Author: WalkMassachusetts

Walk audits with a climate focus on the way to Danvers, Melrose, Salem, Stoneham, and Wakefield

Walk audits with a climate focus on the way to Danvers, Melrose, Salem, Stoneham, and Wakefield

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We’re happy to announce that WalkMassachusetts has been awarded a $75,000 Accelerating Climate Resilience Grant from the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC). See the press release here. This is a huge win for our mission and a major step forward for pedestrian safety in the face of climate change. With this grant, we’re officially launching our Climate-Safe Walk Audit Initiative: Enhancing Pedestrian Resilience in a Rapidly Warming World.

What This Means for Massachusetts

We’ll be working directly with five communities—Danvers, Melrose, Salem, Stoneham, and Wakefield—to make walking not just safer, but also more resilient and “climate-ready.”

Alongside community members, our goal is to identify and address the challenges that a rapidly changing climate presents to vulnerable road users. Through walk audits, we’ll be working with them to help find short term actions that advance bigger climate resilience goals they’ve already identified. This could mean finding solutions to make crosswalks more visible during heavy rain, or creating more shaded pathways to help everyone walk, run, or roll comfortably during extreme heat.

Especially if you live, work, or play in one of those five communities, make sure you are on our email list so we can reach out and loop you in as we get the ball rolling in the coming months!

MAPC Awards $800k in “Accelerating Climate Resilience” Grants to Municipal and Community-Organization Led Projects
Help MassBike & WalkMass evaluate heat stress in Chelsea, Everett, Framingham, and Revere

Help MassBike & WalkMass evaluate heat stress in Chelsea, Everett, Framingham, and Revere

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MassBike and WalkMass are working with the Boston MPO to analyze corridors in Chelsea, Everett, Revere, and Framingham that have been identified as places that have both high heat and are places where lots of people walk and bike. A series of walk and bike audits took place in August 2025 to help understand how heat impacts people walking and biking along streets in our neighborhoods. To add to our data collection we’re asking people to take self-audits through the forms available for each community so you can walk or bike a route and send in your experiences. 

Are you interested in adding to our data? Please follow these links to access the walking and biking feedback forms:

Chelsea | Everett | Framingham | Revere

(click footnote for other language options)1

What’s a walk/bike audit? 

An audit is a process where a person or group walks or bikes through a designated route (a neighborhood or commercial district) to assess pedestrian/bike accessibility and safety. Various factors are observed and evaluated, including the condition of sidewalks, crosswalks, and pedestrian signals, as well as the presence of amenities like benches, lighting, and landscaping. The goal of a walk/bike audit is to identify barriers or deficiencies that may hinder walking or biking as a mode of transport. Learn more about the walk and bike audit routes in each community below!

Why are we doing this?

Neutralizing Onerous Heat Effects on Active Transportation (NO-HEAT) is a project focusing on reducing the heat that people experience while walking, biking, or rolling. It’s a collaboration between the Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO), the cities of Chelsea, Revere, Everett, and Framingham, and several community partners, including WalkMass, MassBike, Bike to the Sea, and Mystic River Watershed Association.

Why should I do this? 

We appreciate your time and feedback, and we are offering gift cards to local establishments for anyone that takes part.

Audit Routes

Chelsea

Go to the form

Everett Ave (Broadway to Everett Border)  – The route is just under a mile, and crosses from the dense urban area of downtown Chelsea to the Silver Line and Commuter Rail MBTA stop, and newer residential developments along the Everett border.

Broadway (City Hall to Revere Border) – This stretch connects the businesses nearby Chelsea City Hall to the neighborhoods and parks out to Revere and the Mill Creek park. This route also crosses the Chelsea Greenway Community Path, and is a major corridor for trucking and MBTA buses.

Spruce Street (2nd Street to Route 1) – This route travels along the commercial section of Spruce St, connecting to Mystic Mall and passing by government and healthcare buildings.

