Tag: Boston

Transportation Advocates Letter on Congress St / Fort Point Design

Transportation Advocates Letter on Congress St / Fort Point Design

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June 17, 2022
Jascha Franklin-Hodge, Chief of Streets, City of Boston
Arthur Jemison, Chief of Planning, City of Boston
Pat Hoey, Senior Project Manager, Boston Transportation Department

Re: Congress Street, Fort Point Design

Dear Chief Franklin-Hodge, Chief Jemison and Mr. Hoey:

Our collective organizations offer joint comments on the Congress Street Fort Point Design that was recently presented at a public meeting.

Thank you for recommending a design that will create a safer, more attractive street that slows speeds and includes more space for people walking and biking.

Our support for the proposed design, and for a Congress Street that is not used as a corridor to connect buses to North Station, comes from our belief that the South Station-North Station bus connection concept that the City is putting forward will make some of the important improvements that are needed to enhance transit access from the north to the South Boston Seaport where it is so urgently needed.

However, we continue to have questions about the serious transit needs in this booming part of the City, and the planning required to allow the neighborhood’s residents, businesses and workers to thrive in the years ahead. We would like to meet with you again to discuss our comments and provide our thoughts on the South Boston Seaport Transit Plan (within which the Congress Street Fort Point Design sits). Specifically, we would like to touch base on the following elements of the transit plan:

  • Accessible walking between South Station and A Street, including both Melcher Street and the replacement of the Summer Street/A Street stairways. We understand that progress is being made on both of these issues.
  • Bus network redesign and the City’s anticipated comments to the MBTA, including:
    • The need for two-way bus service on A Street
    • Planning for Seaport Boulevard/North Station bus connection
  • Bike network planning, including a review of possible protected bike lanes on the Evelyn Moakley Bridge
  • The status of the Northern Avenue Bridge project
  • Update on the City’s interagency efforts with the MBTA, MassDOT, Massport and the BCEC, and how we can be helpful in supporting this needed collaboration

Additionally, as the design moves forward, we request that a curb management plan be developed that specifically addresses loading and passenger pick-up/drop-off. We believe that this is important both for the safety of people walking and biking and for the economic health of the area businesses. It will also help to build broad support among stakeholders for the redesign.

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the plan. We look forward to working with you in the months ahead.

Sincerely,

Tom Ready, FPNA
Stacy Thompson, Executive Director, LivableStreets
Stacey Beuttell, Executive Director, WalkBoston
Wendy Landman, Senior Policy Advisor, WalkBoston
Becca Wolfson, Executive Director, Boston Cyclists Union
Galen Mook, Executive Director, Massachusetts Bicycle Coalition
Jarred Johnson, Executive Director, TransitMatters

WalkBoston Comments on Stanhope Hotel PNF

WalkBoston Comments on Stanhope Hotel PNF

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May 23, 2022
Quinn Valcich
Boston Planning & Development Agency

RE: WalkBoston Comments on Stanhope Hotel PNF

Dear Quinn:

WalkBoston is Massachusetts’ leading walking advocacy organization working to make Massachusetts a safer, more accessible and more attractive place to walk. 

Slide 28 of the presentation dated May 5, 2022 shares the possibility of a “Seasonal Road Closure” for the section of Stanhope Street between the project site and Frieda Garcia Park. Rather than creating a temporary/seasonal closure at this location, we believe that this section of Stanhope Street should be made into a permanent pedestrian-only area as part of this hotel development project. The people-focused space could have a flush curb and sturdy, attractive bollards at each end for better ADA accessibility and protection from vehicle traffic. 

A temporary outdoor pedestrian area was already well received and proven to be a success at this location last summer. We highly recommend that the pedestrian plaza should move beyond the pilot phase into construction as part of the larger Stanhope hotel project. This high quality pedestrian plaza and increased pedestrian traffic would help encourage the city to create a safer crosswalk connection across Clarendon Street to Back Bay Station in the longer term.

Thank you for the opportunity to comment. 

Brendan Kearney 

Deputy Director, WalkBoston

WalkBoston’s Advocacy Work Continues to Soar

WalkBoston’s Advocacy Work Continues to Soar

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Two of the most iconic by-products of Boston’s Big Dig — the Rose Kennedy Greenway and the Zakim Bridge — also stand today as symbols of WalkBoston’s earliest and most prominent pedestrian advocacy.

