Tag: Cambridge

Event: Cambridge to Allston Walk

Event: Cambridge to Allston Walk

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We will meet on the Malkin Athletic Center (MAC) steps that face the Lowell House construction site. To reach the MAC steps from Harvard Square, walk down Dunster Street, cross Mt. Auburn Street to Winthrop Street (one block south of Mt Auburn Street). Take a left onto Winthrop Street at a right onto Holyoke Street.

Joe Beggan, WalkBoston board member and Senior Manager for Transportation Planning at Harvard’s Allston Initiatives program will lead the tour from Cambridge to Allston.

In Cambridge Linda Kuczynski, Project Manager for Harvard’s House Renewal Program, will discuss the construction activities at Lowell House and the larger program that is transforming the University’s Neo-Georgian River Houses.

Once we leave the MAC, we will walk to the Weeks Bridge to take a moment to discuss the bridge and enjoy the river views. We will then cross the river and pass through the Business School Campus to the i-lab on Western Avenue. We will be joined in Allston by Ed Leflore, Principal and Founder of CSL Consultants, to talk about Harvard’s consultation projects in Allston including the new Science and Engineering Complex on Western Avenue.

Our next to last stop is the “Grove” at Barry’s Corner. We will finish the walk at Zone 3 Allston’s “Aeronaut Allston” summertime musical beer garden series for food, drink and conversation. EDIT: the beer garden closed for the chance of rain, so we’re ending at Our Fathers, the restaurant across from the Grove.

MA Vision Zero Coalition Statement on Commonwealth Ave Fatal Crash

MA Vision Zero Coalition Statement on Commonwealth Ave Fatal Crash

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Statement from the Massachusetts Vision Zero Coalition:

The Commonwealth Avenue crash that claimed the life of Theodore J. Schwalb, age 80, an arts teacher at Stoneham High School for more than 40 years, is disturbing on many levels. The driver, Phocian Fitts, acknowledges that he drove the car that struck and killed Mr. Schwalb in the middle of the day and then fled the scene. He stated this in an interview with Boston 25 News after he was released from police custody:

“People hit and run people all the time, it just happened to be an unfortunate situation where I was driving.”

Mr. Fitts’ comments, although brazen, reflect the low bar we’ve set when it comes to holding people accountable for reckless driving behavior.

  • A culture that accepts fatal crashes as a fact of life means law enforcement isn’t holding drivers accountable. We are deeply disturbed that the alleged suspect was initially questioned and released without charges despite fleeing the scene of a fatal crash. An arrest was only made after the Boston 25 News interview, in which he admitted to “driving too quick to the point where I couldn’t really stop” before running over and killing a fellow Boston resident.
  • A culture that accepts fatal crashes as a fact of life means lawmakers don’t realize the urgency of safety legislation. A hands free driving bill, which has passed the Senate and is backed by broad public support and Governor Baker, has languished in the House for years and now is awaiting action in the House Ways and Means Committee.
  • A culture that accepts fatal crashes as a fact of life means that thousands of people are seriously injured on Massachusetts streets every year.  In 2017, there were 4,537 injury crashes on Boston’s streets, which is up ten percent since 2015. Across Massachusetts, at least 133 people have been killed on our roads in the first 5 months of 2018.

While we are brokenhearted that another life has been lost on our streets, we are hopeful that the culture is beginning to shift around designing and building safer streets. In 2015 Mayor Walsh committed Boston to Vision Zero, an effort to eliminate serious and fatal crashes. Cambridge and Somerville soon followed suit.

Each of these cities have worked to make good on their Vision Zero commitments by redesigning dangerous corridors and intersections, and Boston recently announced a major investment in its Transportation Department’s safety efforts.

To ensure our streets are safe and accessible for everyone, design is important. We also need law enforcement and elected leaders to step up and make it clear that reckless driving deserves severe consequences.

Wendy Landman, Executive Director, WalkBoston
Emily Stein, President, Safe Roads Alliance
Stacy Thompson, Executive Director, LivableStreets Alliance
Becca Wolfson, Executive Director, Boston Cyclist Union

Additional Sources

  • A 2018 AAA study found that “Hit-and-run crashes in the United States are trending in the wrong direction,” according to Dr. David Yang, executive director of the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. The report found that most victims of fatal hit-and-run crashes are pedestrians or bicyclists. Over the past 10 years, nearly 20 percent of all pedestrian deaths were caused by hit-and-run crashes, meanwhile just one percent of all driver fatalities in that same time period were hit-and-run crashes.
  • The Massachusetts Vision Zero Coalition maintains a map of fatal crashes involving people biking or walking across Massachusetts.
  • WalkBoston tracks fatal pedestrian crashes across Massachusetts. This is compiled manually via news & social media alerts in order to give communities more information to help push for safer streets.
Longfellow has come a long way!

