Author: WalkMassachusetts

Burgy Village Center Walk Audit

Burgy Village Center Walk Audit

The Town of Williamsburg has engaged planning, transportation, and healthy community design experts in efforts to assess the vitality and safety of Burgy’s town center. Burgy’s town center is loosely de ned as the Route 9 corridor between Buttonshop Road and South Street. This walk audit is part of the town’s effort to address healthy aging through healthy community design.

Read the full report:
WalkBoston-BurgyVillageWalkAudit-Williamsburg

Mtg Tonight – Re-read WalkBoston Comments on the GLX and the Community Path – March 15, 2016

Mtg Tonight – Re-read WalkBoston Comments on the GLX and the Community Path – March 15, 2016

walkboston:

March 15, 2016
Massachusetts Department of Transportation
10 Park Plaza, Room 4150
Boston, MA 02116

Attention: MassDOT Board of Directors
MBTA  Fiscal Management and Control Board
GLX Interim Project Manager Jack Wright
Assistant Secretary for Policy Coordination Katherine Fichter

RE: GLX and the Community Path

WalkBoston has worked for over 25 years to promote improvements to pedestrian facilities throughout the state and region. We strongly believe that the proposed Community Path adjacent to the Green Line Extension in Somerville and Medford is an essential element to the successful operation of the extension.  The path through this corridor is an integral part of the project that will help it to prosper and serve its riders well, especially when the need is reinforced by the lack of parking at the stations.

The Community Path is essential for the GLX to fully meet its potential in serving the residents of this corridor. It will function as the principal access route to and from the stations for walkers and cyclists, as it will be a safe and protected means of access between residences and the doors of the light rail vehicles. The same levels of access cannot be provided solely by relying on existing streets, which are frequently less direct for users. The safety of walkers is also improved by using routes that are not shared with vehicles.

We urge consideration all possible ways to fund the path and include it an integral part of the construction of this extension. Joint construction is the most cost-effective approach to construction, as the transit project and the Community Path share a common right-of-way and many elements of infrastructure, Cutbacks in the GLX project should not include reducing the number or safety of available routes of access for transit patrons going to or from the stations.

Thank you again for this opportunity to comment on this project.

Sincerely.

Wendy Landman
Executive Director

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Tonight, #Somerville High School is the place to be. re-read our recent letter on #GLX / Community Path in advance!

7 Massachusetts Communities make “Best Complete Streets Policies of 2015″ list!

7 Massachusetts Communities make “Best Complete Streets Policies of 2015″ list!

April 12, 2016:

Today, Smart Growth America’s National Complete Streets Coalition unveiled their rankings for the best Complete Streets policies that were passed in the nation in 2015.

Complete Streets policies—including laws, resolutions, executive orders, policies, and planning and design documents—encourage and provide safe access to destinations for everyone, regardless of age, ability, income, ethnicity, or how they travel. “The presence of improved walkways and bicycle facilities encourages an active, healthy lifestyle and can lead to improved safety for all people, no matter how they travel through our cities and towns,” said Wendy Landman, Executive Director of WalkBoston. “At some point in every trip, everyone is a pedestrian.”

Congratulations to all the Massachusetts communities that passed Complete Streets ordinances in 2015, and especially the communities that landed on Smart Growth America’s best policies list: Longmeadow (tied for 3rd), Weymouth (4th), Ashland, Natick and Norwell (all tied for 7th), Lynn and Framingham ( tied for 9th).

While over 30 cities and towns in Massachusetts have already taken steps to implement Complete Streets, the new MassDOT Complete Streets Funding Program is helping to provide support to encourage even more cities and towns do so.

“The creation and implementation of the Complete Streets Funding Program has been a top priority for us and for our public health partners across the state,” said Rebekah Gewirtz, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Public Health Association. “Making it safe – and in some cases just plain possible – to walk, bike, and use transit will improve public health; complete streets are an essential tool to combat health inequities.”

In addition to health benefits, Complete Streets can boost the local economy by supporting local business districts and increasing property values. “Many municipal leaders see complete streets as an important contributor to quality of life in their communities,” said D.J. Wilson from the Mass Municipal Association. “They can encourage residents and visitors to shop locally, which help to attract and retain workplaces and employees.”

Learn more about the National Complete Streets Coalition’s rankings:
http://www.smartgrowthamerica.org/best-complete-streets-policies-of-2015

Learn more about the MassDOT Complete Streets Funding Program: http://www.mass.gov/massdot/completestreets

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Congrats to this year’s Golden Shoe Award Winners!

Congrats to this year’s Golden Shoe Award Winners!

As presented at this year’s annual event on March 22, 2016

See the list of all time winners:
https://walkmass.org/events/goldenshoe-award

Charlotte Fleetwood – City of Boston Vision Zero Champion
As the Senior Planner for the Transportation Department, Charlotte is project manager for Vision Zero Boston and Boston Green Links. She helped develop Boston’s Complete Streets Guidelines that put pedestrians, bicyclists and transit users on equal footing with motor-vehicle drivers. To implement these guidelines, she has served as project manager for rebuilding Boylston Street and Audubon Circle in the Fenway district and Central Square, East Boston. Projects now include narrower travel lanes, new bike lanes, greenscapes of street trees, sidewalk widenings and curb extensions to guide traffic slowly through the area, while improving pedestrian safety and producing great public spaces. She was a senior planner during the Big Dig and played a role in the Greenway and new Charles River parks.

Paul Malkemes, The Boston Project Ministries / Talbot-Norfolk Triangle Neighbors United & David Queeley, Codman Square Neighborhood Development Corporation – Grassroots “Slow Zone” Pioneers 

As the Executive Director of The Boston Project Ministries, a faith-based community non-profit that provides staff support to the Talbot-Norfolk Triangle (TNT) Neighbors United, Paul Malkemes has worked tirelessly with residents of Dorchester’s TNT neighborhood over the past two decades to address issues of community concern, including traffic safety and healthy living. As the Director of Eco-Innovation at Codman Square Neighborhood Development Corporation, David Queeley has worked closely with Paul to advance neighbors’ vision to establish TNT as Boston’s first Eco-Innovation District – a clean, healthy, safe and green community with active transportation options and safe streets for all. Paul and David have conducted walk assessments, engaged city agencies and neighborhood stakeholders, and mobilized resident Healthy Community Champions to advance walkability and bikeability in TNT. Their advocacy efforts have resulted in TNT being designated as one of two neighborhood “Slow Zones” as part of the City of Boston’s broader Vision Zero strategy.

Maggie Sachs-Mahmood – Inspiring Student Advocates at Codman Academy 

Maggie Sachs-Mahmood, a 10th grade physics teacher at Codman Academy, reached out to WalkBoston in Fall 2014 for guidance on improving pedestrian safety. During the 2013-2014 academic year, a Codman Academy student was struck and seriously injured on Epping Street outside the school. Maggie wanted her students to collect robust data on roadways surrounding their campus in order to make a compelling case for built environment changes right outside their own front door.

After WalkBoston shared strategies for safe, walkable streets and helped the students conduct observations in the neighborhood, Maggie encouraged her students to share their findings with neighborhood groups and at public agency meetings – including at the State House as part of an event alongside MA Public Health Commissioner Monica Bharel. As a result of their efforts, the City of Boston has committed to making Codman Square a focus area of the Vision Zero Boston effort. We celebrate her for training her students to become advocates for walkable environments.

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