How Many Crashes Happen on Massachusetts Avenue?

MassDOT’s crash records count 1,718 crashes from 2022 through 2024 on roads carrying the inventory name Massachusetts Avenue, 1,120 of them on the continuous road through Boston, Cambridge, Arlington and Lexington, and on that stretch the defining number is not the total but who was hit: 152 crashes involved a bicyclist and 72 a pedestrian, which is 13.57 percent and 6.43 percent of its crashes against 1.46 and 1.79 percent on roads of the same class statewide. In Cambridge, Mass Ave carries 12.6 percent of the city’s crashes and 114 of its 384 bicycle crashes, almost three in ten. All four fatal crashes on the corridor in those three years killed a pedestrian. The road’s injury share is high, 30.18 percent against 23.86 percent for its class, and most of that gap turns out to be the cyclists and pedestrians themselves, which the numbers below show. Every figure comes from MassDOT’s public crash records and can be checked against the town pages in the Massachusetts crash report. To talk through a crash on Mass Ave, call Jim Glaser Law at (617) JIM-WINS. The line is answered 24 hours a day. The first telephone consultation is free.

Four Roads Under One Name

The name Massachusetts Avenue belongs to more than one road, and the records have to be split before any of them mean anything.

The road most people mean runs from Boston across the Harvard Bridge, through Central Square, Harvard Square and Porter Square in Cambridge, through Arlington Center and on to Lexington Center. That is the corridor in this article: 1,120 crashes in three years. A second road with the same inventory name runs through Acton, Boxborough, Harvard and Lunenburg, with 400 crashes. A third, in North Andover, recorded 145. The remaining 53 are scattered small streets of the same name in places like North Adams, Springfield and Amherst.

Section	Towns	Crashes 2022 to 2024	Fatal	Injury share	Bicycle crashes	Pedestrian crashes
Corridor	Boston, Cambridge, Arlington, Lexington	1,120	4	30.18%	152	72
West	Acton, Boxborough, Harvard, Lunenburg	400	0	19.75%	2	5
North Andover	North Andover	145	1	18.62%	0	2
Elsewhere	11 other communities	53	2	20.75%	0	2
All roads named Massachusetts Avenue	20 communities	1,718	7	26.48%	154	81

The western road and the corridor share nothing but a name. Out west, 2 of 400 crashes involved a bicyclist, 23 were deer strikes, and State Police wrote 93 of the reports. On the corridor, local police wrote 1,049 of 1,120.

How These Numbers Were Counted

Crash reports in Massachusetts carry two location fields. One is the roadway the officer typed, which this site’s town road lists are built from. The other is the road-inventory name MassDOT attaches when it places the crash on its map. On Mass Ave the difference is large. The 2024 Cambridge road list built from typed roadways shows Massachusetts Avenue in four separate pieces, eastbound 20, westbound 17, and two northbound entries of 10 and 8, because officers spelled and labelled it differently. Counted on the inventory name, the same city had 194 crashes on Mass Ave that year.

1. Definition. Every record with the inventory name MASSACHUSETTS AVENUE, 2022 through 2024. Almost none of the road carries a route number in the mile-marker field (575 of 592 records in 2024 had none), so the name is the only way to count it whole.
2. Sections by town. Because several roads share the name, sections are drawn by city and town, and each section’s count is reconciled to the total every year (547, 579 and 592).
3. Benchmarks. Two comparisons: every crash statewide on roads of the class most Mass Ave records carry (89,343 crashes on “rural minor arterial or urban principal arterial” roads), and each town’s own crashes on its other streets, which holds the police department and its reporting habits constant.
4. A kill test. To see whether the high injury share is just the cyclist and pedestrian mix, the comparison was rerun with every crash involving a bicyclist or pedestrian removed.

The Corridor Against Its Class

Measure	Mass Ave corridor	Same road class statewide	All Massachusetts crashes
Crashes, 2022 to 2024	1,120	89,343	405,239
Fatal crashes	4	223	1,087
Injury share	30.18%	23.86%	22.89%
Crashes involving a bicyclist	13.57% (152)	1.46% (1,306)	1.07% (4,356)
Crashes involving a pedestrian	6.43% (72)	1.79% (1,596)	1.48% (5,980)
Sideswipe, same direction	25.45% (285)	14.05%	not compared
Rear-end	18.48% (207)	28.10%	not compared
First harmful event: parked vehicle	12.41% (139)	7.13%	not compared
First harmful event: cyclist	11.70% (131)	1.30%	not compared

Two things stand out besides the cyclists and pedestrians. Same-direction sideswipes are a quarter of the corridor’s crashes, against one in seven for its class, and rear-end crashes are less common than usual. And one crash in eight began with a vehicle striking a parked vehicle. Those are the shapes of a street with parked cars along the curb, frequent lane changes, and bicycles traveling in the same direction as traffic. The data records the shape. It does not record the cause, and this article does not supply one.

