Boston speed limit would drop to 20 mph under new plan

Boston’s speed limit in neighborhoods would drop for the second time in recent years, to 20 miles per hour, and app-hail services such as Uber and Lyft would get designated pickup and drop-off locations in certain areas under a new plan from Mayor Marty Walsh.

Walsh is expected to unveil the plan during his annual speech for the Boston Municipal Research Bureau on March 7, according to the Globe.

The plan is also expected to include free T passes for all middle and high school students, regardless of the distances to their schools, and the outline of a new commission for the city that will work with the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority to speed up bus service.

Boston’s neighborhood speed limit dropped to 25 mph from 30 two years ago. As for the app-hail pickups, the city plans to try those first for riders within a two-block vicinity of Boylston and Kilmarnock streets in Fenway—though the designated areas will not be used for events at nearby Fenway Park.

And, as for the student T passes, the city already offers them to seventh- and eighth-graders living more than a mile and a half from their schools, and for high school students living more than two miles away. Walsh’s proposal would expand that to every public and charter school pupil.