Tag: Mass in Motion

AARP 2023 Community Challenge Grant Announcement!

AARP 2023 Community Challenge Grant Announcement!

“AARP is thrilled to include Walk Massachusetts as part of our Community Challenge Grants this year. Their project in Springfield will empower residents to make their community more accessible and livable for people of all ages.” – Mike Festa, State Director AARP Massachusetts

We are excited to announce that WalkMassachusetts is one of 310 recipients (out of over 3,600 applicants!) of an AARP Community Challenge grant! AARP Community Challenge is a grant program to make tangible improvements in communities that jump-start long-term change. It is part of AARP’s nationwide Livable Communities initiative, which supports the efforts of cities, towns, neighborhoods and rural areas to become great places to live for people of all ages. To learn more, visit aarp.org/Livable. 

This grant will fund the Walk Audit Academy (WAA), a walk audit training program that we will lead with WalkBike Springfield. WAA was piloted in Worcester with the REACH program, UMass Worcester Prevention Research Center, Health Resources in Action, and funds from the CDC. WAA is an experiential learning theory-based curriculum that guides learners in: 1- discovering and documenting their local transportation and land use decision making context; 2- learning walk auditing basics; 3- developing an action plan; and 4- implementing the action plan. 

WAA includes a video series, produced by WalkMassachusetts, that guides learners in the process of planning, conducting, and summarizing walk audits. It employs a “flipped classroom” model to extend the capacity of WalkMassachusetts and WalkBike Springfield, and enable community groups to engage in co-learning that benefits the entire Springfield community, with emphasis on environmental justice block groups (minority, income, English isolation). WAA walk audits are intended to build community, and collect information about infrastructure conditions that can be shared with elected/appointed officials to improve walking safety, convenience, and comfort. WAA will allow Springfield residents to better participate in their planning and transportation processes, ensuring that local voices are heard. WAA will also help to improve the safety and walkability of Springfield, which in 2021 had 9 fatal pedestrian crashes, the same number as Boston which has a population over 4x that of Springfield. 

Safer streets benefit everyone— however, older adults will benefit from safety improvements the most, as people ages 50+ make up the vast majority (69%) of crash victims in MA (2021, WalkMassachusetts Fatal Pedestrian Crash Report). Improved neighborhood walkability also results in better physical, social and cognitive health for the whole community, and more accessible streetscapes mean more independence for people with disabilities, whose mobility options are most limited.

Thank you again to AARP for their generous support! To learn about the other Community Challenge grantees, visit: www.aarp.org/CommunityChallenge

Worthington and Armory Walk Audit in Springfield

Worthington and Armory Walk Audit in Springfield

On Saturday, May 20, 2023, WalkMassachusetts joined Springfield Mass in Motion, Way Finders and 20 local community members to complete an in-person walk audit. The route covered Armory Street, Taylor Street, Kibbe Avenue, Worthington Street, and Federal Street.

This process focused on sidewalks, crosswalks, pedestrian safety, curb cuts, general access, neighborhood safety, and walkability as well as making observations about green spaces and parks along our route.

The planning decisions for this walk audit, including the walking route and starting location, were made by a group of engaged Springfield residents supported with facilitation from Mass in Motion and Way Finders.

 The next steps include a walk audit draft report that will be shared with participants to make sure their opinions and recommendations were captured before finalizing the report.

Over the years, WalkMassachusetts has been a technical service provider to communities through the Mass in Motion program including many in Springfield. Mass in Motion is a statewide movement that promotes opportunities for healthy eating and active living in cities and towns across the state of Massachusetts. Thank you to MAPC for including us in the work this year.

Main Street and Union Street West Springfield Walk Audit

Main Street and Union Street West Springfield Walk Audit

On Monday, November 15, 2021, with an invitation from the Town of West Springfield’s Mass in Motion coordinator, Becky Basch, Senior Planner at the Pioneer Valley Commission, WalkBoston led a walk audit focused on the areas surrounding Main  The Town of West Springfield, and this residential area, is home to a diverse population with many languages and cultures represented.