Four fatal crashes in three years are too few to compare as a rate. What can be said is what the four reports record. Every one of them is coded as a collision with a pedestrian: in Boston in May 2022 at Harrison Avenue at night, in Boston in January 2024 at about 3 a.m. involving a single-unit truck, in Lexington in October 2024 in daylight, and in Arlington in November 2024 at about 6 p.m. Three of the four fell in 2024. Across every road named Massachusetts Avenue, six of the seven fatal crashes in the three years were pedestrian crashes.

Cambridge: One Street, Three in Ten Bicycle Crashes

Cambridge recorded 4,774 crashes from 2022 through 2024, and 384 involving a bicyclist, the most of any community in the state, as explained in which Massachusetts city has the most bicycle crashes. Mass Ave is where a large share of them happen.

Cambridge, 2022 to 2024	Massachusetts Avenue	The rest of Cambridge
Crashes	602 (12.61% of the city’s 4,774)	4,172
Bicycle crashes	114 (29.69% of the city’s 384)	270
Pedestrian crashes	32 (14.55% of the city’s 220)	188
Injury share, all crashes	32.72%	21.60%
Injury share, crashes with no cyclist or pedestrian	19.96% (91 of 456)	14.32% (532 of 3,714)
Fatal crashes	0	7

The year-by-year counts are steady: 186, 222 and 194 crashes, with 41, 36 and 37 involving a bicyclist. This is not one bad year.

The kill test is the most useful line in that table. Of Mass Ave’s 197 injury crashes in Cambridge, 106 involved a bicyclist or a pedestrian, and 72.6 percent of the street’s 146 cyclist and pedestrian crashes injured someone. Take those crashes out and the injury share falls from 32.72 to 19.96 percent. It is still higher than the 14.32 percent on the rest of the city’s streets, so there is a smaller gap that the mix does not explain, but most of the difference is who was in the road, not how hard the cars hit each other.

The full picture for the city, including its highest-crash roads, is on the Cambridge crash data page.

Arlington and Lexington

In Arlington, Mass Ave is a fifth of everything. The town recorded 1,108 crashes in the three years, and 232 of them, 20.94 percent, were on Mass Ave. It holds 18 of the town’s 47 bicycle crashes and 12 of its 28 pedestrian crashes, and 1 of the town’s 2 fatal crashes. The injury share on Mass Ave is 23.71 percent against 17.01 percent on Arlington’s other streets, and with cyclist and pedestrian crashes removed, 17.82 against 14.08. The town’s own page is the Arlington crash data page.

Lexington is different. Mass Ave carries 135 of the town’s 1,692 crashes, 7.98 percent, and Interstate 95 and Route 2 lead the town’s 2024 road list. The injury share on Mass Ave, 20.00 percent, is close to the rest of the town’s 19.65 percent, and with cyclists and pedestrians removed it is lower, 15.83 against 18.12. The count did rise, 27, 51 and 57 across the three years, and the town’s crash data page shows where else crashes happen.

Boston: Why the Count Is a Floor

The records show only 151 crashes on Mass Ave in Boston over three years, 55, 42 and 54. That is too low to trust for a street that runs through the Back Bay, the South End and Roxbury, and the reason is visible in the data. Boston records with no road-inventory name at all, which therefore cannot be counted on any named road, rose from 182 in 2022 to 444 in 2023 and 730 in 2024. Cambridge had 38 such records in 2024. So the Boston figures in this article are a minimum, not a measure, and they are not used for any comparison. What the Boston records do show is that 2 of the corridor’s 4 fatal crashes, both pedestrian deaths, happened there. The city’s page is the Boston crash data page.

