WalkMassachusetts, Author at WalkMassachusetts

Improving Walking Conditions in Westhampton

Westhampton residents participating in the walk audit

On Thursday, July 7th, WalkBoston led a walk audit in the town of Westhampton, MA, joined by three community members representing concerns from residents, the town board, the Council on Aging, Westhampton Connects, and other town organizations. The walk audit took place along Westhampton’s North, South, and Stage roads, which intersect in the town center. Prior to the walk audit, WalkBoston led a virtual Ped101 session that offered introductory knowledge on rural walkability, its importance, and various examples of interventions used to improve the pedestrian experience in rural communities.

Westhampton residents hope to improve walking safety throughout the town, particularly in the town center and along the shoulders of the roads that stretch out of the town. Participants shared a variety of concerns around pedestrian safety in the town, many residents walk in the roads and fast moving traffic along with limited sightlines are dangerous. Participants and WalkBoston staff brainstormed various ideas that might help mitigate these various concerns such as: white striping along the sides of roads to create a dedicated pedestrian area, signage warning of pedestrians and the upcoming central intersection, and speed feedback signs, among others. WalkBoston will soon publish a summary report of the walk audit, offering recommendations to the town for infrastructure improvements and funding opportunities. Westhampton can use these recommendations to make adjustments that support and encourage walking for those of all ages and abilities.

The Hilltown CDC, together with Healthy Hampshire and WalkBoston, are leading a 5-year grant project to promote Age-Friendly Walkability in the Hilltowns Village Centers, funded by the Dept. of Public Health’s Healthy Aging Fund. In partnership with community residents and leaders, the team will be conducting a series of walk audits in partnering Hilltowns villages. The goal of these walk audits is to identify infrastructure improvements and policy changes to make village center walking safe and enjoyable for people of all ages in the Hilltowns. The town of Westhampton is one of the partnering communities in this grant project.

Caminatas Seguras: Advocating for Park Accessibility in East Boston

East Boston community members gather with GreenRoots and WalkBoston in Bremen Street Park

Last Tuesday, June 14, WalkBoston joined East Boston residents and members of GreenRoots, a non-profit dedicated to improving access to and enjoyment of the urban environment of Boston and its surrounding communities, on a walk through multiple parks in East Boston. GreenRoots hosts walks in East Boston every Tuesday beginning at Bremen Street Park, with the hope of building community among East Boston Residents through sharing the joy that can be found in exploring the neighborhood’s various parks and neighborhoods. The organization invited WalkBoston members along for one Tuesday walk per month, as part of both organizations’ collaborative work focused on improving walking access to parks and advocating for more inclusive park programming.

GreenRoots, WalkBoston, and East Boston community members began with a short introduction, sharing names, laughs, gestures of welcoming, and inspiring stories of challenges that led members to find purpose and connection through volunteering. The group then began their walk from the center of Bremen Street Community Park to the Mary Ellen Welch greenway. These two parks were chosen due to their tree shading, which was beneficial as it offered cooling on a hot summer day, but also reflected the limited cool areas in East Boston.

Both of these parks proved to be flourishing community gathering points, filled with people on foot, on bike, and in stroller, all sharing stories and smiles with one another. Along the way, group members introduced themselves and talked about community building, the importance of conserving our natural landscapes, appreciation of park amenities, and expressed a desire for the many still needed improvements to these landscapes, including accessible walking paths and signage. Residents also commented on the effect of neighborhood improvements on housing prices, advocating for an increase in affordable housing to combat gentrification in the area.

WalkBoston and GreenRoots, through generous funding from Boston Children’s Hospital, will continue working and walking alongside the many East Boston residents dedicated to cultivating their community, both as a physical and as an interpersonal space. This work will further our mission of improving walking safety and accessibility throughout Massachusetts, amplifying the voices of the many respected communities and community members with which we work.