Longfellow has come a long way!

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WalkBoston is thrilled that after many years of advocacy, planning and design – and five years of construction – the Longfellow Bridge is open to all users. People on foot, on bikes, on the Red Line and in vehicles are all in motion. We celebrate the comfortable sidewalks, the beautifully restored ironwork and stonework, and the elegant new lighting. We are anticipating the fully accessible new bridge to the Esplanade which will open this summer.  Just a quick glance at the pictures below tell the sidewalk story!

Before (photos taken between 2007-2011):

     

After (photos taken June 2018):

We are continuing to work with our many advocacy partners to make biking across the bridge even safer than it is today, and are pleased that MassDOT Secretary Stephanie Pollack has committed to a pilot test of a separated bike lane on the inbound to Boston uphill portion of the bridge. We urge everyone to take a walk across the Longfellow Bridge this summer to enjoy the fabulous views and the cool river breeze. Support your local advocacy organizations (like WalkBoston) to keep state and local decision makers moving in the right direction on transportation in order to make our Commonwealth the best it can be!
Cambridge Day – Divisions made clear, Inman Square plan okayed by City Council to go to Legislature

Cambridge Day – Divisions made clear, Inman Square plan okayed by City Council to go to Legislature

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Cambridge Day: “Divisions made clear, Inman Square plan okayed by City Council to go to Legislature”
By Marc Levy

In the past three years, Inman Square has seen five pedestrian crashes, 10 bicycles crashes including Phillips’s death, and 50 vehicle crashes, said Wendy Landman, executive director of WalkBoston, a nonprofit founded in 1990 that has worked with Cambridge in Inman Square since 2014.

Posted June 5, 2018

MA Vision Zero Coalition support for the Inman Square project

MA Vision Zero Coalition support for the Inman Square project

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May 21, 2018

To the Cambridge City Council,

We are writing to you today since we understand you will be conducting a hearing tonight that involves discussion on the removal of 4 or 5 trees from Inman Square, to facilitate the Inman Square road design for transportation safety.

The goals of the Inman Square redesign are to make the square, specifically the large intersection of Hampshire and Cambridge Streets, safer for people biking and walking — the most vulnerable road users. This is in line with the Cambridge Vision Zero policy, and is particularly timely as a  response to the dangers highlighted by the fatal crash that took the life of Amanda Phillips in June of 2016, while she was riding her bike away from Inman Square.

The Vision Zero Coalition is working to make Massachusetts safer for all road users and we believe that the proposed changes to Inman Square will make that complicated and busy intersection much safer for people walking and biking.  In addition, the plan responds to the requests of local residents and business owners to create a more attractive and connected Vellucci Plaza to better serve businesses. We believe that the plan now makes the most of the opportunity for a large re-construction project, to fix the traffic and safety operations of Inman Square, and provide an opportunity to revitalize struggling businesses in the Square.

We sincerely hope that the objections to the project stemming from the loss of 4-5 trees (which will be transplanted and/or replaced) will not delay these important safety improvements any longer.

Trees are an extremely important part of the  urban fabric and contribute to pedestrian comfort and safety, and our organizations advocate for trees as an important element of streetscape design. Trees are also important contributors to environmental benefits. As transportation is the number one contributor to greenhouse gases in Massachusetts, it is imperative that we provide people with transportation options that get them out of single occupancy vehicles. The amount of carbon that a tree can sequester is moot if we can get hundreds, even thousands, more people out of cars and onto their feet, transit and bicycles. While  Cambridge boasts one of

the highest percentages of people who travel by walking, transit and biking, that percentage could be much higher if the City is safer and more attractive for people using those modes.

While we regret the loss of four to five trees, making progress on safety,  mode shift, and the continued vitality of Inman Square outweighs that loss and we believe the project should move forward as soon as possible.  We are pleased that the designers and City staff have found a way to plant even more trees than are being removed.

We look forward to seeing the re-construction of Inman Square get underway, and to the safer, more convenient and more vibrant Square that will result.

Best regards,

Wendy Landman, WalkBoston

Stacy Thompson, LivableStreets Alliance

Becca Wolfson, Boston Cyclists Union

Members and leaders of the Massachusetts Vision Zero Coalition