Answer Capsule

From 2022 through 2024, MassDOT recorded 1,120 crashes on Massachusetts Avenue through Boston, Cambridge, Arlington and Lexington, counted by road-inventory name, with 4 fatal crashes, 338 injury crashes (30.18 percent against 23.86 percent for its road class statewide), 152 involving a bicyclist (13.57 percent against 1.46) and 72 involving a pedestrian (6.43 percent against 1.79). In Cambridge it carries 602 of the city’s 4,774 crashes and 114 of its 384 bicycle crashes. All four corridor fatal crashes were pedestrian crashes. Most of the high injury share is the cyclist and pedestrian mix: in Cambridge, with those crashes removed, it is 19.96 percent against 14.32 on the city’s other streets. Boston’s count is a floor because its records with no road name rose from 182 to 730. The law gives cyclists and pedestrians specific protections, including the 4-foot passing rule and the door-opening rule in M.G.L. c. 90, sec. 14. For a Mass Ave crash, call Jim Glaser Law at (617) JIM-WINS.

The Western Road and North Andover

The other Massachusetts Avenues look like ordinary suburban and rural roads, and the records say so. The western road recorded 400 crashes, 139, 127 and 134 by year, no fatal crash, an injury share of 19.75 percent, 31 crashes on unlighted road at night and 23 deer strikes. In Lunenburg it is a third of the town’s crashes, 175 of 529. In Boxborough it is 65 of 244, and in Acton 146 of 842. See the Acton crash data page.

North Andover’s Mass Ave recorded 145 crashes, 46, 51 and 48 by year, with an injury share of 18.62 percent and 1 fatal crash, a pedestrian struck in daylight in May 2023. That is 8.45 percent of the town’s 1,715 crashes, shown on the North Andover crash data page.

The Laws That Matter Most on a Street Like This

A street where nearly one crash in five involves a cyclist or a pedestrian is a street where a handful of specific statutes do most of the work.

Situation	What the statute says	Source
Passing a cyclist or pedestrian	The driver “shall pass at a safe distance of not less than 4 feet and at a reasonable and proper speed”	M.G.L. c. 90, sec. 14
Opening a car door	No person shall open a door “unless it is reasonably safe to do so without interfering with the movement of other traffic, including bicyclists and pedestrians”; fine of not more than $100	M.G.L. c. 90, sec. 14
Turning left across traffic	The driver yields to oncoming vehicles, “including a bicycle on the right of the other approaching vehicles”	M.G.L. c. 90, sec. 14
A cyclist riding to the right of cars	”It shall not be a defense for a motorist causing an accident with a bicycle that the bicycle was to the right of vehicular traffic”	M.G.L. c. 90, sec. 14
A cyclist passing on the right	The cyclist “may keep to the right when passing a motor vehicle which is moving in the travel lane”	M.G.L. c. 85, sec. 11B
A pedestrian in an unsignalled crosswalk	The driver yields to a pedestrian in a marked crosswalk when signals are not in place or not operating; fine of not more than $200	M.G.L. c. 89, sec. 11

The 4-foot rule protects every “vulnerable user,” which M.G.L. c. 90, sec. 1 defines to include pedestrians, people working in the road, and people on bicycles, scooters, skateboards, wheelchairs and other micromobility devices. Section 11 of chapter 89 also requires the police to investigate whenever a pedestrian is injured by a motor vehicle in a marked crosswalk. More on the cycling rules is in Massachusetts bicycle laws, and on pedestrians in pedestrian accident rights in Massachusetts.

After a Crash on Mass Ave

1. Get medical care and say how it happened. The first medical record is usually the earliest document in a claim, so it should say a car, a door or a bicycle was involved.
2. Get the report number. On the corridor, 1,049 of 1,120 reports were written by local police (Cambridge, Arlington, Lexington or Boston), 62 by State Police and 9 by MBTA police. The department that responded holds the report.
3. Write down the door, the lane and the turn. Whether a door opened, which lane each party was in, and whether a car was turning are the facts the statutes above turn on.
4. Look for cameras quickly. Many private and intersection cameras overwrite their recordings, so ask early. See traffic camera footage after a car accident.
5. Know which insurance pays first. Personal injury protection under M.G.L. c. 90, sec. 34A covers “any pedestrian struck by the insured’s or obligor’s motor vehicle,” up to at least eight thousand dollars, without regard to fault. The definition uses the word pedestrian and does not use the word bicycle, so how it applies to a cyclist depends on the policies involved.
6. Mind the deadline. Under M.G.L. c. 260, sec. 2A, a tort action must generally be commenced within three years after the cause of action accrues.

