Galen Mook was consoled during a gathering of cyclists at Tremont and Parker Streets Friday, July 10. He is the Executive Director of Mass Bikes. Barry Chin/Globe Staff

Residents and public officials alike have been concerned about pedestrian and cyclist safety on the stretch of Tremont Street in Mission Hill near Parker Street for years.

In 2023, officials for the City of Boston flagged the busy corridor in Mission Hill for lacking in “bike safety and comfort.” They considered creating safer bicycle connections there to move Boston one step closer to its longstanding goal of eliminating traffic fatalities.

A completion date on the project, however, is still “to be determined.”

The Boston Police Department on Friday again would not provide additional details about what led up to the crash that killed the 36-year-old, or the driver and vehicle involved, citing an active investigation.

In a statement late Friday, a spokesperson for Mayor Michelle Wu said Gag’s loss “will be forever felt by” those she and her work touched. “We will honor Louisa’s legacy by carrying forward the work that she believed in so deeply,” Veronica Yoo, Wu’s spokesperson, said.

But her office also said that where Gag was struck was not covered by by a planning project for the area, nor were there plans proposed for flex posts or a protected bike lane there.

Those who have pressed for more road safety improvements said Gag’s death points to the need for the Wu administration to reprioritize that work.

“To lose her on a morning commute at an intersection the city has explicitly documented as dangerous for years is just an unmitigated tragedy, a systemic failure,” said Caitlin Allen-Connelly, executive director of the public transportation nonprofit TransitMatters.

Some city employees spoke out months ago about how transportation safety projects have been slow-walked under Wu. The Globe previously reported Wu began requiring her personal approval for most street infrastructure work to move forward last year.

Last year, Wu’s administration also yanked protective barriers out of bike lanes in multiple neighborhoods. Those steps came while the mayor was facing heavy pressure over the addition of bike lanes, from both her then-mayoral opponent and from some residents and motorists.

But Jim Tarr, a transportation planner for the city of Malden who said he worked closely with Gag on the Bluebikes system, said street safety improvements cannot be considered a “nicety or a privilege.”

“We really owe Louisa’s memory an urgency about how we make and remake our streets and our neighborhoods,” Tarr said. “At this point, it’s a moral imperative.”

Cyclists gathered Friday evening for a memorial vigil at the area where Boston bike activist Louisa Gag was killed. Barry Chin/Globe Staff

Wu has said street safety remains a priority for her administration. She has also defended the slowdown as an appropriate response to feedback that the city moved too quickly on earlier projects.

Altogether, a 30-day review on all streets projects Wu launched in February 2025 has spiraled into “500 days” of inaction, said Peter Furth, a Northeastern University professor who studies bike infrastructure.

It led to the removal of some temporary improvements, and transit advocates later put together a list of over a dozen transit projects they say have been paused.

And beyond paused initiatives, “there are no new initiatives,” Furth said. “The bike network is not continuing to improve at a fast enough rate. We still have a lot of dangerous gaps.”

Dan Merrow, a city transportation employee who worked with Gag, said the block where the accident occurred on Tremont Street was “not safe or compliant” with guidelines for bike lane safety.

“We’ve moved backward on bike safety in the city for a year and a half now,” Merrow said.

A May study found that roughly 90 percent of Boston urban bikers heading to jobs do not have “low-stress bike accessibility,” routes that are entirely made up of fully connected and protected bike lanes.

Flowers, cards and candles were part of the memorial at Tremont and Parker Streets. Barry Chin/Globe Staff

Near where Gag was struck Thursday, as Tremont Street approaches Parker Street from the west, a bike lane runs between the eastbound driving lane and parked cars. Well before reaching the crosswalk, the line separating the bike lane from the driving lane becomes a dotted line.

Magdalena Gomez, 36, an urban planner who previously worked for the City of Somerville, said buses need to cross through the bike lane to pull into a stop adjacent to the sidewalk, and cars need to cross the lane to turn right onto Parker Street.

“I feel like it checks the box of, ‘OK, there is a bike lane,’ but it’s not protected,” Gomez said in an interview Friday, near where Gag was struck.

Tony Baez, 32, who works for Boston City Councilor Sharon Durkan, echoed the concerns about the lanes’ safety.

“There are no bike lanes,” Baez said. “This paint is not a bike lane.”

Durkan, who met Gag when they both worked for Wu during her stint on the Boston City Council, said there is no way to know if either of the two planned projects — the Mission Hill project or a nearby Columbus Avenue redesign — might have made a difference at this particular intersection.

“She was a wonderful, joyful person who was a big advocate, but she should be remembered for a lot more than that,” Durkan said.

She added: “I don’t like biking on this corridor. I don’t feel safe.”

Polina Ortega, 55, who lives near where the accident occurred, described the streets in the area as “not safe at all.” Cars sometimes drive through red lights, she said, and people take electric bikes and scooters on the sidewalks.

“They should really do something about it,” Ortega said. “Otherwise, they’ll have more incidents like that.”

Carmen Laboy said a prayer Friday at the intersection where Louisa Gag was killed. Suzanne Kreiter/Globe Staff

Acquaintances and friends set up a makeshift memorial for Gag on Friday, leaning candles and bouquets of flowers against a parking sign. Friends stopped by to pay respects, many of them arriving by bike.

Gag, a Roslindale native, was “kindness embodied,” said Stefanie Seskin, 42. She hired Gag when she worked for the transportation department at City Hall.

Watching Gag help lead the bike-share and parking programs and the city’s Bike to Work Day was a joy, added Matthew Petersen, a onetime colleague at City Hall.

“Empathy came to her like breathing,” Petersen said. “She simultaneously hated to be the center of attention but could command a room by accident.”

Petersen and Gag watched the Fourth of July fireworks together last week from a friend’s North End apartment. Afterward, they took the train back to Brighton, where Gag lived.

Just a week later, the transit and cycling advocacy community has risen up in anger after Gag’s death.

Chase Duffin knew many of Gag’s friends from the Boston Cyclists Union, an advocacy group for cycling safety, and came to pay his respects at the memorial.

“Grief is powerful,” he said. “I think she would want us to put it to use.”

Jenna Perlman of the Globe staff and Globe correspondent Bryan Hecht contributed to this report.

Diti Kohli can be reached at diti.kohli@globe.com . Follow her @ditikohli_ . Niki Griswold can be reached at niki.griswold@globe.com . Follow her @nikigriswold . Ariela Lopez can be reached at ariela.lopez@globe.com . Follow her on X @ariela__lopez .