Tag: age-friendly

Plainfield Walk Audit

Plainfield Walk Audit

The Hilltowns CDC, together with Healthy Hampshire and WalkBoston, are leading a 5-year grant project to promote Age-Friendly Walkability in the Hilltowns Town Centers. Together with community residents and leaders, the team will be conducting a series of walk audits in partnering Hilltowns. The goal of these walk audits is to identify infrastructure improvements and policy changes to make town-center walking safer and more enjoyable for people of all ages in the Hilltowns. The Town of Plainfield is one of the partnering communities in this grant project.

Read the full report here.

Westhampton Walk Audit

Westhampton Walk Audit

The Hilltowns CDC, together with Healthy Hampshire and WalkBoston, are leading a 5-year grant project to promote Age-Friendly Walkability in the Hilltowns Town Centers. Together with community residents and leaders, the team will be conducting a series of walk audits in partnering Hilltowns. The goal of these walk audits is to identify infrastructure improvements and policy changes to make town-center walking safer and more enjoyable for people of all ages in the Hilltowns. The Town of Westhampton is one of the partnering communities in this grant project.

Read the full report here.

Training the Trainers

Training the Trainers

Walk Audit Participants walk along Woodbury Street
Walk Audit Participants walk along Woodbury Street
On July 20th, WalkBoston led a walk audit in Worcester for a group of travel trainers from Worcester, New Bedford, Lawrence and Boston, along with staff from the EOHHS Human Service Transportation Center and the Easterseals National Center for Mobility Management. Travel trainers assist people with a variety of disabilities with navigating transit systems and identifying safe routes to employment, education, shopping and civic activities. WalkBoston first met with the travel trainers several months ago for a virtual Ped 101 training session that introduced them to the key elements of a safe and comfortable walking environment. The Worcester walk audit was specifically designed to help the travel trainers learn how to work with their transportation and human services agencies to improve the built environment in the communities they serve to make it safer and easier for their clients to walk to and from transit.
Among the points of lively discussion were:
  • Inexpensive and “easy” fixes such as minor sidewalk repair and trimming of vegetation that blocks sidewalks;
  • Operational changes such as finding safer locations for bus stops and improving snow shoveling of sidewalks, transit stops, and parking lots;
  • Moderate cost capital projects like installation of new crosswalks with ADA compliant curb ramps and detectable warning panels;
  • More complex projects – like road diets – to slow traffic and create safe crossings on busy roads.
The travel trainers lent their expertise in transit operations, discussed the safety (and lack thereof) of walking in parking lots, and shared challenges of finding walking routes that are safe for their wide variety of clients with different accessibility needs, such as routes that are safe for people with vision loss, using wheelchairs, and with cognitive disabilities. WalkBoston is looking forward to continuing our work with the travel training community, and bringing their deep compassion for the lived experience of their clients into our advocacy. Our work with the travel trainers is supported by an Age-Friendly Walking grant funded by Point32Health.
City of Boston aims to create an Age-Friendly Cummins Highway

City of Boston aims to create an Age-Friendly Cummins Highway

The City of Boston is currently designing the complete reconstruction of Cummins Highway in Mattapan and they are calling out the project as Age-Friendly Cummins Highway! This is exactly the outcome WalkBoston hoped to see when we began our age-friendly walking work with the City in 2016. Many of the design elements are a direct reflection of what WalkBoston and the City learned during meetings and walk audits with Mattapan residents. 

The project will include a total rebuild of the street, including sidewalks, curbs, street lights, traffic signals, road pavement, and replacement or updating of utilities with a project budget of approximately $24 million.

Mattapan residents and WalkBoston staff walk down a sidewalk in Mattapan Square during the 2016 WalkBoston Mattapan Square walk audit; photos included in the 4/26/22 Cummins Highway BTD/PWD Presentation.

The proposed Cummins Highway design includes narrower street crossings with curb extensions, fully accessible sidewalks, longer WALK times and audible signals, high visibility crosswalks, raised crosswalks to slow drivers turning onto or from side streets, new trees and plants to reduce the heat effect, new street lights, bus shelters and benches.

Age-friendly intersection design shown in the 4/26/22 Cummins Highway BTD/PWD Presentation, showing plans to narrow crossing distances, add accessible ramps, raise crosswalks and increase crosswalk visibility.

As city staff said during a recent public meeting, the goal is to:

“Transform Cummins Highway into a tree-lined neighborhood street that is safer for families to walk, wait for the bus, ride bikes, or travel by vehicle. It will connect residents to the City’s network of open spaces and make it easier for elders to cross the street.”

WalkBoston is thrilled to see the City of Boston’s adoption of some many age-friendly walking elements in the project and to see age-friendly street design come of age in the city. 

Want to learn more?

WalkBoston Receives $165,000 Grant from Point32Health Foundation

WalkBoston Receives $165,000 Grant from Point32Health Foundation

WalkBoston was awarded a three-year $165,000 grant from Point32Health Foundation to advocate for policies that support, advance and result in age- and dementia-friendly walkable communities.

“WalkBoston is a leading advocate on transportation issues important to older adults and a strategic partner to the Massachusetts Healthy Aging Collaborative. The grant will support WalkBoston’s work to engage older people in walk audits in communities with significant needs and train new advocates. The new trainers will collaborate with state and local agencies to share the data and advocate for transportation solutions that support healthy aging in communities across the state.”

Building on the legacy of service and giving established by Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Foundation and Tufts Health Plan Foundation, Point32Health Foundation works with communities to support, advocate and advance healthier lives for everyone. This is one of 10 new community investments to organizations in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island totaling more than $1.1 million. The grants support community-led solutions to remove barriers that perpetuate inequities and advance policies and practices that create more inclusive communities 

“The pandemic has revealed significant gaps in our transportation, housing and food systems that disproportionately affect older people and communities of color,” said Nora Moreno Cargie, president of Point32Health Foundation and vice president for corporate citizenship at Point32Health. “To create communities that work for everyone, policies should honor and reflect community voices.”

About Point32Health Foundation

Building on Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Foundation and Tufts Health Plan Foundation’s values of service and giving, Point32Health Foundation works with communities to support, advocate and advance healthier lives for everyone. The Foundation advances equity-focused solutions in healthy aging, access to healthy food and behavioral health in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island.  Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.