Category: Announcement

Cambridge Street signals walk

Cambridge Street signals walk

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Recently, Brendan Kearney and Wendy Landman joined the Boston Transportation Department’s Stefanie Seskin and Vineet Gupta for a walk down Cambridge Street from City Hall Plaza to Charles Circle (but not including the Circle) to talk everything signals. It was a great chance for WalkBoston to give Stefanie and Vineet some detailed input about the way a number of intersections work (or don’t work) for people on foot. There are a wide variety of intersection types, some that are very complicated with many turning movements and lots of vehicles, people walking and people on bikes, and others that are very simple T-intersections where the signals could be simplified and much more WALK time added. We’re looking forward to BTD’s next steps in thinking about how to make Cambridge Street work more safely for people walking, biking and driving. We will post again as the project progresses over the next 6 months.

making connections to make Stoneham safer for people walking

making connections to make Stoneham safer for people walking

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Earlier this week, WalkBoston staff facilitated a conversation between Stoneham’s Director of Planning & Community Development and a town resident who had read a recent Boston Globe story (“Together, neighbors can thwart speed demons. Here’s how“). She had reached out to WalkBoston with concerns regarding the lack of pedestrian crossings on the stretch of Main Street between North Border Road and Marble/Summer Streets, which is under MassDOT jurisdiction and signed as part of Massachusetts Route 28. South Elementary School is located on the east side of Main Street near the intersection with Summer Street, and she was concerned about her daughter and her friends being able to safely walk to and from school along this high-speed road. The town’s only public bus route, MBTA Route 132, also serves this section of Main Street and requires passengers to cross the wide stretch of road in order to access their origins and destinations.

The director of planning affirmed the resident’s concerns about pedestrian safety on Main Street, and shared a wish list for safe travel to and from school that had been compiled by parents and staff of the South School. She also discussed the potential for a road diet to be implemented on Main Street, which could tie into current planning efforts for a complete streets strategy in downtown Stoneham. She also informed us that approximately $4.2 million in Federal and State transportation funding has been allocated in the Boston MPO’s FY21-25 Transportation Improvement Plan to upgrade the intersection of Main Street, North Border Road, and Pond Street. For next steps, Stoneham will be reaching out to MassDOT District Four to discuss potential methods to improve pedestrian safety on Main Street in the short term.

Hybrid virtual and in-person walk audits expand engagement opportunities in Haverhill

Hybrid virtual and in-person walk audits expand engagement opportunities in Haverhill

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As pandemic restrictions ease and we resume in-person activities, WalkBoston is bringing back our traditional in-person group walk audits while keeping many of the new tools we’ve developed over the last year. 

Haverhill was the first of our Gateway Cities walk audits to benefit from this hybrid approach. Starting in late May, the hybrid walk audit gave participants the option to walk through Downtown Haverhill with us in a group or – using the self-guided walk audit process developed for pandemic walk audits –  to walk on their own at a time that worked better for their schedule. Hybrid walk audits like this one can help us make the process more accessible to a broader range of participants. 

Haverhill residents discuss lighting conditions under the Winter Street bridge during the in-person group walk of Downtown Haverhill.

The flexibility of the hybrid model also created an opportunity for the Haverhill walk audit to include an additional virtual element — a bilingual focus group organized with Haverhill’s Latino Coalition to ensure fuller representation of the community in this project. The focus group added 8 more residents’ voices to the walk audit and gave us new insight into how residents use and would like to change Section 2 of the walking route.

The Downtown Haverhill walk audit illustrates how the larger buffet of participation options we’ve developed over the past year have led to more inclusive and robust community engagement. Have an idea for other ways we can include people in the walk audit process? Let us know!

Event: WalkBoston’s Talk the Walk Session: “15-Minute Cities,” 7/29 12pm on Zoom

Event: WalkBoston’s Talk the Walk Session: “15-Minute Cities,” 7/29 12pm on Zoom

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WalkBoston’s Talk the Walk Session
“15-Minute Cities”
July 29, 12-1pm
Register on Zoom

Lunch hour discussion session on Zoom. Open to all. Eating is encouraged. Video is optional. 

This is our first go at having a topic-driven discussion session (not just books!). These discussion sessions may include articles, podcasts, videos, and yes, maybe even a book or two. 

The first session will cover “15-Minute Cities.” Short explainer of the concept from Wikipedia. A few relevant articles are below. If you have read something related that others might find interesting or a question you’d like to include, send it our way—we can include it in our event reminder email and add to this post.

Discussion questions: 

  • For whom does this concept work? For whom doesn’t it work?
  • Does the concept exacerbate economic and ethnic segregation?
  • Why has the concept come to prominence now? What makes it exciting to planners?
  • Is it less applicable or more applicable if larger numbers of remote workers move to remote areas?
  • What does it mean for already built up cities? Is it applicable to American suburbs?

Register for this meeting:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMlfuurqzIvGdBFihVdRDkg-rlLon09UtCc
You will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. 

Articles to get you started:

Springfield Walk Audit in Upper Hill neighborhood with Way Finders

Springfield Walk Audit in Upper Hill neighborhood with Way Finders

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On June 11, 2021 WalkBoston joined Way Finders and 15 local community members to complete an in-person walk audit of the Upper Hill neighborhood in Springfield, MA. Special emphasis was placed on accessibility and ADA compliance, as Springfield does not currently have an ADA transition plan. Residents are concerned about making Upper Hill a safer and more welcoming neighborhood for all people, especially the elderly, children, and people with mobility issues. 

The walk audit began at Celestial Praise Church of God and residents walked east on Wilbraham Road towards the intersection at Roosevelt Ave. Participants stopped along the way to identify areas for infrastructure improvements such as safer crosswalks, addition of benches for respite, and dangerous and uneven sidewalks. Participants are interested in improving the access to Adams Park, which currently is inaccessible from the southern side of Wilbraham street as there is no crosswalk.

The next steps include a walk audit debrief on July 1, with WalkBoston and Way Finders, to collect participants’ opinions and recommendations. WalkBoston will generate a summary report of the findings for Way Finders.

WalkBoston is a technical service provider to communities through the Mass in Motion program. Mass in Motion is a statewide movement that promotes opportunities for healthy eating and active living in cities and towns across the state of Massachusetts.