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The humps themselves are about three inches high and about 12 to 14 feet long. Cars can smoothly travel over them at 20 miles per hour or slower.
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A speed hump could be coming to a street in your neighborhood soon, as the city unrolls a years-long effort to promote traffic safety.
The City of Boston will install more than 2,000 of the humps, as part of “Safety Surge,” which began in October. The City plans to have installed more than 400 humps by the end of July.
The humps themselves are about three inches high and about 12 to 14 feet long, according to the city. Cars can smoothly travel over them at 20 miles per hour or slower.
The city is targeting smaller neighborhood streets for the speed humps, which are built in series every 150 to 350 feet. They won’t be built on busier streets or any streets with an MBTA bus route.
“The plan calls for adding 500 speed humps per year with the goal of installing them on all of the nearly 400 miles of eligible city streets,” a spokesperson for the Streets Cabinet told Boston.com “This will take time to accomplish but the City is committed to creating safer streets in all of our neighborhoods.”
A spokesperson confirmed that 500 speed humps will be added each year through 2026. So far, streets in Mattapan, Dorchester, and Roxbury have completed speed hump projects, according to a map from the city.
Boston Public Works shared on social media that workers were painting a hump with stripes on Peter Parley Road in Jamaica Plain last month.
More humps are planned for Mission Hill and Allston-Brighton. According to the city’s website, there will be no opportunity for resident feedback, but residents will be notified before a speed hump is built on their street.
Previously, a spokesperson said the city had already installed 600 speed humps before the start of the “Safety Surge” program, which also includes redesigning intersections and improving signals for pedestrians.
Last year, 20 percent of all fatal crashes in Massachusetts involved pedestrians, according to nonprofit WalkMassachusetts’ 2023 report. The 16 fatal crashes in Boston last year included eight pedestrian deaths. Speed was the biggest factor behind the crashes, according to the group’s co-executive director.
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