Author: WalkMassachusetts

Hybrid virtual and in-person walk audits expand engagement opportunities in Haverhill

Hybrid virtual and in-person walk audits expand engagement opportunities in Haverhill

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As pandemic restrictions ease and we resume in-person activities, WalkBoston is bringing back our traditional in-person group walk audits while keeping many of the new tools we’ve developed over the last year. 

Haverhill was the first of our Gateway Cities walk audits to benefit from this hybrid approach. Starting in late May, the hybrid walk audit gave participants the option to walk through Downtown Haverhill with us in a group or – using the self-guided walk audit process developed for pandemic walk audits –  to walk on their own at a time that worked better for their schedule. Hybrid walk audits like this one can help us make the process more accessible to a broader range of participants. 

Haverhill residents discuss lighting conditions under the Winter Street bridge during the in-person group walk of Downtown Haverhill.

The flexibility of the hybrid model also created an opportunity for the Haverhill walk audit to include an additional virtual element — a bilingual focus group organized with Haverhill’s Latino Coalition to ensure fuller representation of the community in this project. The focus group added 8 more residents’ voices to the walk audit and gave us new insight into how residents use and would like to change Section 2 of the walking route.

The Downtown Haverhill walk audit illustrates how the larger buffet of participation options we’ve developed over the past year have led to more inclusive and robust community engagement. Have an idea for other ways we can include people in the walk audit process? Let us know!

Comments on Re-Imagining Massachusetts’ Post-Pandemic Transportation System

Comments on Re-Imagining Massachusetts’ Post-Pandemic Transportation System

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Comments to Senate Committee on Re-Imagining Massachusetts Post-Pandemic Resiliency

Dear Senator Hinds and Committee Members:

WalkBoston is Massachusetts’ primary pedestrian advocacy organization, working across the Commonwealth to make it safer and easier for people to walk for all activities of daily living such as access to transit, school and jobs. The COVID-19 pandemic gave stark evidence that walkable neighborhoods and communities are critical to physical and mental health, to reducing isolation and to the resilience of all Massachusetts residents and their neighborhoods.

In light of the pandemic, we have learned that key components of the transportation system to support walking should include:

  • Speed management. We need measures to control, and often reduce, speeds on Commonwealth roadways so that they are safe for all roadway users. During the initial months of the pandemic, there was dangerous speeding on roadways across Massachusetts. MassDOT’s ongoing initiative to create tools and measures to set and manage safe speeds on all MassDOT roadways (other than limited access highways) needs the support and encouragement of the legislature to ensure its success, and then to bring those same measures to municipal roads as well.
  • Safe connections to transit. As we learned during the pandemic, essential workers are more dependent on transit than many others. We need fully accessible transit and bus stops throughout Massachusetts, including safe street crossings and sidewalk connections to adjacent neighborhoods. These are crucial to a transit system that works for everyone.
  • More local funding to repurpose public space. The overwhelmingly popular MassDOT Shared Streets and Spaces program that was introduced in response to the pandemic has demonstrated that municipalities are interested and ready to rethink how they use their streets to enable more and safer outdoor recreation,
    commerce, community activities, and mobility.
  • Chapter 90 and Complete Streets. Chapter 90 funds have been traditionally used to build and maintain municipal roads without requirements that sidewalks and crosswalks be included. We suggest that the Committee review this standard and consider including Complete Streets measures within Chapter 90, similar to those requirements set by the legislature for MassDOT roadways.
  • DCR Parkways. DCR’s recently released (and long delayed) Parkway Master Plan clearly demonstrates that immediate action is needed to vastly improve safety for people bicycling and walking. Parkways are cultural and historic landmarks and should remain fully integrated components of parks and open spaces, used and enjoyed by people for walking, rolling, and riding as originally intended. With a commitment to accelerated improvement in partnership with MassDOT, parkways should remain under DCR’s purview. We urge the legislature to set funding and regulatory standards for DCR as follows:
    • Adopt MassDOT’s Complete Streets guidelines as their default design standard for all parkways;
    • Utilize MassDOT crash portal data to implement quick-build improvements on the most dangerous parkway roads and intersections within the next 12 months;
    • Align its parkway speed limits with local speed limits, especially in municipalities where the default speed has been reduced to 25 miles/hour or less;
    • Provide DCR with the budget needed to complete the recommendations in the DCR Parkway Master Plan;
    • Require DCR to set measurable goals to reduce the number of serious and fatal crashes on DCR roadways and report publicly and annually on progress toward these goals; and
    • Require DCR to add analysis and recommendations for several key parkways currently missing from the plan.

