At NACTO, our work is driven by the people in our community working to make the world kinder. Unfortunately, last week we lost one of our own: Louisa Gag. Louisa, a lifelong resident of Boston, was struck and killed by a truck while riding her bike to work.
Louisa’s friends and colleagues remember her for her smile, her infectious laughter, kindness, creativity, and love of ice cream cones. She approached the world with openness and curiosity, asking deep questions and listening with a desire to understand. She loved hiking, early-morning card games, and discovering new corners of her city.
Louisa was an active transportation planner with the Boston Transportation Department (BTD) for the last four years and a frequent participant in NACTO’s events and online discussions. Heartbreakingly, she is the second member of the NACTO community to be killed by traffic violence this summer, after the death of Riley O’Neil last month. We join her coworkers at the City of Boston, along with Louisa’s family and friends, in grieving this immense loss.
Louisa was raised in Boston’s Roslindale neighborhood and graduated from the Boston Latin School. Prior to joining the BTD, she worked as a policy fellow for then-Councilor-at-Large Michele Wu before spending six years at the nonprofit advocacy organization Livable Streets Alliance. There, her work included tracking the City’s progress on Vision Zero.
Louisa’s work for the City of Boston focused on improving bike share and street safety, including growing the BlueBikes system by adding 100 new stations across the city and leading engagement for street redesigns in the Allston and Brighton neighborhoods. Beyond the technical work, Louisa was an integral force in spreading community bike joy, taking over the organization of Boston’s annual Bike to Work Day Festival and teaching Bostonians how to bike.
Supporting one another
Every death on our streets is a preventable tragedy, but the loss is deeply personal when someone from our own network is killed. So many of us have swapped ideas with Louisa online, learned from her expertise, or caught up with her at Designing Cities. Losing her underscores the human cost of unsafe streets and reminds us of our shared commitment to protect people biking and walking. As we grieve, remember that NACTO is a community. Check in on each other and on our colleagues in Massachusetts.
As we take care of ourselves and each other, we can find support from Families for Safe Streets, which provides an array of services, advocacy training, and organizing support to those affected by a crash.
Louisa led a WalkShop of Commonwealth Avenue during the 2022 Designing Cities conference.
Photo credit: Marilyn Humphries via Barr Foundation