Everett

Go to the form

2nd Street (From Revere Beach Pkwy to rail road tracks) – This route travels 2nd St through an industrial and commercial area that features a large apartment building.

Northern Strand Community Trail (Wyllis Avenue intersection to Waters Avenue intersection) – The Northern Strand Community Trail is the key corridor for bicyclists and pedestrians that connects Everett, Malden, Revere, Saugus, and Lynn. This section focuses on a particularly open segment with little shade that is susceptible to higher temperatures.

Main Street (Oakes Street to Malden Border) – Beginning at Meadows Park / Kearins Playground, this route travels through a residential neighborhood, passing through a few small commercial areas. You can also RSVP here to join a walk on September 25, 5pm.

Framingham

Go to the form

Beaver/Waverly to Beaver/Leland (Seabra Foods to Harmony Grove Elementary) – This travels Beaver & W Harmony Grove Elementary School, connecting Dennison Playground to the area near Sunshine Farm.

Irving/Loring Street (corner of Waverly Street to corner of Herring Ave) – From the major thoroughfare of Waverly Street, this route heads through the residential and business district and heads towards the South Middlesex Correctional Center, to highlight a recent ‘complete streets’ project.

Waverly Street (2nd Street to Cedar Street) – This travels major commercial corridor Waverly St, beginning near the Framingham MBTA station.

Cochituate Rail Trail – Cochituate Rail Trail is a multi-use trail that runs between Framingham and Natick, in the western suburbs of Boston. There may be a site visit to the Framingham end of the trail in late September. Email Brendan Kearney bkearney@walkmass.org to be kept in the loop.

Revere

Go to the form

Revere Street (Route 60 to Revere Beach) – This route focuses on the major destination to/from Revere Beach, and is a heavily used corridor for bicyclists to reach Wonderland MBTA station.

Washington Ave (Beach Street to Fuller Street) – This route connects the Washington Ave corridor to the Northern Strand Community Trail, passing through residential neighborhoods, religious centers, and municipal ball fields.

Malden Street (Route 1 to Vinny’s Food Market) – This route follows Malden St down a residential neighborhood between Disalvo Park at Susan B Anthony Middle School and Route 1. You can also RSVP here for a walk audit on September 17, 3:30pm. 

Please send any feedback or questions to bkearney@walkmass.org or bikeinfo@massbike.org.

  1. Other Language Options
    اَلْفُصْحَىٰ Chelsea | Everett | Framingham | Revere
    Español Chelsea | Everett | Framingham | Revere
    आधुनिक मानक हिन्दी Chelsea | Everett | Framingham | Revere
    Kreyòl Chelsea | Everett | Framingham | Revere
    简化字 Chelsea | Everett | Framingham | Revere
    Português Chelsea | Everett | Framingham | Revere ↩︎
Walking Toward Safer, Healthier Streets in Brockton

Walking Toward Safer, Healthier Streets in Brockton

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This summer, WalkMassachusetts and Old Colony Planning Council partnered with community members to complete a series of walk audits across four Brockton neighborhoods: Campello, Montello, East Side, and West Side. Each audit brought together residents, local leaders, and advocates to identify barriers, share personal experiences, and recommend solutions to make walking safer, more accessible, and more enjoyable for everyone.

Why Walk Audits Matter

A walk audit is a hands-on way for community members to assess the safety and comfort of their streets. Participants walk a set route together, observe conditions, and document challenges and opportunities. The result is a community-driven report that highlights both short- and long-term improvements, shaping future investments in infrastructure and public space.

Key Findings from the Brockton Walk Audit Series

Montello (May 21, 2025)

  • Concerns: Faded crosswalks, broken sidewalks, high vehicle speeds, and chronic flooding.
  • Recommendations: Restriping and relocating crosswalks, repairing sidewalks, permanent traffic calming (curb bump-outs), and engineering drainage solutions.
  • Community Insights: Stakeholders highlighted Montello’s strong access to public transportation, but emphasized the need for safer crossings, more shade, and clear wayfinding for pedestrians.

