Category: Announcement

This year’s Golden Shoe Awards go to…

This year’s Golden Shoe Awards go to…

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March30-WidgetJoin us on March 30th at 5PM as we award this year’s Golden Shoes to people or organizations who have accomplished terrific wins for walking. (See all of our past winners.) We will be honoring Josh Ostroff, Meg Robertson, and “Just Walk Boston.” Congrats to all the winners!

Josh Ostroff is being honored for his unwavering commitment to walking advocacy in Natick and the greater Metrowest region. For more on Josh, head to his website.

Meg Robertson is a multi-decade champion throughout the Commonwealth for people with intellectual disabilities and vision impairment, blindness or deafblindness.

“Just Walk Boston” was founded by Brandy Cruthird as a way of fighting pandemic-induced loneliness and segregated public space through the simple act of walking. Read about the group in the Boston Globe.

Our 2022 Annual Celebration Keynote Speaker this year is Kyle Robidoux, a tireless advocate who has focused his professional and personal career on building community. He has spent 20 years working in the nonprofit sector, including as a housing advocate helping individuals staying in shelters find permanent homes and as a community organizer. Most recently he has directed three programs for a local blindness organization. Read more about Kyle on our website.

Want to celebrate this year’s winners and hear what Kyle has to say about accessibility and walkability? Join us on March 30 at 5:00pm on Zoom!

Boston Globe: “The Argument: Should Massachusetts toughen penalties for jaywalking?”

Boston Globe: “The Argument: Should Massachusetts toughen penalties for jaywalking?”

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Boston Globe: “The Argument: Should Massachusetts toughen penalties for jaywalking?”

NO | Brendan Kearney, Deputy Director, WalkBoston; Framingham resident

The term “jaywalking” was created by the auto industry in the 1920s to divert blame from drivers who were hitting and killing people. A century later it has proven to be a highly successful marketing effort. The proposed bill to crack down on jaywalking would just place an unnecessary burden on pedestrians without making anyone safer.

Making it illegal to cross anywhere outside a crosswalk — which the bill effectively does — is unrealistic. Existing law allows you to cross outside a marked crosswalk provided you are more than 300 feet from a crosswalk or signalized intersection and yield to motorists. The law reflects how we all use our streets and how our communities are designed.

I live on Central Street in Framingham. There is a sidewalk on one side of the street, opposite my house. I cross to that sidewalk when there are no drivers coming, or when someone yields. No crosswalk exists. It is unsafe to walk on the narrow 30-mile-per-hour street with traffic at my back to the crosswalk a quarter-of-a-mile away — and illegal. When there is a sidewalk, I’m supposed to walk on it; if there isn’t one, the law says to walk against traffic. The proposed bill would make it illegal for me to cross or walk along my street.

There are also significant equity concerns around jaywalking enforcement. Jaywalking laws contribute to racial profiling. A report by ProPublica and Florida-Times Union found Black people in Jacksonville, Fla. were three times as likely to be stopped and cited as white people. Similar patterns have been seen elsewhere; Streetsblog NYC reported that nearly 90 percent of people issued jaywalk citations in New York in 2019 were Black and Brown. In response, efforts to decriminalize jaywalking have been mounted in a number of places, including Virginia and California.

Moreover, increasing fines is not a proven strategy to change behavior. The National Institute of Justice has found increasing the severity of punishment does little to deter crime. If the goal is to keep people walking safer, let’s build streets that provide them with the same level of ease and comfort as those people who are behind the wheel. As it stands, this punitive bill does nothing to improve pedestrian safety.

Posted February 20, 2022

We’re hiring a WalkBoston Intern

We’re hiring a WalkBoston Intern

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April 2022 update: this role has already been filled; thank you for your interest!

WalkBoston Internship Job Description

WalkBoston makes walking safer and easier in Massachusetts to encourage better health, a cleaner environment and more vibrant communities. WalkBoston is committed to centering racial equity and justice in our work as well as evaluating the ways in which our work overlaps with efforts related to affordable housing, food access, harm reduction, transit access, and more. 

