BostonGlobe.com46%
‘I am furious’: Wu reflects on city planner killed while cycling, talks about street safety plans 20%
By Shannon Larson65%
8/4/2026, 5:50:12 PM
BS Summary: This article contains 21 faulty reasoning types, including Optimism Bias, Anecdotal, and Ambiguity (Equivocation), with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 34.3% saturation with 200 hits. Analysis detected 896 faulty-reasoning hits from 583 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 28.4% and a BS Rank of 20% (22,080 of 27,321 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 80.80% of the article peer group.
Mayor Wu speaks about Louisa Gag, street safety vision on WBUR
Nearly a month after a city transportation planner was struck and killed by a truck while riding her bike in Mission Hill, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu addressed the blistering criticism that her administration has slow-walked street safety projects and expanded on her vision for the future in a new interview with WBUR.
The death of Louisa Gag, a Roslindale native who was responsible for helping improve roadways and expand city bikes, sparked furor from residents and cycling advocates.
They demanded swift action from Wu, who ran for mayor as a champion for transit infrastructure, and said the tragedy could have been prevented.
“I’m never going to get over it,” an emotional Wu said on “Morning Edition” Tuesday.
“I will always have Louisa on my heart as long as I am able to do anything to try to fix and improve our community.”
Gag interned for Wu when she was a city councilor.
An 18-wheel recycling truck struck Gag on July 9 when it maneuvered around a turning vehicle, the Globe has reported.
Boston police did not immediately respond to an inquiry Tuesday about whether anyone has been charged.
Last month, advocates delivered a letter signed by thousands to City Hall that called on Wu to restart stalled street safety projects, restore funding for such projects in the city budget, and take other actions.
Wu acknowledged the anger felt in the community.
“We’re all angry.
I am furious still that we are grieving the loss of someone who, over the next several decades, was going to transform the city in the work that she was already doing and poised to continue,” Wu said.
“And I am angry that, for all that we are standing on the values that we have, that you don’t have enough time to try to move as fast as you can possibly move.”
The Globe has reported that last year Wu required her personal approval for most street projects involving design changes to move forward, as she faced vocal criticism over new bike and bus lanes.
Some city employees and transit advocates said Wu was pulling back on critical safety improvements.
At a vigil held for Gag last month, Wu said the city was undertaking an enhanced effort to improve safety.
For one, she pledged that officials would analyze the design of the section of Tremont Street where Gag was killed.
Since then, Wu had laid out her plans to make the city’s streets safer.
In an open letter to residents, Wu said the city will install more concrete barriers on bike lanes and fix sidewalks and curb ramps, among other steps.
She has also named a new interim chief of streets, longtime City Hall veteran Chris Osgood.
On WBUR, Wu said it’s her responsibility to provide transparency regarding what must change “systemically about how we do this work that actually will help us move faster and do this better over the long run.”
Still, in her nearly five years as mayor, Wu admitted that she is not fully satisfied with how she has handled safety and transportation issues after being pressed on the question by “Morning Edition” host Tiziana Dearing.
“I am naturally impatient about when and how we can get to what I know this city is capable of,” Wu said.
Shannon Larson can be reached at shannon.larson@globe.com.
Follow her @shannonlarson98.
Speakers
1speaker43%attributed speech335writer words
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64%flagged-word coverageMichelle Wu
248 attributed words100% of attributed speech77% writer coverage
Attribution is sentence-level. Pattern percentages are calculated only from words assigned to that voice.
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Analysis
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