Campello (June 26, 2025)

  • Concerns: Missing bus stop signage, poorly maintained crosswalks, excessive litter, and sparse tree canopy.
    Recommendations: Replace street signs, repaint high-visibility crosswalks, install trash bins, and coordinate street tree planting with the Greening the Gateway Cities Program.
  • Community Insights: Campello’s busy streets and active businesses show promise, but participants noted obstacles like lifted concrete and the need for improvements near Vicente’s Supermarket.

West Side (July 23, 2025)

  • Concerns: Lack of crosswalks to key features like bus stops, overgrown vegetation along sidewalks, litter from car crashes, and limited tree coverage.
    Recommendations: Add more crosswalks at intersections, maintain vegetation regularly, create a public-private waste management partnership with local businesses, and expand shading through tree planting.
  • Community Insights: Residents noted the disparities in walkability between different Brockton neighborhoods. West Elm Street stood out as an example of well-paved sidewalks with space for wheelchairs and strollers—highlighting how streetscape improvements here could be a model for Belmont and Moraine Streets.

East Side (August 14, 2025)

  • Concerns: Short walk signal times, lack of ADA compliance, missing sidewalks, and minimal shading.
  • Recommendations: Lengthen signal times, install ADA-compliant ramps, add raised crosswalks along key locations such as Caffrey Towers and Brockton Hospital. Implement shading systems with trees or sunshades as shopping plazas are developed.
  • Community Insights: Residents shared concerns about accessibility challenges for people with disabilities and older adults. They also pointed to shaded bus stops as a model for what the rest of the neighborhood needs.

Moving Forward

These walk audits show both the strengths and opportunities in Brockton’s neighborhoods. While each area has unique challenges, common themes emerged:

  • The need for safer crossings and clearer street signage.
  • The importance of shade, seating, and trash management to create a more welcoming environment.
  • The opportunity to leverage Brockton’s strong transit access to encourage walking as a safe, reliable option for all.

With community voices at the center, these reports provide a roadmap for improvements that can build healthier, more connected neighborhoods across Brockton.

📑 Explore the full reports here:

Blogpost by Emma Itri, Development and Communication Coordinator

Shared Spaces Tremont Street Site Visit April 2025

Shared Spaces Tremont Street Site Visit April 2025

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We are ‘Shared Spaces’, a coalition of advocates from the community, Boston Center for Independent Living (BCIL), Riders’ Transportation Access Group (RTAG), Transportation for Massachusetts (T4MA), WalkMass, Boston Cyclists Union (BCU), and MassBike.

Our mission is to promote collaboration and understanding of the challenges associated with shared spaces – such as bike lanes, sidewalks, crosswalks, and bus stops statewide. We are committed to advocating for safety and accessibility in the design of these shared spaces, with a focus on the unique experiences of individuals with disabilities. Through education, outreach, and active engagement, we will advocate for and support inclusive policies that enhance the safety and accessibility of shared spaces for all people with disabilities, pedestrians, bicyclists, drivers, and transit riders.

We organized this site visit to bring together individuals from the city and provide them with a firsthand understanding of these shared spaces, their limitations, and potential conflicts—this initiative aimed to promote more informed decision-making. Additionally, the visit facilitated relationship-building between our communities, allowing for a more authentic and accurate experience of these shared spaces.

We want to express our gratitude to the participants of this site visit, which included representatives from the MBTA’s System-Wide Accessibility Department, the City of Boston’s Commission for Persons with Disabilities, the City of Boston’s Street Cabinet, the Boston Transportation Department, and the Institute for Human-Centered Design. Thank you for your time, consideration, and efforts to make our streets safer for vulnerable users.

Please find at the link below a summary of the key observations from our group’s site visit of Tremont Street on April 14, 2025. We have included photos and can provide more examples if that is helpful. We recognize that some of our recommendations outline ideal scenarios. However, any improvement to roadway safety benefits all users. If achieving the ideal is not possible, we should still take action. Slowing down all users minimizes harm in case of conflicts.

