Event – Page 3 – WalkMassachusetts

MassDOT 2022 Moving Together Conference

By Ava Dimond | November 9, 2022

Last week WalkBoston had the opportunity to attend and table at MassDOT’s Moving Together Conference. It was wonderful to be surrounded by colleagues who are as passionate about the possibilities of active transportation and public transportation as the WalkBoston staff is. Walking, alongside bicycling and public transport, encourages better health, a cleaner environment, and more vibrant communities in Massachusetts.

Iolando, Brendan, Althea and Wendy attended workshops and panels, networked with fellow transportation advocates, and shared about WalkBoston’s work while tabling. It was especially great to talk to so many people on November 1st, day one of this year’s Beat the Bay State Challenge, and encourage them to sign up and create teams!

One panel that stood out to Brendan was “MassTrails – Investments in Trails Across the Commonwealth,” which featured Dan Driscoll and Stella Lensing from the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR), Megan Mello of Kittelson, and Pete Sutton and Kayla Sousa of MassDOT. Officially launched in 2018, the MassTrails Team has recently completed its fourth round of grant awards funding $11.8 million in MassTrails Grants to 81 projects throughout the Commonwealth. The team is seeking to create a cohesive network of trails across Massachusetts; excitingly, Dan Driscoll announced that $40 million was recently appropriated by the Governor for funding the Mystic River bridge crossing and they will be restarting the design process soon!

WalkBoston Attends the NACTO Designing Cities 2022 Conference

By Ava Dimond | September 13, 2022

Last week three of our WalkBoston staff had the exciting opportunity to attend the NACTO (National Association of City Transportation Officials) Designing Cities 2022 conference! Our Executive Director Stacey, our Deputy Director Brendan, and our new Senior Program Manager Iolando spent the week exchanging ideas with over 1,000 officials, planners, and practitioners in NACTO’s first in-person conference since 2019. They participated in “Walkshops” (mobile workshops that allow attendees to visit, learn about, and reflect on local transportation projects) and attended talks whose topics ranged from best practices in public communications to universal basic mobility. WalkBoston attendees also got to hear from compelling speakers such as Mayor Michelle Wu and Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley.

The conference was pervaded by a spirit of optimism for the future of cities which Iolando found contagious. He left feeling “upbeat and happy,” because NACTO was “such a great opportunity to build relationships with like-minded people who are working on the ground on these topics,” including how to make transportation more equitable. Iolando attributes this energy in part to the many transportation experiments conducted since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic; experiments whose failures and successes provided plenty for practitioners to come together and reflect over. “As a person who is new to this organization, it felt like ‘Wow, this is such an awesome time to get started!’”

Iolando believes this positive energy (even in the midst of Boston’s current struggles to adapt to the Orange Line closures) is a testament to the conference’s skillful highlighting of the strides Boston, Cambridge, and Somerville have made towards a more equitable, safe, and sustainable transit system. For example, Iolando attended a Walkshop in Cambridge entitled “Reimagining Shared Spaces in Cambridge’s Cultural District” that took participants to explore Central Square. It focused on how transforming parking for cars into places for people improves walkability, thereby expanding the community’s access to services, arts, and cultural items. Another Walkshop Iolando attended, “Making Tremont Street Safer: A Journey through Space and Time,” looked at Boston’s South End and featured an interesting discussion of what it looks like to improve pedestrian safety and accessibility while balancing historical preservation in a storied neighborhood. Participants even observed construction crews building safety features such as raised crosswalks, lane reallocations, and separated bike lanes.

WalkBoston is immensely grateful for the opportunity to attend NACTO this year. Thanks to generous support from the Barr Foundation, NACTO was able to provide funds to support attendance to the conference for people from New England cities.

Event: WalkBoston’s Talk the Walk Session: “Confessions of a Recovering Engineer,” 9/29 12pm on Zoom

By WalkMassachusetts | August 31, 2022

WalkBoston’s Talk the Walk Session
“Confessions of a Recovering Engineer”
September 29, 12-1pm
Register for this event

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

“Talk the Walk” is our topic-driven discussion session (not just books!). These discussion sessions may include articles, podcasts, videos, and yes, maybe even a book or two. This session features the book “Confessions of a Recovering Engineer” by Chuck Marohn. The author will be joining us for a brief presentation to kick things off, followed by breakout groups for discussion questions, and if time allows, an author Q&A.

Charles Marohn, professional engineer and founder of the Strong Towns movement, lifts the curtain on America’s transportation system in his newest book, Confessions of a Recovering Engineer. In this book tour presentation, Marohn demonstrates how the values of engineers and other transportation professionals are applied in the design process, and how those priorities differ from the values of the general public. By showing how transportation investments are a means to an end and not an end unto themselves, Marohn reveals how the standard approach to issues like fighting congestion, addressing speeding, and designing intersections only makes transportation problems worse, at great cost in terms of both safety and resources. By contrast, the Strong Towns approach to transportation focuses on bottom-up techniques for spending less and getting higher returns, all while improving quality of life for residents of a community.

