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Boston partners with Google on effort to alleviate stop-and-go traffic  – Boston News, Weather, Sports | WHDH 7News

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Boston partners with Google on effort to alleviate stop-and-go traffic  – Boston News, Weather, Sports | WHDH 7News


BOSTON (WHDH) – Boston city officials this week announced a new partnership with Google aimed at using AI to tackle traffic congestion on local streets. 

Dubbed Project Green Light, the program puts AI to work to model traffic patterns and recommend traffic signal timing adjustments. 

In a statement Thursday, officials said they started working with Google on Project Green Light in February and have, so far, made changes at four intersections in the Fenway-Kenmore, Mission Hill, and Jamaica Plain areas. 

“We know that even small tweaks can go a long way with traffic,” Mayor Michelle Wu told 7NEWS. 

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Traffic analytics firm INRIX in 2023 ranked Boston as the eighth worst city in the world for traffic delays. 

“One of the most frustrating parts of living in a major city is traffic, so Boston is taking every step to combat congestion and get people to where they need to go,” Wu said. 

Google product manager Matheus Vervloet said Project Green Light pairs AI with Google Maps technology to analyze intersections and create recommendations for municipal traffic engineers. 

In Boston, officials said they examined hundreds of intersections and noted a 50% drop in stop-and-go traffic after heeding Project Green Light recommendations at the intersections of Huntington Avenue and Opera Place, and Amory Street and Green Street.

Project Green Light is currently operating in 14 cities across the world. Boston and Seattle were the only US cities invited to join for free.

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Moving forward, Boston officials said city engineers are considering implementing additional recommendations from Project Green Light later this year. 

“This is one piece of something that we know could be a bigger part of the solution,” Wu said. 

“We’ve seen great potential to reduce unnecessary stops and reduce emissions and pollution,” Vervloet said.

(Copyright (c) 2024 Sunbeam Television. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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Boston, MA

3 arrested after trying to break into downtown building, Boston police say – The Boston Globe

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3 arrested after trying to break into downtown building, Boston police say – The Boston Globe


Three males were arrested while fleeing from an alleged break in at property in downtown Boston Thursday evening, police said.

A call reporting a breaking and entering in progress across from 7 Water St. came in at 7:33 p.m., a police spokesperson said.

The call prompted nearly a dozen marked squad cars to race to the scene in the Financial District.

The three males were wearing black ski masks when they allegedly ran from officers near Water and Washington streets toward Court Square, police said.

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All three were arrested.

No other information was immediately available.

This breaking news story will be updated as more information becomes available.


Tonya Alanez can be reached at tonya.alanez@globe.com. Follow her @talanez.





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Boston, MA

A federal judge in Boston has blocked parts of Trump’s order to limit voting by mail

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A federal judge in Boston has blocked parts of Trump’s order to limit voting by mail


President Trump holds up an executive order to limit mail-in voting as Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick looks on in the White House’s Oval Office in March.

Alex Wong/Getty Images


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Alex Wong/Getty Images

President Trump’s executive order to limit voting by mail has hit a legal hurdle.

On Thursday, a Boston-based judge blocked parts of the order that, at least so far, has not directly affected mail-in voting for this year’s midterm primary elections.

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The legal fight, however, is likely to continue. The order pushes the boundaries of Trump’s authority under the Constitution, which gives state legislatures and Congress — not the U.S. president — the power to set the rules for federal elections.

The Trump administration is expected to appeal the new ruling by U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani, a nominee of former President Barack Obama, as a separate appeal of an earlier ruling by another federal judge moves forward in a similar set of lawsuits based in Washington, D.C.

Among other directives, Trump’s order from March calls for the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Postal Service to create lists of adult U.S. citizens or eligible voters in each state. It also calls for USPS, which is independent of a president’s administration, to deliver mail-in ballots only to people on those lists.

In response, USPS has proposed using information from state election officials to create voter lists. Postmaster General David Steiner told lawmakers Wednesday that under the proposal, the Postal Service would not deliver the mail ballots of any states that refuse to turn over their absentee voter lists to the federal government.

For the D.C.-based cases, the judge found in late May that it was too early for an emergency ruling that would block directives that the Trump administration has yet to carry out. Democrats are appealing that judge’s ruling to the U.S. Appeals Court for the District of Columbia.

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Editor’s note: USPS is a financial supporter of NPR.

Edited by Benjamin Swasey



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Boston, MA

Boy, 13, hospitalized after being found unresponsive in swimming pool at Beverly home

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Boy, 13, hospitalized after being found unresponsive in swimming pool at Beverly home


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The boy was stabilized and flown to a Boston hospital, police said.

A 13-year-old boy was flown to a Boston hospital after he was found unresponsive in a swimming pool at a home in Beverly on Wednesday afternoon, police said.

Police and firefighters were called to a home on Parramatta Road after bystanders pulled the boy from the pool, the Beverly Police Department wrote in a press release.

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Bystanders administered CPR until first responders arrived, according to police. First responders continued CPR and other “life saving measures,” police said.

An ambulance took the boy to Beverly Hospital where he was stabilized. He was then taken by medical helicopter to a Boston hospital, police said.

The incident is currently being investigated by Beverly police, the department said.

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