Transportation Advocates South Boston Seaport Strategic Transit Plan Comments

April 1, 2022
Jascha Franklin-Hodge
Boston Chief of Streets

Jim Fitzgerald
BPDA, Interim Deputy Director of Transportation & Infrastructure Planning

Re: South Boston Seaport Strategic Transit Plan

Dear Jascha and Jim:

Our collective organizations offer joint comments on the South Boston Seaport Strategic Transit Plan. Our comments build on the many verbal and written comments we’ve offered over the last few years, both about this plan, and specific projects within the project area.

While our organizations are eager to see the City tackle the very significant transit needs of this burgeoning part of the City, we continue to worry that this plan lacks the level of City leadership and cohesive vision needed to allow the neighborhood’s residents, businesses and workers to thrive in the years ahead. We would be pleased to meet with you to discuss our comments and our thoughts about how the project could be more effectively advanced.

Our specific concerns are outlined below:

Coordination + Cohesion: It remains unclear what the big picture goal and overall time frame is for the plan. As presented at the most recent public meeting, the “plan” was offered mostly as a laundry list of current and potent projects and lacked details about the timeline for implementation. It also lacked an appropriate level of coordination with the bike plan and offered no clear plan for improving accessibility for the area. Any successful transit plan must take these interconnected needs into account.

As a first step, we recommend putting all of the recommendations into one description and map color coded by timing of implementation (or perhaps overlays by year). The public needs to understand what is happening when and where.
- A tremendous amount of development is in various stages of planning and permitting, each of which is documenting their anticipated transit, walking, biking, parking and delivery operations. Please provide a consolidated look at all of these proposals and then describe how the plan for transit, sidewalks, bike lanes and roadways can accommodate the anticipated number of people and vehicles.
- Distinguish between the projects for which designs and funding are known (with some degree of certainty) and those which are still only ideas.
- Identify which entity (or entities) will be responsible for paying for, leading on designs and decision-making, and implementing the projects.
- Multi-agency complications exist on the roads in the neighborhood as well as in transit operations. Please clarify the ownership of the roads among MassDOT, MassPort and City BTD & BPDA.

Much is still unknown or unclear about the actual transit components of this transit plan. While there are proposed high level connections, there is very little detail about how those connections will be achieved.

Better bus connections are needed: (1) to/from North Station – and not just connecting to South station; (2) along Summer Street; (3) A Street; (4) Silver Line improvements (5) D Street service to Nubian Square (6) Express bus route changes. In order to provide clarity about what this plan will achieve to improve transit, we recommend:

Including information about the schedules of future service – we understand that precise information is not possible, but a vague description of “increased” service is not adequate.
Provide information about where funding will come from for both capital and operational investment
Provide a description of the current overall capacity of bus service for the district and what the future capacity goals are.
Distinguish between public (MBTA) and private shuttle service. Describe how private shuttles are being considered in the process and whether these services will be opened to the public.
Provide details about where buses will layover. Should there be a central point they all serve? Convention Center and Silver Line Way are the only remaining locations owned by the State with sufficient land area.
Outline how this process interacts and is coordinated with the MBTA Bus Network Redesign process.

MBTA Station improvements are critical to the plan

Improve bus circulation around Broadway station with vastly improved pedestrian crossings at West Broadway.
Build a new headhouse at Broadway Station to get last mile access from the northern side of West Broadway

Accessibility for people with disabilities must be definitively addressed, especially from South Station to A Street (via Congress Street is not an acceptable answer) and Broadway to the whole district.

Schedule a meeting with advocates and Boston Disabilities Commission in Spring 2022.
Focus on the network and connectivity, not just piecemeal, but rather a full concept of developed routes to serve as many needs as possible.

This plan must also compliment and contribute to better and safer bike conditions, especially on Summer Street, Congress Street and A Street.

Clarify the intended network and the timing of each piece of the network.
Clarify the goals, location and design of the South Bay Harbor Trail, including a discussion of the proposed width of the trail and whether it will be adequate to serve people walking and biking as a commuter route.
Prioritize separated bike lanes because bikes must be a core piece of the transportation system. They must be built into the network not just planned on a development-by-development basis.
Additionally, we want to see robust bike parking being considered as critical bike infrastructure – not only indoor bike rooms and bike parking that is accessible to residents and workers in new buildings, but on-street (or street-accessible), high-capacity bike parking, and want to ensure it is accounted for with all transportation planning in the area.

