11, 2016
Please send us photos/comments when you see changes so this page remains accurate.