Category: Announcement

Save the Date: Annual Celebration 3/30, 5pm

Save the Date: Annual Celebration 3/30, 5pm

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Join us on March 30th (on Zoom) to celebrate & honor this year’s Golden Shoe winners!

Each March, we hold our Annual Celebration to celebrate achievements in walkability and to highlight the contributions of our wonderful volunteers, board members, and the many individuals and corporations who support us every year.

The presentation of our Golden Shoe Awards is an integral part of the Annual Celebration. The Golden Shoes recognize individuals, agencies, municipalities and companies exemplifying the ideals of WalkBoston’s mission. 

More info on this year’s honorees and speakers coming soon, but registration is now open!

October Speed Workshop Recap

October Speed Workshop Recap

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Earlier this month, we held a 90- minute lunchtime workshop on speed limits and community advocacy around speed mitigation where we discussed the many speeding issues communities across the Commonwealth are facing. This workshop was made possible thanks to funding from the Plymouth Rock Assurance Foundation.

The slides we shared at the beginning of the workshop can be viewed here. Below we’ve summarized the breakout sessions, included links for some of the questions that were posed during the discussion so you can learn more, and added a list of funding sources that places across Massachusetts can use to improve pedestrian safety in their community. 

PROBLEMS: “What speed setting problems are you facing?”

  • Road Jurisdiction: who controls the road? State agencies (MassDOT, MassDCR) set the speed limit on roads they control, which may be at odds with what the community wants. These roads are also not subject to a community’s opt-in to 25mph speed limit. 
  • Discrepancies between design speed and posted speed limit. If when repaving or reconstructing a road the design speed selected is higher than the posted speed limit, it encourages people driving to drive faster. If a speed study is done after paving, even higher speeds may be observed, leading to a higher posted speed limit. 
  • Blanket Speed Limits that don’t match the local context and land use. If there is a blanket 25mph limit but a road is designed for higher speeds, it gives a message to people driving that the speed limit can be ignored. 
  • Only posting speed limit signs for the default 25 mph speed limit at municipal lines can be confusing. A few examples people offered:
    • A person could drive an entire trip within a community and never see a speed limit sign for the default speed, since it is not allowed to be posted anywhere other than at the municipal line.
    • Mixed messaging – there can be a sign w/ a different speed limit almost immediately after the default speed limit sign at the municipal line if that particular road had a speed study for a higher speed limit. 
    • Even when using a speed feedback sign that displays a driver’s speed, we have been told that we can’t post the white/black speed limit sign along with it to show the default speed limit. 
  • The 25 mph opt-in legislation leaves out many rural municipalities since it is meant to include ‘thickly settled areas.’ What can be done for communities that have areas that don’t fit the definition of ‘thickly settled’? 

Interventions and Strategies

  • Speed Feedback signage. Speed feedback signs can cue drivers to slow speeds, and can be periodically moved around to different areas where they may be useful. Complete Streets funding is one method to purchase speed feedback signs.  
  • Utilize speeding ticket revenue for improvements around the immediate area. In Salem, revenue generated from parking tickets issued for infractions that occur in accessible parking spaces is directed towards the disability commission. As with this example, revenue generated from speed ticketing can be used to help fund streetscape improvements that slow speeds and increase safety in the area where the infraction occurred.
  • Piggyback on upcoming investments. When changes and investments are about to be made, seize the opportunity to work with the City, DCR, MassDOT or whichever party has jurisdiction over the road, and ask for additional changes at the project site that advance best practices for traffic calming and can be made concurrently.
  • Use multiple strategies, even if low-cost. Singular built environment changes are seldom as effective as making multiple, complementary streetscape changes that provide drivers with repeated cues to slow down. In-street signage, advanced yield signs, striping, and flex posts and painted curb bump outs are all inexpensive interventions that can be affordably implemented together to slow speeds. See our report on low-cost traffic calming strategies for more. 

Advocacy

Connecting Kids and Families to Parks and Open Spaces!

Connecting Kids and Families to Parks and Open Spaces!

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WalkBoston is excited to announce we have received $150,000 over three years from Boston Children’s Collaboration for Community Health for our Connecting Kids and Families to Parks and Open Spaces project!

