The Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) announced the five-week public comment period for “Beyond Mobility,” the Massachusetts 2050 Transportation Plan. The Massachusetts Healthy Aging Collaborative is encouraging its stakeholder network, including communities working to become more age- and dementia friendly, to offer thoughts on Beyond Mobility by using an online survey tool, which can be found at www.mass.gov/beyond-mobility.

Beyond Mobility will result in a blueprint for guiding transportation decision making and investments in Massachusetts in a way that advances MassDOT’s goals and maximizes the equity and resiliency of the transportation system. The project team, considering what the world will be like in 2050, has analyzed previous plans, public engagement responses, and results from a needs assessment and has identified six key priority areas of Massachusetts to focus on over the long term. These are: safety, destination connectivity, travel experience, reliability, supporting clean transportation, and resiliency. Within the Plan, vision statements, values, problem statements, and over 100 action items have been developed and are organized by these six priority areas.

MassDOT worked with the Massachusetts Healthy Aging Collaborative to gather feedback from age- and dementia friendly community partners, which resulted in several draft action items that involve supporting mobility management, access to affordable and reliable public transportation options, improved pedestrian safety, and snow and ice management, among other features.

To learn more about Beyond Mobility and to access the final draft plan materials and links to the online survey tool, please visit: https://beyond-mobility-massdot.hub.arcgis.com/.