Make a final determination that there will be no vehicles, other than emergency access, on Northern Avenue Bridge. There has not been a public meeting about the Northern Avenue Bridge project since April of 2020. At that meeting there was overwhelming opposition to both the proposed design and the proposed allowance of vehicles on the bridge. It is concerning that several of the proposed routes in the South Boston Seaport Strategic Transit Plan assumed some access over the Northern Avenue bridge, when there are still many outstanding concerns about that project.

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the plan. We look forward to working with you in the months ahead.

Sincerely,

Tom Ready, FPNA

Stacy Thompson, Executive Director, LivableStreets

Stacey Beuttell, Executive Director, WalkBoston

Wendy Landman, Senior Policy Advisor, WalkBoston

Becca Wolfson, Executive Director, Boston Cyclists Union

Galen Mook, Executive Director, Massachusetts Bicycle Coalition

Jarred Johnson, Executive Director, TransitMatters

Cc Mayor Michelle Wu
Ed Flynn, District 2 City Councilor
Michael Flaherty, At Large City Councilor
Julia Mejia – At Large City Councilor
Ruthzee Louijeune – At Large City Councilor
MassDOT Secretary Jamey Tesler
MBTA General Manager Steve Poftak

Comments on Fenway Corners DPIR

March 30, 2022
Aisling Kerr, Project Manager
BPDA via email Aisling.Kerr@boston.gov

Re: Fenway Corners DPIR

Dear Ms. Kerr:

WalkBoston has attended project meetings and reviewed the DPIR for the Fenway Corners Project with respect to its impacts and benefits for people walking and using transit.

We are happy to reiterate that we are pleased that the proponent is proposing significant improvements to the walking environment in the Fenway neighborhood and giving detailed attention to the needs of people walking, taking transit and bicycling. The proposed transformation of Jersey Street into a pedestrian-only space will provide an exciting new way to experience Fenway Park (on non-game days) and add amenities for residents and visitors to the Fenway neighborhood. We are also pleased to see that the Lansdowne Street building will be designed around a public gateway through the building which will someday allow connectivity through the Lansdowne block to provide a pedestrian connection with Kenmore Square.

We support the proponent’s plans to modify the street system in and around the multi-site project in order to create more space for pedestrians and for people enjoying what will essentially become a new open space in the neighborhood.

We believe that the combination of street changes, walking, transit and biking improvements and attention to urban design provided by the project will provide benefits to both neighborhood residents and visitors. The proponent’s plans are consistent with the City’s goals of growing without adding significant new vehicle traffic to the City’s streets.

Overall we believe the project will benefit pedestrians on the streets and sidewalks of the Fenway. We urge the proponent to continue working with WalkBoston and other advocates and with the City of Boston to refine several elements of the design as the project proceeds.