This grant is part of Boston Children’s Hospital’s total commitment of $53.4 million to support community organizations and agencies in their efforts to improve the health and well-being of children and families in Boston and across Massachusetts. Boston Children’s is distributing these funds as part of an agreement with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health’s Determination of Need Program. This is in addition to the hospital’s ongoing support for programs and partnerships.

Access to parks for exercise, relaxation, and community connection is a proven public health solution to social isolation and community resiliency in urban communities. Too often, low income communities of color that have experienced historical disinvestment, high levels of traffic violence, and public safety challenges have the least safe access to neighborhood parks. This is the case in East Boston, which has a great variety of parks, but where proximity has not equated to access for many residents.

We are thrilled to be working with our partner GreenRoots and the Caminatas Verdes walking group to address these inequities by improving walking connections and access to East Boston’s parks through community-based street advocacy.

Thank you, Boston Children’s Hospital, for helping us make Massachusetts safer to encourage better health, a cleaner environment and more vibrant communities. We look forward to this partnership and can’t wait for the work to begin!

“We have long recognized that one of the best ways for Boston Children’s to make a difference is to partner with others in the community. The Collaboration provides organizations with funding so they can establish the infrastructure needed to grow and lead or strengthen their connections with partners to create more efficient systems of care and support.”

–Shari Nethersole, MD, Executive Director for Community Health

Modified “At-Grade” Option for Allston I-90/Project Is A Go

Modified “At-Grade” Option for Allston I-90/Project Is A Go

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WalkBoston is pleased at the news that MassDOT is advancing the modified “at-grade” option for the I-90 Interchange Project. There is still a lot of work to be done and details to work out, but we are happy with this direction. The modified “at-grade” option shown at the recent I-90 Task Force meeting includes a wider, 20-foot-wide boardwalk along the Charles River in the “throat” section and walking/biking connection to Agganis Way at Boston University.

WalkBoston has been one of many groups working to make this happen. So many have dedicated countless hours, megawatts of brain power, and tireless energy to making this project more than a highway project. We only wish that our friend, WalkBoston founder, and the creative mind behind reframing the conversation about the walking and biking paths, Bob Sloane, was here to hear this news. Bob passed away this past May, and many people have mentioned that a section of the paths should be dedicated to his memory. We think that sounds like a wonderful tribute.

To read more about the project, see some of the coverage below. 

Boston Globe: “Mass. Pike in Allston will be grounded, state says, vowing to move forward with mega transportation project”

Commonwealth Magazine: “State embraces all-at-grade Allston Project”

Streetsblog MASS: “MassDOT Picks ‘At-Grade’ Option for Allston/I-90 Project” (if you need a refresher, check out the updated overview of the entire project.)

Celebrating Bob Sloane

Celebrating Bob Sloane

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Earlier this year WalkBoston lost a member of our family, Bob Sloane. 

Bob was a dear friend, a mentor, a creative genius, and a true pioneer in walking advocacy. On September 9, we gathered together virtually to celebrate his extraordinary life and reminisce about our times together with him. 

Stories were told about the early days, about his trailblazing work on the Boston Transportation Planning Review, where he pushed forward the message that walking is a fundamental part of the transportation conversation at a time when it was not a popular view. We heard about how Bob and company founded WalkBoston over beers at Jacob Wirth’s. We heard about how Bob stuck to his principles and ideals, regardless of the professional consequences. We heard about his kindness and empathy, his contagious enthusiasm and dedication.

Bob’s presence was palpable throughout the night as the same themes came through in every story. His kindness, his stalwart nature, his sense of humor, his creativity, and even his insistence on sharing snacks (especially Clover fries and yorkshire tea). 

“A fierce advocate,” “heart of gold,” “he never gave up,” “one of nature’s true gentlemen,” “truly a life well lived,” “the soul of WalkBoston.” This is how we described Bob. We will all miss the twinkle in his eye as he came up with his latest scheme. We will miss the sight of him hunched over his maps and tracing paper. We will miss him walking into the room and saying “do you have a minute?”

Thank you, Bob, for everything, and thank you to his family for sharing him with us. His legacy and impact will be felt for generations to come. He leaves behind a more walkable, livable, vibrant, and welcoming community for all of us. We hold him in our hearts and will never forget him.