WalkBoston is looking to fill an internship opening with our organization. Interns with WalkBoston gain experience in transportation-related design and planning, community engagement, advocacy, and community revitalization efforts. Interns contribute directly to the project and advocacy work of WalkBoston. Interns provide valuable substantive contributions to our work, and have the opportunity to help select the projects that best fit their skills and interests.  Examples of WalkBoston’s current projects and programs include: Department of Public Health’s Mass in Motion program, Connecting Children and Families to Parks in East Boston, Walkability @ Boston Public Housing Developments, Gateway Cities: Transit Oriented Development, Age-Friendly Walking, alongside other advocacy and coalition efforts. 

Responsibilities:

  • Assisting with walkability assessments and advocacy training
  • Researching and preparing white papers on transportation-related topics that affect the communities WalkBoston serves or are related to current programming efforts. 
  • Collecting and analyzing crash data as it pertains to various projects
  • Representing WalkBoston at community events and public meetings
  • Other duties as assigned

Desired Qualifications:

  • Graduate student pursuing a degree in Urban Planning, Urban Design, Transportation Planning, Public Policy, or other related field
  • Experience leading community conversations with a variety of stakeholders
  • Ability to work independently, collaboratively and productively in a team environment
  • Commitment to and understanding of racial equity and strong analysis of the root causes of inequities, and how racism intersects with walkable communities.
  • Proficiency with Microsoft Office Suite (e.g., Word, Excel, and PowerPoint).
  • Proficiency in virtual work software (e.g., Zoom, Google Suite, Slack).
  • Spanish fluency a plus

Commitment, Compensation, Location: 

  • 10-15 hours per week, preference for students who can commit to the entire school year
  • Interns would be working remotely, we do not currently have an office space, however some in person events (walk audits, other programming) may be required.
  • Pay range is $18-20/hour, depending on experience, with a preference for students who have federal work study. 

To Apply:

Interested applicants are encouraged to apply by sending a resume and cover letter to jobs@walkboston.org. 

Meet Kyle Robidoux: WalkBoston’s 2022 Annual Celebration Keynote Speaker

Meet Kyle Robidoux: WalkBoston’s 2022 Annual Celebration Keynote Speaker

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We are pleased to announce that our 2022 Annual Celebration Keynote Speaker this year is Kyle Robidoux!

Kyle is a tireless advocate who has focused his professional and personal career on building community. He has spent 20 years working in the nonprofit sector, including as a housing advocate helping individuals staying in shelters find permanent homes and as a community organizer. Most recently he has directed three programs for a local blindness organization.

Accessibility is a matter of great importance to him, not just as an advocate, but as an individual who was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa (RP), a degenerative eye disease that first affects your night vision and often leads to complete blindness, at age 11 and was declared legally blind at 19.

Kyle can also personally attest to the power of walking and why access to safe walking environments is crucial. In 2010 Kyle was close to 250 pounds, heading down the path to type II diabetes, and having a hard time playing with his young daughter. He began to walk. Then he began to run. Today he has completed over 25 marathons and ultramarathons, including five Boston Marathons and three 100-mile races.

Kyle now works for the City of Boston as the Assistant Director of Housing Stability for the Mayor’s Office, after a short stint as Chief of Staff for Boston Mayor Kim Janey’s District Council/President’s Office. Prior to working for the city, over the last 15 years Kyle has worked for three mission-driven nonprofits: the Director of Volunteer Services and Community Planning for MAB (Massachusetts Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired), the Director of Community Planning and Leadership Development for Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Corporation, and the Director of Civic Engagement for United South End Settlements. In addition Kyle is an active volunteer, serving as Board Chair for FriendshipWorks and a member of the Commission for People with Disabilities.

Want to hear what Kyle has to say about accessibility and walkability? Join us on Wednesday, March 30 at 5:00pm on Zoom.

Sign up for the Annual Celebration now!

Stay tuned for the announcement of our 2022 Golden Shoe Awards winners!