Sidewalk/Bus stop/Bike interactions – We appreciate that the project team has continued to assess the operation of Brookline Avenue with attention to the mix of bus, walking and bike operations. While the exact design and operation of Brookline Avenue is not yet certain, the good faith efforts of the design team are encouraging. We urge the proponent to continue working with WalkBoston, the Boston Disabilities Commission, the MBTA’s Office of Systemwide Accessibility, the Boston Transportation Department and the bicycle advocacy community to ensure that the designs meet the needs of all sidewalk, transit and street users.
Transit operations – In order to achieve the mode shares that the proponent, the residents of the Fenway, the employers in the area, the City and all of us interested in reducing GHG emissions hope for, the operations of the many bus routes in the neighborhood and throughout the region need to be improved and added to. As noted above, we are encouraged that the needs of bus riders are being given careful attention to ensure that they are enhanced by the changes in street operations and design. We hope that the proponent will continue to be a voice for better transit with the City and the MBTA.
Curb management – As noted in the DPIR, the management of buses, deliveries, TNCs, and short-term parking is critical to the smooth operations of the district’s streets and sidewalks. With the proposal to eliminate on street parking in several locations we believe that it will be incumbent on the proponent to develop a detailed management system that is clear, easy to use and actually used by the many delivery vehicles and short-term parkers who frequent the neighborhood. This is needed for both the businesses and business users of the neighborhood, and for the safety of people walking, biking and taking buses. When drivers stop in travel lanes and block the passage of other vehicles, people walking can find themselves crossing the street between stopped vehicles and confronted with frustrated drivers. We ask the proponent to provide an opportunity for interested members of the public to review the curb management plan prior to its finalization.
Parking – The supply of parking for the project will have a profound impact on the mode of travel that will be used by people accessing the site. We urge the developer and the City to work together to further reduce the number of parking spaces that will be provided. With the 5-7 year buildout period we are hopeful that the City, MBTA and MassDOT will make progress toward the investments in transit, walking and biking that will make is sensible to reduce the number of parking spaces in the project.
Paving surfaces – Some of the sketches shown in public presentations continue to suggest paving stones or other uneven paving materials. We ask that all paving materials be fully accessible and comfortable for all people walking or using mobility assistance. We also ask that the proponent take into account the needs of providing good snow clearance on all of the sidewalks and also that they commit to providing such clearance.
Sense of welcome for all – The redesign and re-purposing of Jersey Street and all of the city blocks included in the project presents exciting opportunities for walkability. It also presents some challenges to ensuring that the spaces and places are not managed or curated in ways that could feel privatized or exclusive and less than fully welcoming to people of all races, incomes and ages. We urge the proponent to continue working with diverse community groups and individuals from a variety of Boston neighborhoods to ensure that the sense of welcome includes everyone.

Thank you for the opportunity to provide comments.

Sincerely,

Wendy Landman
Senior Policy Advisor

Fenway Project PNF Comment Letter

July 21, 2021

Aisling Kerr, Project Manager

BPDA via email Aisling.Kerr@boston.gov

Re: Fenway Project PNF

Dear Ms. Kerr:

WalkBoston has reviewed the PNF for the Fenway Project with respect to its impacts and benefits for people walking and using transit.

We are very pleased that the proponent is proposing significant improvements to the walking environment in the Fenway neighborhood and giving detailed attention to the needs of people walking, taking transit and bicycling. The proposed transformation of Jersey Street into a pedestrian-only space will provide an exciting new way to experience Fenway Park (on non-game days) and add amenities for residents and visitors to the Fenway neighborhood. We support the proponent’s plans to modify the street system in and around the multi-site project in order to create more space for pedestrians and for people enjoying what will essentially become a new open space in the neighborhood.

Sidewalk/Bus stop/Bike interactions – The project includes re-designed streets (in particular Brookline Ave.) with new protected bike lanes. We urge the proponent to continue working with WalkBoston, the Boston Disabilities Commission, the MBTA’s Office of Systemwide Accessibility, the Boston Transportation Department and the bicycle advocacy community to ensure that the designs meet the needs of all sidewalk, transit and street users.
Transit operations – In order to achieve the mode shares that the proponent, the residents of the Fenway, the employers in the area, the City and all of us interested in reducing GHG emissions hope for, the operations of the many bus routes in the neighborhood will need careful attention to ensure that they are enhanced by the changes in the street system and urban design.
Paving surfaces – Some of the sketches shown suggest paving stones or other materials. We ask that all paving materials be fully accessible and comfortable for all people walking or using mobility assistance. We also ask that the proponent take into account the needs of providing good snow clearance on all of the sidewalks and also that they commit to providing such clearance.
Sense of welcome for all – The redesign and re-purposing of Jersey Street and all of the city blocks included in the project presents exciting opportunities for walkability. It also presents some challenges to ensuring that the spaces and places are not managed or curated in ways that could feel privatized or exclusive and less than fully welcoming to people of all races, incomes and ages. We urge the proponent to work with diverse community groups and individuals from a variety of Boston neighborhoods to ensure that the sense of welcome includes everyone.

Thank you for the opportunity to provide comments.

Sincerely,

Wendy Landman

Senior Policy Advisor