Thank you for the opportunity to comment.

Stacey Beuttell
Executive Director, WalkBoston
405 Waltham Street, Suite 309
Lexington, MA 02421
617-367-9255

RealEstate by Boston.com: “Together, neighbors can thwart speed demons. Here’s how”

RealEstate by Boston.com: “Together, neighbors can thwart speed demons. Here’s how”

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RealEstate by Boston.com: “Together, neighbors can thwart speed demons. Here’s how”

Assisting Mahoney, Rana, and others is WalkBoston, a pedestrian-advocacy organization that works throughout the Commonwealth, not just the capital. This nonprofit can pinpoint a road’s jurisdiction and identify key decision-makers: elected officials, business groups, disability organizations, and neighborhood associations. Often WalkBoston will guide them on a “walk audit’’ of the targeted area. “We talk about destinations that people want to access,’’ said Stacey Beuttell, the nonprofit’s executive director. “Can they access them through crossings? What are the posted speeds? Should we narrow the travel lanes or add bike lanes?’’

Posted June 24, 2021

Statewide Fatal Crashes In MA, May 2021

Statewide Fatal Crashes In MA, May 2021

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Each month in 2021, we plan to post about the fatal crashes in Massachusetts from the previous month, and share any trends that we see. Last month, we took a look at the 6 fatal crashes listed in the MassDOT Crash Portal in April. In this post, we’ll look at crashes in MA in May 2021. The information in the chart below is compiled from news reports, and was checked against the MassDOT Crash Portal Dashboard “Fatal Information by Year.” The Google Street View images included below use the address listed in the crash portal.

  • Of the 31 fatal crashes in Massachusetts in May in the MassDOT Crash portal, 8 were identified as people walking.
  • The crash portal does not include names. The names of 4 of the people walking who died have not been made public yet.
  • The average age of pedestrians hit & killed in May was 50.75.
  • At least 1 of the crashes were hit & runs (as referenced in news articles).
  • The name of the person driving was not identified in any of the crashes in news articles that we found.
Date 5/13/2021, 1:47 PM
Location 21 Collins St.
Town Salisbury
Type PEDESTRIAN
Age 53
Sex M

53 year old Kevin Perkins was struck and killed by a driver on Collins Street (Rt 286) in Salisbury. The Daily News of Newburyport reported that Kevin worked for a landscape company and was struck by his co-worker driving a dump truck while trying to park a trailer. According to the MassDOT Road Inventory, this street is under local jurisdiction. The speed limit is 30 mph, and there are no sidewalks.

Date 5/17/2021, 10:06 AM
Location 110 Broadway
Town Methuen
Type PEDESTRIAN
Age 60
Sex F

60 year old Aida Brito was struck and killed by a driver as she crossed Broadway (Route 28) in Methuen. Police spokesperson Lt. Randy Haggar told the Eagle Tribune that there was no crosswalk where Brito was walking and that speed did not appear to have been a factor.

According to the MassDOT Road Inventory, this street is under local jurisdiction and the speed limit is 20mph. Streetview on Google Maps shows that it is approximately 1,376 feet (over a quarter of a mile) between the crosswalks at Oakland Ave/Broadway and Center St/Broadway.

Date 5/18/2021, 10:20 AM
Location 2 Boland St.
Town Springfield
Type PEDESTRIAN
Age 33
Sex M

An unidentified 33 year old man was hit and killed in Springfield on Boland Way. The driver fled the scene. Western Mass News reports that the person driving was found and that the person killed was a worker on a nearby construction site.

According to the MassDOT Road Inventory, this street is under local jurisdiction and the speed limit is 25mph. There are two travel lanes in each direction and sidewalks on both sides of the street.

Date 5/18/2021, 10:20 PM
Location SR-1 NORTH + Broadway
Town Saugus
Type PEDESTRIAN
Age 38
Sex F

An unidentified 38 year old woman was hit and killed on Rt 1 North in Saugus near the intersection of Route 99; NBC 10 Boston reports that the 45 year old driver of an SUV remained at the scene, and that the two right lanes were closed for about two hours while the scene was cleared and the investigation began.