Fault is shared under Massachusetts law. M.G.L. c. 231, sec. 85 lets an injured person recover as long as their own negligence “was not greater than the total amount of negligence attributable to the person or persons against whom recovery is sought,” with damages reduced in proportion. A cyclist who was partly at fault is not automatically barred.

For a crash in Boston or Cambridge, see the city pages on bicycle accidents in Cambridge, bicycle accidents in Boston, car accidents in Cambridge and car accidents in Boston.

Key terms

• Road-inventory name. The name MassDOT’s road inventory gives the stretch where a crash is mapped, which stays the same however the officer typed the street.
• Vulnerable user. A pedestrian, road worker, or person on a bicycle, scooter, skateboard, wheelchair or similar device, as defined in M.G.L. c. 90, sec. 1.
• Same-direction sideswipe. A crash in which two vehicles traveling the same way strike side to side, often during a lane change or while passing.
• First harmful event. The first thing a vehicle struck in the crash, such as another moving vehicle, a parked car, a cyclist or a pedestrian.
• Injury share. The percentage of crashes in which at least one person was recorded with a non-fatal injury.
• Kill test. Rerunning a comparison with one factor removed, here every cyclist and pedestrian crash, to see whether a difference survives.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How many crashes happen on Massachusetts Avenue?

A: MassDOT recorded 1,718 crashes from 2022 through 2024 on all roads named Massachusetts Avenue, 547, 579 and 592 by year. Of those, 1,120 were on the continuous road through Boston, Cambridge, Arlington and Lexington, with 4 fatal crashes, 338 injury crashes, 152 involving a bicyclist and 72 involving a pedestrian.

Q: Is Mass Ave dangerous for cyclists?

A: It carries a large share of bicycle crashes. In Cambridge, Mass Ave had 114 of the city’s 384 bicycle crashes from 2022 through 2024, and on the whole corridor 13.57 percent of crashes involved a bicyclist against 1.46 percent on roads of the same class statewide. The data has no count of how many people ride there, so it cannot give a risk per rider.

Q: How many people have been killed on Mass Ave?

A: From 2022 through 2024 the records show 4 fatal crashes on the Boston to Lexington corridor, 2 in Boston, 1 in Arlington and 1 in Lexington, and every one was coded as a collision with a pedestrian. Across every road named Massachusetts Avenue there were 7 fatal crashes, 6 of them pedestrian crashes.

Q: Why does Boston show so few crashes on Mass Ave?

A: Because many Boston records carry no road-inventory name and cannot be counted on any named road. Those records rose from 182 in 2022 to 730 in 2024, so the 151 Boston crashes counted on Mass Ave are a minimum.

Q: What is the law on opening a car door into a cyclist in Massachusetts?

A: M.G.L. c. 90, sec. 14 provides that no person shall open a door on a motor vehicle unless it is reasonably safe to do so without interfering with other traffic, including bicyclists and pedestrians. The fine is not more than $100.

Q: How much room does a driver have to give a cyclist?

A: At least 4 feet. M.G.L. c. 90, sec. 14 requires a driver passing a vulnerable user, which includes cyclists and pedestrians, to pass at a safe distance of not less than 4 feet and at a reasonable and proper speed.

Q: Who pays a pedestrian’s medical bills after being hit on Mass Ave?

A: First, personal injury protection. M.G.L. c. 90, sec. 34A covers any pedestrian struck by the insured motor vehicle, up to at least eight thousand dollars, regardless of fault. Larger losses are claimed against the at-fault driver’s liability coverage.

Q: Is Jimmy Knows AI giving me legal advice?

A: No. This page is general information about Massachusetts law and public crash data for educational purposes. It is not legal advice for your situation and does not create an attorney-client relationship. For advice about your own case, call Jim Glaser Law at (617) JIM-WINS.

Talking to a Lawyer

Numbers describe a street. They do not decide a case, which turns on what the drivers, riders and walkers in that crash actually did. If you were hurt on Mass Ave as a cyclist, a pedestrian, a passenger or a driver, call Jim Glaser Law at (617) JIM-WINS. The line is answered 24 hours a day. The first telephone consultation is free. This page is general information about the law and public data, not legal advice about your situation.