Boston Transportation Department Archives

Event – 2022 WalkBoston Bob Sloane Walk: Muddy River

Please join us on Tuesday, June 7th at 5:30pm for our first organized walk in almost three years. Sign up today!

The walk is part of Olmsted Now: Greater Boston’s Olmsted Bicentennial and is the first annual walk in honor of Bob Sloane. Bob was a co-founder of WalkBoston and passed away in May 2021. He was a true pioneer in walking advocacy and a pillar of our organization, and we look forward to honoring his legacy by hosting a walk each year in his name.

Since this is a point-to-point walk, we encourage you to use public transportation, walk, or bike to the start so that it is easy for you to head out afterwards.

HOW TO GET TO THE START

The walk will start on the Muddy River walk at the rear of the Hilton Garden Inn at Boylston Street and Brookline Avenue in Brookline (700 Brookline Ave, Brookline, MA 02446), very close to the Brookline Village stop (D Line). If you are coming from downtown on the D line, once you get off the train, cross the tracks and follow Pearl Street out to Washington St (Rt 9). You should see the hotel to your left on the corner of Brookline Ave and Washington St; we are meeting out back. Transportation close to the start location:

Brookline Village MBTA Station (D Line)
Riverway MBTA Station (E Line)
66 Bus – Huntington Ave / Riverway stop
60/65 Buses – Brookline Ave / Pearl St stop
BlueBikes – Brookline Village Station

ROUTE

The route will wind its way from Brookline along the Emerald Necklace’s Muddy River toward Boston’s Fenway neighborhood. (View the route on Google Maps here).

The walk route is fully accessible. We are diverting off the pathway along the Muddy River onto sidewalks on Aspinwall Ave to Netherlands Road for the section of the path between Brookline Ave & Netherlands Road to avoid a bridge with stairs. Not only does this make our walking route accessible, it will also allow us to add an additional speaker stop on Netherlands Road at the Dutch House.

We’ll be ending the walk at the Trillium Fenway Beer Garden & Time Out Market so attendees have the option to have a drink or eat outside and continue the conversation. Transportation close to the finish location:

Brookline Ave / Park Dr stop
8, 19, 60, 65 Buses – Fenway MBTA Station (D Line)
47, 57, CT2 Buses – Park Drive / Fenway Station stop
BlueBikes – Landmark Center / Brookline Ave at Park Dr Station

SPEAKERS

Representatives from Fairsted (the Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site) will share about Olmsted’s vision & describe the history and design of the Emerald Necklace. Additional speakers from Town of Brookline, City of Boston, and the Emerald Necklace Conservancy will join us along the way to share more about the Emerald Necklace and update us on the restoration & transportation projects located on this section.

Since we’ve had a strong RSVP response, we’ll likely be splitting attendees into two groups. We will get the first group started right after 5:30pm, and then send the next group a few minutes behind them.

We hope to see you on June 7th. Sign up today!

This walk is the first 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.

What a difference a walk can make!

WalkBoston was joined by Interim Boston Transportation Commissioner, Greg Rooney; Chief of Streets Chris Osgood; and BTD Director of Planning Vineet Gupta for a “traffic signals walk” on August 1. The first impacts of the walk are now visible!

Last week, @BostonBTD changed Washington & Milk to flashing red lights and covered up the WALK signals. Thanks for taking this recommendation & simplifying the intersection to work better! pic.twitter.com/rn2rKGij5t
— WalkMassachusetts (@WalkMass) September 4, 2019

The misleading and incorrectly timed traffic signal at the intersection of Milk and Washington Streets has been replaced with a much more appropriate flashing Red Light. This means that all the traffic (of which there is not very much) will stop and yield to the (many) pedestrians crossing the street. We want to thank BTD for this fix, and look forward to many more fixes in the coming months. WalkBoston will continue working to improve traffic signals for pedestrians across the City and beyond.

Downtown Boston “signals walk” with Boston Transportation Department

WalkBoston took a downtown Boston “signals walk” with Boston Chief of Streets Chris Osgood, Acting Transportation Commissioner Greg Rooney and Boston Transportation Department Chief Planner Vineet Gupta on August 1st. We looked at several pedestrian-filled downtown Boston intersections and discussed the many ways in which Boston’s traffic signals are not yet fulfilling the policies outlined in GoBoston 2030 such as: making “walk-signals intuitive and giving people walking a head start,” or “shortening wait times at crossings and make signals adapt in real time to pedestrian behavior and flows.” (Check out page 140 for Pedestrian-First Traffic Signals.)

At 9 AM, during heavy commuting hours for walkers and T riders, the crosswalk across Cambridge Street in front of the Government Center T Station required pedestrians to wait 90 seconds to get a WALK signal. We also looked at several intersections where STOP signs would provide better service for both walkers and drivers – such as at Milk Street/Washington Street in front of the Old South Meeting House.

As we have for many years, WalkBoston will continue urging the Boston Transportation Department to fulfill the City’s motto of being “America’s Walking City” by making traffic signals in Boston work better for walkers.

Increased Parking Fines to Fund $5 Million in Transportation; Biking & Bus Improvements Emphasized

North End Waterfront: “Increased Parking Fines to Fund $5 Million in Transportation; Biking & Bus Improvements Emphasized”

“With this investment in safety, operations and multi-modal thinking about our streets, sidewalks and trail systems, Boston is re-taking its place among the leading American cities on walking, biking and transit. Thank you to Mayor Walsh and the Boston Transportation Department for finding creative ways to fund impressive new investments.” – WalkBoston Executive Director Wendy Landman

Posted April 4, 2018

One minute, one slide: Neighborhood Slow Streets

Below is a “One Minute, One Slide” presentation shared by a member of the WalkBoston staff.
Text provided is as presented at this year’s annual event on March 29, 2018.

Dorothea Hass

The City of Boston’s Neighborhood Slow Streets program is a new approach to traffic calming requests in Boston.

The aim is to reduce the number and severity of crashes on residential streets, lessen the impacts of cut-through traffic, and add to the quality of life in the neighborhoods.

The first year of the program was a pilot and focused on 2 zones, the Tabot Norfolk Triangle (just outside Codman Square in Dorchester) and the Stonybrook section of Jamaica Plain (close to Green Street on the MBTA Orange Line).

For the next round, the Boston Transportation Department planned to add another 2-3 areas; they received 47 submissions from across the City and selected five new communities to join the program.

WalkBoston works closely with both community members and the transportation staff to make this program a success!

Learn more at: https://www.boston.gov/departments/transportation/neighborhood-slow-streets