According to the MassDOT Road Inventory, this road is a divided highway and under MassDOT jurisdiction. The speed limit is 50mph. There is a sidewalk along the side of the road.

Date 5/19/2021, 6:52 AM
Location Main St. + Bacon St.
Town Waltham
Type PEDESTRIAN
Age 63
Sex M

Billy Clark, a 63 year old Watertown man, was hit and killed while in a crosswalk by the driver of a tractor trailer who was turning left off Main Street onto Bacon Street in Waltham. WCVB reported that Billy was well known and liked by residents.

According to the MassDOT Road Inventory, both Main and Bacon are under local jurisdiction. Main Street has a speed limit of 35mph and Bacon has a speed limit of 30mph.

Date 5/22/2021, 1:34 AM
Location Newport Ave. + Willow Ave.
Town Quincy
Type PEDESTRIAN
Age 62
Sex M

62 year old Robert Jansen was hit and killed on Newport Avenue by a 21 year old driver of a Jeep. The Boston Globe reports that “an initial observation of the crash determined that there was approximately 278 feet of visible skid marks leading up to the motor vehicle and victim.”

According to the MassDOT Road Inventory, Newport Avenue is under local jurisdiction. The speed limit is 35mph. There are two travel lanes in each direction, a sidewalk on one side of the street, and a crosswalk at the intersection which leads to a pedestrian tunnel so that people can walk underneath the MBTA tracks.

Date 5/22/2021, 2:35 PM
Location 297 Central Turnpike
Town Sutton
Type PEDESTRIAN
Age 28
Sex F

The Worcester Telegram & Gazette reports that 28 year old Kaylie Piekarczyk was riding her motorcycle in Sutton when she lost control, and was then hit by the driver of an oncoming SUV.

It is likely that FARS determined that this is categorized as a pedestrian crash since the person was no longer on their motorcycle when struck. [Update, 3/23/2022: this was re-categorized as a motorcycle crash.]

Date 5/29/2021, 12:00 AM
Location Bradford St. Bangs St.
Town Provincetown
Type PEDESTRIAN
Age 69
Sex M

An unidentified 69 year old man was hit and killed at the corner of Bradford and Bangs Street in Provincetown according to CapeCod.com.

According to the MassDOT Road Inventory, both streets are under local jurisdiction, and have speed limits of 20-25mph. Bradford Street is 20 feet wide, with one lane in each direction; Bangs Street is 14 feet wide and operates as a two way yield street. While there are no sidewalks, there is a crosswalk at Bangs Street.

Updates

If you have an update about a community member who was killed in one of these crashes, please contact Brendan so we can update our . WalkBoston has maintained a list each year since 2016, pulling the information from news reports, social media, and from people like you that share the information with us.

Yearly trackers:  |||||

Reminder about the data from the MassDOT portal

DISCLAIMER:  The compilation of data is based on preliminary data we receive from a variety of local sources.  Some of the data may differ slightly from information provided by NHTSA as this dashboard does not use imputation methods.  Information is subject to change when/if updated information becomes available. Data updated daily as reported by police departments.

Event: WalkBoston’s Talk the Walk Session: “15-Minute Cities,” 7/29 12pm on Zoom

Event: WalkBoston’s Talk the Walk Session: “15-Minute Cities,” 7/29 12pm on Zoom

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WalkBoston’s Talk the Walk Session
“15-Minute Cities”
July 29, 12-1pm
Register on Zoom

Lunch hour discussion session on Zoom. Open to all. Eating is encouraged. Video is optional. 

This is our first go at having a topic-driven discussion session (not just books!). These discussion sessions may include articles, podcasts, videos, and yes, maybe even a book or two. 

The first session will cover “15-Minute Cities.” Short explainer of the concept from Wikipedia. A few relevant articles are below. If you have read something related that others might find interesting or a question you’d like to include, send it our way—we can include it in our event reminder email and add to this post.

Discussion questions: 

  • For whom does this concept work? For whom doesn’t it work?
  • Does the concept exacerbate economic and ethnic segregation?
  • Why has the concept come to prominence now? What makes it exciting to planners?
  • Is it less applicable or more applicable if larger numbers of remote workers move to remote areas?
  • What does it mean for already built up cities? Is it applicable to American suburbs?

Register for this meeting:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMlfuurqzIvGdBFihVdRDkg-rlLon09UtCc
You will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. 

Articles to get you started: