“Complete Streets,” “Safe Streets Wakefield,” “Envision Wakefield,” etc., etc. Even members of the Town Council can’t keep them straight. How do they expect the public to?

Maybe they don’t. Obfuscation can be a political strategy.

Allow me to clarify things for you.

The state, certain local officials and the activists pulling the strings behind the scenes all believe that they know what’s best for Wakefield and its citizens. And their prescription is always the same: bike lanes.

But the advocates know that bike lanes remain unpopular. So, their communications always use euphemistic terminology like “multimodal transportation,” “shared-use paths” and “complete streets” to camouflage the real goal.

The Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) even adopted the term “Complete Streets” as the name of a funding program that provides roadway construction funding to eligible municipalities. To qualify for this funding, Wakefield had to adopt a “Complete Streets Policy,” committing the town to costly and often unpopular roadway “improvements” to accommodate “walking, biking, transit and vehicles.”

No surprise that “vehicles” are listed last. The only shock is that they are acknowledged at all.

“Envision Wakefield” is a multi-million-dollar downtown revitalization plan that would be funded through another MassDOT program. Among the funding criteria for the “Transportation Improvement Program” (TIP) is something called “transportation equity,” a little-known concept outside of urban planning and social justice circles. If you guessed that “transportation equity” means bike lanes, you’re beginning to understand how this works.

Because of this bike lane requirement, the local “Safe Streets Wakefield” bicycle activist group has been propagandizing in favor of the Envision Wakefield project at events like the recent Living Well Health Fair.

At the September 14 meeting of the Wakefield Town Council, there will be a detailed update on the status of the Envision Wakefield project. You can bet that members of the Safe Streets Wakefield group will be out in force at that meeting in a show of support.

The only question is, will they be arriving on two wheels or four?
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[This column originally appeared in the August 27, 2026 Wakefield Daily Item.]