Category: Announcement

WalkBoston Presents 32nd Annual Celebration and Golden Shoe Awards, 3/30 at 5pm

WalkBoston Presents 32nd Annual Celebration and Golden Shoe Awards, 3/30 at 5pm

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This Wednesday, March 30th at 5PM, WalkBoston will present this year’s Golden Shoes to people or organizations who have accomplished terrific wins for walking: We will be honoring Josh Ostroff, Meg Robertson, and “Just Walk Boston.” 

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,

Kyle has spent his entire professional career working with community based organizations and local government. Most recently, Kyle worked as the Chief of Staff for Mayor Kim Janey’s Council President Office and currently works with the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Office of Housing Stability as the Assistant Director. Kyle is a sponsored athlete with and ultra-distance runner and the current Board President with FriendshipWorks. He lives in the Lower Roxbury neighborhood with his wife and daughter. Read more about Kyle on our website.

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

Report: Majority of MA Fatal Pedestrian Crashes in 2021 Occurred in Just 12 Communities, Older Adults Disproportionate Victims

Report: Majority of MA Fatal Pedestrian Crashes in 2021 Occurred in Just 12 Communities, Older Adults Disproportionate Victims

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:
Jovanny Rosado
jrosado@denterlein.com
773-490-8469

Report: Majority of MA Fatal Pedestrian Crashes in 2021 Occurred in Just 12 Communities, Older Adults Disproportionate Victims

Results point to proven street design changes that can reduce or even eliminate pedestrian deaths

BOSTON (March 25, 2022) – A report released today by WalkBoston, a Massachusetts pedestrian advocacy organization, provides new insights evaluating where and how fatal pedestrian crashes are happening across the state, and what these patterns tell us about creating safe roads for all. Among other findings, the report shows that over half (40 of 75) of the deaths happened in just 12 municipalities.  

The report, Fatal Pedestrian Crashes in MA (2021), reviews fatal pedestrian crash data from 2021 released on the MassDOT IMPACT Crash Portal and Fatal Crash Information Dashboard. The locations were then cross-referenced in the MassDOT Road Inventory Tool to determine the road jurisdiction and speed limit. Google Street View was used to find additional local context.

“The data sadly confirm that crashes are happening throughout the Commonwealth, with the same municipalities emerging again and again as higher risk,” said Stacey Beuttell, Executive Director of WalkBoston. “Every life lost is tragic, but the data also gives us confidence that by implementing proven road safety improvements and lowering speed limits, it is absolutely possible to reduce or even eliminate pedestrian deaths in Massachusetts.”

Among the 47 Massachusetts cities and towns that had a fatal pedestrian crash in 2021, more than half happened in Springfield (9), Boston (9), Lowell and Brockton (3/each), and Dedham, Framingham, Lawrence, New Bedford, Oxford, Saugus, Weymouth, Yarmouth (2/each). 

35 communities had one fatal crash: Bourne, Braintree, Bridgewater, Brookline, Charlton, Chelsea, Chicopee, Everett, Fairhaven, Falmouth, Harwich, Leominster, Lynn, Marlborough, Marshfield, Mashpee, Medford, Methuen, Monson, Newburyport, Palmer, Peabody, Provincetown, Quincy, Raynham, Salisbury, Shelburne Falls, Somerville, Sterling, Taunton, Walpole, Waltham, West Springfield, Westfield, and Worcester.

This summary finds that improving road design and safety would particularly benefit the health, safety, and wellbeing of Massachusetts’ growing older adult population. Adults over the age of 65 were disproportionate pedestrian crash victims, making up 36 percent of those killed while representing only 17 percent of the population.

“If we truly want to help older adults age in the community, we need to look at this data as an opportunity to create safer streets not just for older adults but everyone,” said James Fuccione, Senior Director of the Massachusetts Healthy Aging Collaborative (MHAC). “We are all aging, and we should all want communities that support our ability to be active and engaged throughout our lives. And investing in age-friendly designs that support just that should be the norm – MassDOT’s Complete Streets and Shared Streets and Spaces programs are a great example.”