The purpose for this walk audit was to follow up on a Park Access Project completed through the Mass in Motion program in 2019, that found that the Merrick neighborhood has the highest density of residential development and the smallest amount of park land available to residents in the immediate areas. As the Town has plans to make improvements on Main Street in 2022, the Department of Public Works is open to including recommendations from the Walk Audit in its plans.  The Town is also planning to make improvements on Union Street in the next few years and is looking to improve connections for bicycle users to current projects on Memorial Ave and Park Drive. 

The walk audit included portions of Main Street and Union Street that are home to popular markets, a food pantry, a charter school, Ascentria Care Alliance, and Main Street Playground. The recommendations provided in this report are broken down into both short- and long-term recommendations, which can provide temporary traffic calming measures and improved pedestrian infrastructure while more long-term interventions are planned. 

Read the full report here.

New Virtual Walk Audits: Worcester and Framingham

New Virtual Walk Audits: Worcester and Framingham

BY LEIGHANNE TAYLOR / WALKBOSTON PROGRAM MANAGER

Walk audits—one of WalkBoston’s most effective tools to change the built environment and build a constituency of walking advocates—face an obvious hurdle during the pandemic: we can’t meet in person. With more people walking than ever before, we could not hit pause and wait until it is safe to gather again. We adapted our walk audit process to be virtual to continue improving walking conditions. We have conducted four virtual walk audits since the pandemic began: in Salem, Springfield, Fitchburg, and Worcester—we wrapped up the latter two in January and discuss them below.

Fitchburg’s Intermodal Center Virtual Walk Audit is the second walk audit in a statewide project examining the connections between social infrastructure and walkability within transportation-oriented development (TOD) areas. Neighborhood data and resident perspectives will be captured in virtual conversations and self-led walk audits in five Gateway Cities in Massachusetts. This project is co-hosted by WalkBoston and MassINC, with support from the Solomon Foundation.

The Worcester Virtual Walk Audit was conducted by WalkBoston, WalkBike Worcester, and the Worcester Department of Public Health Mass in Motion Program. Residents requested the virtual audit, which is serving as a pilot program for Worcester’s upcoming Complete Streets Prioritization process.

How We Made Our Walk Audits Virtual

  • Session 1: Participants convene on Zoom for a Ped101 workshop to share their walking concerns, learn about walkability basics, and review the self-led walk audit process.
  • Self-led walk audit: Participants have two weeks to walk the specified route, and document photos and written observations about the walking environment.
  • Session 2: Post-walk, participants reconvene on Zoom to discuss and set plans for next steps.

We use Google Sites to share recordings of our Zoom meetings so those unable to attend the first session can watch and provide feedback on their neighborhood’s walkability. The recommendations made during the second session are summarized into a PowerPoint report and memo for participants to use and turn into actions.

Virtual walk audits have served as a valuable tool for conducting our community-partnered work in a socially- distanced world. While we look forward to resuming our in-person walk audits, we plan to leverage these digital engagement strategies in the future to hear from those unable to attend in-person. If you’re having success with virtual community engagement, we’d love to trade notes —get in touch!

This article was featured in WalkBoston’s January/February 2021 newsletter.
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‘Safe driving during COVID-19’ PSA graphics

‘Safe driving during COVID-19’ PSA graphics

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, lower traffic volumes have led to dangerous driving speeds in communities across the Commonwealth. High driving speeds contributed to a doubled roadway fatality rate in the month of April in Massachusetts. Driver speeding affects all road users by making walking and rolling conditions unsafe and uncomfortable.

With the safer-at-home advisory still in place, increased numbers of people are walking, rolling, and running in their communities. To make roadways safe for all users, drivers must take responsibility to not exceed the posted speed limit and to yield to walkers and rollers who are using street space to maintain physical distance in areas with narrow sidewalks.

To support communities who are seeing dangerously high traffic speeds and unsafe driving behavior, WalkBoston partnered with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health Mass in Motion (MiM) and MORE Advertising to develop a social media campaign that MiM coordinators can use to raise awareness about safer pandemic driving behavior.

To broaden the reach of this important message, we invite all communities and individuals to use these graphics on your social media or other town communication platforms.

These graphics are set up for Facebook. Consider adding the following language as a comment to your social media post:

  • Keep our roads safe for everyone!
  • Safe driving is still important. Keep our roads safe for all.

Please consider every street a shared street and stay safe!

4 PSA graphic options (click for full size, and then right click to “save image as”):