Author: WalkMassachusetts

One Minute, One Slide: Walkable School Campuses

One Minute, One Slide: Walkable School Campuses

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Below is a “One Minute, One Slide” presentation shared by a member of the WalkBoston staff.
Text provided is as prepared for this year’s annual event on March 18, 2019.

Stacey Beuttell

Belmont, Arlington, Springfield, Somerville, Lexington, Brookline, Lowell – these are just a few of the cities and towns building new elementary, middle or high schools right now. With the construction of so many new schools in Massachusetts, WalkBoston is busy working to ensure that the students walking to school have a voice.

It’s tough because there has been a dramatic increase in driving children to school. And those drivers are loud! In 1969, almost half of kindergarten through eighth grade students walked or biked to school. In 2009, it was down to 13%.

And school campuses are being designed to accommodate these cars rather than dedicating that space to places where our kids can learn and grow.

WalkBoston is working to make school campuses more walkable. And that doesn’t mean just adding sidewalks! A walkable campus considers the needs of walkers first when organizing the movement of people, bikes, buses and cars on the school grounds. 

Walking rarely enters the conversation when new schools are planned. And that needs to change. It’s time to design our schools’ front yards for our kids to run in circles, rather than for our cars to drive in them.

One Minute, One Slide: Language defines a story

One Minute, One Slide: Language defines a story

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Below is a “One Minute, One Slide” presentation shared by a member of the WalkBoston staff.
Text provided is as prepared for this year’s annual event on March 18, 2019.

Brendan Kearney

Language matters when talking about crashes: A recent study shared at the TRB (Transportation Research Board) Conference titled “Editorial Patterns in Bicyclist and Pedestrian Crash Reporting” examined ways that media coverage of crashes could influence public perception, looking at word choice and agency.

An example from a crash in Boston: You wouldn’t know someone was driving this truck by the initial news report, since “a city-owned truck struck a pedestrian.”

We (politely) reached out to the reporter and station on Twitter, and asked them to clarify that a person driving was behind the wheel in this crash. The news station was responsive, & made changes to the story.

Just as road design influences behavior, media coverage & local reporting influences public perception.

About 40,000 people in the United States die as a result of car crashes each year. This isn’t just about drivers hitting people walking, it includes people both in and outside cars – roughly 350 people die in crashes each year in Massachusetts alone, while many thousands more are injured. We need to reduce illegal speeding to help prevent and/or reduce the severity of these crashes. So a big THANK YOU to all the reporters and news organizations that are willing to take a look at how they are presenting crashes. Local reporting helps shine a light on common-sense ways we can make our streets safer for people: fixing the way our roads are designed.

 

One Minute, One Slide: Safe Walking for Healthy and Connected Lives

One Minute, One Slide: Safe Walking for Healthy and Connected Lives

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Below is a “One Minute, One Slide” presentation shared by a member of the WalkBoston staff.
Text provided is as prepared at this year’s annual event on March 18, 2019.

Dorothea Hass

WalkBoston has partnered with the Coalition for a Better Acre in Lowell through a Cummings Foundation grant to train residents of the Acre to become walking advocates. Shown here are residents who are pressing the City to make temporary changes to a complicated five-way intersection with fast-moving traffic and very long crosswalks. At a recent meeting with City Councilor Nuon, residents presented their concerns and proposed solutions to which the Councilor shown here, second from right, was very receptive. A next step will be to persuade the city’s traffic engineer to take the temporary measures which if proved successful could be more permanently installed. The training is also promoting civic engagement. One of the trainees has taken the initiative to gain signatures to support the re-design of the five-way intersection and is also planning to run for city council.

One Minute, One Slide: Age-Friendly Walking in Boston

One Minute, One Slide: Age-Friendly Walking in Boston

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Below is a “One Minute, One Slide” presentation shared by a member of the WalkBoston staff.
Text provided is as prepared for this year’s annual event on March 18, 2019.

Adi Nochur

With support from the Tufts Health Plan Foundation (THPF) and the Massachusetts Councils on Aging (MCOA), WalkBoston has been working on Age-Friendly Walking in the City of Boston to promote safe and comfortable walking for seniors — and by extension everyone. Thanks so much to our partners from the Age-Strong Commission (formerly the Elderly Commission), Boston Transportation Department, Public Works Department and other agencies!

Here we have a fantastic group of “Older and Bolder” seniors rallying for crosswalk safety in Grove Hall. We have now seen pedestrian safety improvements installed at this location, as well as other neighborhoods throughout the city.

We’ve also changed policy at a city level. Thanks to our efforts the City of Boston has committed $90,000 in capital funding for 45 benches, and we look forward to seeing them installed citywide this year.

With a new grant from THPF and MCOA, we’re now taking our work on Age-Friendly Walking statewide. We plan to work in five communities, with a focus on high-need Gateway Cities and rural areas. Stay tuned for more on Age-Friendly Walking: coming soon to a community near you!