Over half of Massachusetts’ fatal pedestrian crashes (50.67%) occurred on streets with 30-35 MPH speed limits. Many local roads with 30-35 MPH speed limits are prime for speeding and hostile to people walking or in wheelchairs, yet these are also the places where more people are walking. It reinforces the need for comprehensive speed management to prevent serious injuries and fatalities, moving away from relying solely on the outdated “85th percentile” theory and instead setting target speeds that reflect the way the community has developed. MassDOT just released updated guidance on safe speeds and resources to implement speed management in communities across Massachusetts.

Road safety upgrades can be done quickly and without requiring major capital investment. Recent examples include a traffic circle made out of cones in Arlington – no construction required – that dropped the number of people speeding by 65 percent. In Salem, narrowing a road via new bike lanes encouraged safer driving behaviors and reduced speeding (more than 40 mph) in a school zone by 61 percent.

While fatal crashes for people walking were down in 2020 in MA (bucking a national trend of rising fatal crashes despite fewer people driving that year), it appears in 2021 that fatal pedestrian crashes in Massachusetts returned to a level similar to what we’ve seen every year since 2015. It’s time to reverse this trend. Our state and local leaders must design our streets to be safe for people walking today.

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View the full report

Action Alert: Contact your Legislators to Support a Safer Route 16

Action Alert: Contact your Legislators to Support a Safer Route 16

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WalkBoston is proud to support the Route 16 Coalition, a project of Somerville Alliance for Safe Streets, a group made up of resident advocates, local and state legislators, and other community groups organizing for a safer Route 16 from Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge to Main Street in Medford.

This section of Route 16 is under the jurisdiction of the Department of Conservation and Recreation and is made up of Alewife Brook and Mystic Valley Parkways, and was originally designed to be a “pleasure road” for taking in the beautiful scenery of the surrounding parkland. Today it is a high-speed roadway with some of the highest crash rates in the region that acts exactly opposite to its original intent: it is a dangerous barrier that impedes access of local residents to parkland, nearby amenities and businesses, and negatively impacts the Alewife Brook and Mystic River waterways and climate.

The coalition is asking members to call or email their state and local legislators to ask them to support an earmark of ~$750,000 for a traffic study that is necessary to move forward with much-needed safety improvements on Route 16 in Cambridge, Somerville and Medford. The timing is immediate as the earmark is being discussed this week (week of March 7th) in the Ways and Means Committee. This is important for residents of Cambridge, Somerville, Medford, Arlington, Belmont and Watertown and for anyone who travels through this dangerous corridor.

Find your state legislators and their contact information here:https://malegislature.gov/search/findmylegislator

For more information on this effort or if you’re interested in joining the coalition, email somervillesafestreets@gmail.com

WalkMassachusetts Network: February Meeting Recap

WalkMassachusetts Network: February Meeting Recap

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The WalkMassachusetts Network hosted its first virtual network meeting on Wednesday, February 16th. Members ranged from WalkBoston staff and board members, resident advocates from community groups, Mass in Motion coordinators, and representatives on various municipal boards and commissions. Through our introductory discussion, it became clear that there was significant overlap in what topics people were looking to learn about from each other — from holding state agencies accountable on policies and programs that support pedestrians, such as sidewalk snow clearance, to the differences that rural communities face as compared to more urban and suburban communities.

While it is unfortunate that many of the issues advocates are organizing around are present in communities across the Commonwealth, despite the variety in geography, density, and demographics — it is also encouraging that so many individuals are interested in building strong coalitions to advocate for the necessary changes to make Massachusetts more walkable.

If you haven’t already joined, visit walkmanetwork.org to learn more and sign up to receive emails about upcoming events and programming. We also hope you’ll join us for our next network meeting on Wednesday, March 16th at 1 pm! Register here.

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!