Category: Announcement

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!

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