Letter to City Council on Safe Streets and COVID-19
April 30, 2020
City Councilor Liz Breadon
City Councilor Michelle Wu
1 City Hall Square
Boston, MA 02201
Dear Councilors Breadon and Wu:
Thank you for filing an order for a hearing regarding implementing changes for safe streets during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. As stated in WalkBoston’s March 27, 2020, post “We are all in this together,” and the Vision Zero Coalition’s April 13, 2020, statement,“Keeping People Safe While Making Essential Trips During the COVID-19 Crisis,” we share your concerns regarding limited space for people to safely walk, bike and use transit while maintaining the recommended 6 feet of physical distance. Our recommendations mirror yours, and we commend you on elevating this issue to the Boston City Council.
As we continue to remain close to home to stop the spread of the virus, we remain connected to those on the front lines of this crisis to better understand the built environment issues they face when making essential trips outside their homes. MassBike and the Massachusetts Healthy Aging Collaborative have included us in conversations about the needs of older adults living in senior housing units in urban centers. Older adults are among the most vulnerable to fall victim to COVID-19. Ensuring that our elders have safe access and enough room on our sidewalks to walk to get food and other essential services is a must. We ask that you keep the needs of our seniors on the top of your minds when deciding on a methodology to share Boston’s streets.
We have also been in contact with the Boston Age Strong Commission who have identified potential locations where expanded sidewalks and outdoor spaces would greatly benefit senior residents. This is by no means an exhaustive list, but will be a good starting point and can help act as models for other cities and towns as they design and implement shared streets as part of COVID response and recovery.
Thank you again for elevating this issue to the City Council. As the weather gets warmer in the coming weeks, we believe that the need to reallocate space on our streets will be more important than ever. Please let me know if WalkBoston can be helpful in any way.
Sincerely,
Stacey Beuttell, Executive Director
WalkBoston