Discussion questions:

Discuss Marohn’s distinguishing between a “Road” and a “Street.” Do you agree? Is it helpful? Where does this distinction not hold up?
Marohn indicates the hierarchy of engineer values are for road design for vehicles: speed, volume, safety, cost; where the public’s hierarchy is safety, cost, volume, speed. Agree? Disagree? How are these values reflected?
Has your experience with civil engineers & consultants reflected what Marohn is confessing? Do you see change happening? Examples?

Register for this meeting:

https://www.givesignup.org/TicketEvent/TalkTheWalk

You will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Articles to get you started:

Not sure if you’ll have time to read the whole book before 9/29 but still want to participate? A website with supplemental material was created to accompany the book. We’d encourage you to check out info from the intro and first three chapters.

Introduction: “Confessions of a Recovering Engineer” video (8 minute 35 seconds) https://www.confessions.engineer/supplemental-materials-intro
Chapter 1: Embedded Values https://www.confessions.engineer/supplemental-materials-1
Chapter 2: The Difference Between a Road and a Street https://www.confessions.engineer/supplemental-materials-2
Chapter 3: Whose Mistakes Do We Forgive? https://www.confessions.engineer/supplemental-materials-3

Want to go deeper? Buy the book!

We encourage you to buy it from your local bookstore, or find a store near you via Bookshop.

Here are a few stores you might consider supporting:

Event – WalkBoston Walk: Franklin Park (August 24, 2022)

By WalkMassachusetts | June 30, 2022

This event was originally scheduled on July 20th, but was rescheduled due to a heat emergency declared by the City of Boston. We hope you’ll be able to join us for our new date: August 24th!

Join us on the new date of August 24th 2022 at 5:30PM for our next walk which will focus on Franklin Park, and is part of Olmsted Now: Greater Boston’s Olmsted Bicentennial taking place in 2022 (this was originally scheduled for July, but it was rescheduled due to the heat emergency). It is also our second group walk of the year, following the Bob Sloane / Muddy River Walk in June. Updates will be available on this page & sent to all registered attendees before the event.

WalkBoston walks typically last 90 minutes, covering 1-1.5 miles and include stops along the way to hear from 3-4 people/organizations who are working on walking-related efforts in the community.

HOW TO GET TO THE START

We’ll start and end at near the Zoo at the William J. Devine Golf Course Clubhouse (1 Circuit Dr, Dorchester, MA 02121), where food and drink is available for purchase. If you’re coming from downtown, consider taking the Orange Line to Jackson Square and riding the 22 Bus via the new Columbus Avenue Bus Lane! Prefer to walk a little more through Franklin Park? You can also get off the Orange Line at Green Street and walk through the park via the Glen Road entrance. Parking is also available nearby.

ROUTE

The walk will focus on Franklin Park, and is part of Olmsted Now. The walk will start and end at the Franklin Park Clubhouse (1 Circuit Dr, Dorchester, MA 02121), which will be open for food/drink at the end.

Transportation close to the clubhouse:

14, 16, 22, 28, 29, 45 buses all are a short walk from the Franklin Park Clubhouse, and can connect you to the Orange and Red lines
BlueBikes – Franklin Park Zoo / Franklin Park Rd at Blue Hill Ave
Parking is available in a lot by the Clubhouse as well as along Circuit Drive

SPEAKERS

The Franklin Park Coalition will share about their work and current initiatives for the park,
Brandi Cruthird of Just Walk Boston, who will share about their group which was founded 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. (Brandi & Just Walk Boston received a Golden Shoe at our annual meeting this past March.) Brandi also leads a free walking group on Saturdays at 8AM as part of the Boston Public Health Commission / Boston Parks Department’s Summer Fitness Series.
…and others to be announced soon! (Know someone who would share an important perspective? Let Brendan know.)

REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN!

This walk is the second in a series of walks that WalkBoston is organizing for Olmsted Now:

Parks and public places are for everyone. Frederick Law Olmsted — reformer, writer, Boston transplant and America’s first landscape architect — is about to turn 200. Olmsted Now, Greater Boston’s Olmsted Bicentennial, is an invitation to actively shape a more equitable, verdant and vibrant city. Show up. Be seen. Share your story.

First Annual Bob Sloane Walk: Muddy River

By WalkBoston | June 16, 2022

Thank you to everyone who came out to join us for our first Annual Bob Sloane Walk (and first in-person event in almost 2 years) on June 7th!

It was wonderful to see so many friends and advocates.

Special thanks to our partners at Olmsted Now and our guest speakers: Isabel Schulman and Sophia Bass Warner, National Park Service; Bill Smith, Town of Brookline, Department of Public Works; Charlotte Fleetwood, Boston Transportation Department; and Veronika Trufanova, Emerald Necklace Conservancy.

Thank you for helping us honor Bob Sloane’s legacy and continue his advocacy work. We look forward to seeing more of all of you soon!

Below are a few more photos from the event, we hope you enjoy them and that you had a great time walking with us. For more about Olmsted Now, Greater Boston’s Olmsted Bicentennial, head to OlmstedNow.org