Rep. Seth Moulton reintroduced legislation on Thursday, Aug. 6, that would overhaul federal road design standards, citing the 2023 death of 5-year-old Sidney Mae Olson in an Andover crosswalk as the bill's driving force.
The Building Safer Streets Act directs the Federal Highway Administration to update decades-old rules that have prioritized vehicle speed over the safety of pedestrians, cyclists and other road users. It would give state and local engineers more flexibility to design streets that protect everyone, not just drivers.
Sidney was struck and killed by a tractor-trailer in May 2023 while crossing Elm Street in Elm Square with the walk signal showing, on her way to an art class. The driver was not criminally charged.
Moulton, who represents Massachusetts' 6th Congressional District, first introduced the bill in December 2024. He reintroduced it in the 119th Congress, his office said in a press release, noting that more than 100 people die in U.S. traffic crashes every day and that pedestrian and cyclist deaths have risen even as overall vehicle miles traveled has leveled off.
"We owe it to every victim and their family to fix what is broken before it costs another life," Moulton said in the release.
The reintroduction also comes weeks after a City of Boston transportation planner was struck and killed while cycling in Mission Hill in July.
Parents turned grief into advocacy
Since Sidney's death, her parents, Eric Olson and Mary Beth Ellis, have founded the Sidney Mae Olson Rainbow Fund and helped launch a Massachusetts chapter of Families for Safe Streets. The nonprofit focuses on improving safety for children walking, biking and rolling in communities across the state.
"The freedom to move is an essential ingredient to our Merrimack Valley communities," Olson said in a July 31 Andover Townsman article announcing the fund's Rainbow Day event, not the bill itself.
The Rainbow Fund is raising money to build what organizers say would be the Merrimack Valley's first children's bike park at Pomp's Pond, a natural-surface pump track and skills course planned in partnership with the town.
Rainbow Day 2026 is scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 5, at The Park in Andover, running 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. A new 1-mile downhill road race, the Freedom to Move Mile, will headline the event.
What the bill would change
The Building Safer Streets Act targets federal guidance that governs how roads are engineered nationwide. Current standards were written primarily around moving cars efficiently. The bill would require updates that account for pedestrians, cyclists and other vulnerable road users.
No committee hearing or vote has been scheduled for the bill. Moulton's office did not announce co-sponsors in the Aug. 6 release.