Read the PDF report

Testimony to joint committee on transportation on S.2379, “An Act relative to providing multimodal transportation technologies” (AVs)

Testimony to joint committee on transportation on S.2379, “An Act relative to providing multimodal transportation technologies” (AVs)

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Thank you to Chairs Arciero and Crighton and members of the committee for holding this hearing today. My name is Brendan Kearney and I am the Executive Director at WalkMassachusetts, a statewide pedestrian advocacy organization founded in 1990 as WalkBoston. I’m also sharing comments on S.2379, “An Act relative to providing multimodal transportation technologies,” which would authorize the use of autonomous vehicles in the Commonwealth. 

Separately, I’ll be submitting written testimony against the sidewalk robot bills, H.3773/S.2372 (“An Act relative to mobile carrying devices”), and in favor of Rep. Vitolo’s H3804 to give pedestrians more walk time, and Senator Brownsberger’s S.2343 expanding truck safety requirements. 

In 2024, there were 369 reported total traffic deaths in Massachusetts. At least 78 pedestrians lost their lives as a result of traffic crashes, accounting for just over 21% of the total. 

It is possible that self-driving vehicle technology may help reduce that number, but there is no guarantee. This must not be rolled out without proper safeguards for our communities.

Since there are many unknowns with autonomous vehicle systems, we caution you to err on the side of more data sharing, local control, and consultation so that MassDOT, regional planning agencies, and local transportation departments will know more about vehicles operating on streets across the Commonwealth, and ensure we’re adapting them to our communities instead of the other way around – and so that municipal staff are able to respond to safety issues and resident concerns. 

Incomplete crash data is a known issue. I encourage you to require data to be collected and shared not only during any testing phases, but also during deployment of autonomous vehicles. Please lean on the team at the MassDOT Safety Division who maintains the IMPACT Crash Portal to get their feedback on what information would be most useful to be collected and shared. 

A few data points AVs could provide beyond traditional crash data might include:

  • When and where vehicles are deployed to potentially understand the weather and road conditions the vehicles are driving in.
  • Close calls. These might include hard braking incidents (when the AV had to suddenly stop), disengagements (when the AV requires a safety driver to take over)  and immobilization (when the vehicle does not have a safety driver and is stuck).

I’ll share two concerns to keep in mind with the software:

  • 1st/ Intentional lawbreaking written into the code. In a Washington Post article in December titled “On roads teeming with robotaxis, crossing the street can be harrowing” their tech columnist in San Francisco captured videos of Waymo self-driving cars failing to stop for him at a crosswalk. He sought to answer the question, “How does an AI learn how to break the law?” A spokesperson for Waymo told him that its car might decide not to stop if adjacent cars don’t yield. “So is it possible that Waymo’s AI is learning from the human drivers on the road who also act like jerks?” One of the theories posited is that Waymo cars were intentionally getting more aggressive to help shed a market reputation for being slower than competitors.
    It is unclear to me how this behavior – violating the law to yield to pedestrians at a crosswalk – should be allowed, or how it would be creating a safer street than human drivers. The intentional lawbreaking that has been on display in California has also included short term parking in crosswalks and bike lanes – not pulling over to pick someone up, but remaining there for upwards of 5-10min. Communities and the state need to be able to collect data on that and have the ability to regulate it to hold companies accountable for these software choices.
  • 2nd/ Bias in the software itself. A study a few years ago from Georgia Tech found that “the facial and body recognition technology built into many pedestrian detection systems does not recognize and react to darker-skinned people as consistently as it does lighter-skinned people.” Already, people of color are disproportionately represented in fatal crashes involving people walking. The technology should level the playing field, not reinforce existing shortcomings and biases.  

Thank you for your time, I appreciate the opportunity to comment. 

This testimony was shared as part of a panel w/ Pete Wilson of Transportation for Massachusetts (T4MA) and Seth Gadbois of Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) at a Joint Committee on Transportation Hearing on June 24, 2025.