Founded in 1990, WalkBoston played a leading role throughout the 1990s in making sure pedestrians weren’t overlooked in the massive project to bury Boston’s Central Artery highway. Most notably, it persuaded transportation officials to reduce the number of proposed vehicle travel lanes on the Greenway from 10 to 6, with extra space devoted to pedestrians and bicyclists. It also persisted in seeing to completion the crucial pedestrian/bicycle bridge linking the Charles River Basin and Boston Harbor, a Big Dig commitment that languished until WalkBoston held a highly publicized walk in 2005 decrying its absence. The bridge was completed in 2012.

Those efforts and others are being recalled this month as WalkBoston marks the 20th anniversary of one of its most high-profile events: a Mother’s Day walk on the soon-to-be-opened Zakim Bridge on May 12, 2002. Co-sponsored with the Mass. Turnpike Authority, the walk drew 200,000 people — five times what officials anticipated — despite it being a cool rainy day.

The bridge walk idea came from then WalkBoston board member Catherine Donaher. 

“We had all gone through a very long and challenging fight to stop Scheme Z (a proposed I-90/Route 1 interchange over the Charles River) and I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be great to have a walk across the bridge before it opened?’ ” Donaher recalled.

WalkBoston co-founder and then-president Ann Hershfang pitched it to Turnpike Authority chairman Matt Amorello. “I stood up at a meeting and said, ‘Would you be willing to have pedestrians be the first mode of transportation across the Zakim Bridge?’ and he immediately said ‘Yes!’ ” Hershfang said.  

“What happened was so wonderful,” Donaher said. “We need to do more things to bring people out to touch and feel projects like this and feel like ‘This is my bridge — I paid for this.’”

The Mother’s Day walk’s popularity prompted officials to hold a walk through the Big Dig tunnels in August 2002, and a dedication walk on the Zakim Bridge that October. Those two events drew 600,000 and 800,000, respectively.

“Our work on the Central Artery kind of elevated us in the public mind,” said Hershfang, “and the bridge walk also raised our profile. I can still see one of our bright orange WalkBoston banners stretched across the bridge!” The Fall 2002 WalkBoston newsletter noted that nearly 90 new memberships were received after the first two events.

WalkBoston has only continued to grow over the ensuing two decades. An organization that in 2002 had no full-time staff and an annual budget of just over $100,000 now has six full-time staff members, interns, and a budget in excess of $600,000. WalkBoston continues to broaden and diversify its walkability programs and advocacy efforts, which now includes the WalkMassachusetts Network, a statewide coalition of groups working on walking.

Help us continue to add to our legacy by becoming a member or making a donation at walkboston.org/donate.

News clippings of the event from 2002:

 

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

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

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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?

Comments on MassDOT Maffa Way + Mystic Ave Bridge Project (File No. 607670)

Comments on MassDOT Maffa Way + Mystic Ave Bridge Project (File No. 607670)

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March 22, 2022

Carrie E. Lavallee, P.E.,
Acting Chief Engineer

Suite 6340, 10 Park Plaza, Boston, MA 02116

via e-mail to dot.feedback.highway@state.ma.us

Attention: Major Projects, Project File No. 607670

Dear Ms. Lavallee,

I attended the public meeting for the MassDOT Maffa Way / Mystic Ave Bridge Project in Somerville (near Sullivan Square) earlier this month. There were a few questions from the audience and a discussion about vehicle speed which seemed to show a real disconnect between MassDOT’s Safe Speed Management guidance and the way that this project is being designed.

This project is set to be completed in 2027, and will rebuild the bridges / associated roadways. There are a lot of project elements that will help to make the roads and sidewalks safer for biking and walking and improve access to the MBTA station. However, when I brought up the recently released speed guidance that describes target speeds, it was not very well received by the project team. The default speed in both Somerville and Boston is 25mph. This project is using a design speed of 35mph, after doing a speed study and seeing that the 85% speed on the existing roadway was ~32mph. At least three other attendees also commented that the design speed is way too high.

Good points were made that MassDOT should be designing a road for what is needed, and not repeating the design problems that are out there right now which allow people to drive way too fast, especially at off peak times. MassDOT & all MassDOT consultants should be setting the example for the rest of Massachusetts about how projects can incorporate the recently released Safe Speed Management guidance through setting target speeds for a reconstructed roadway rather than relying exclusively on the 85th percentile of the existing road.

Thank you,

Brendan Kearney
Deputy Director, WalkBoston