Tag: MassBike

Help MassBike & WalkMass evaluate heat stress in Chelsea, Everett, Framingham, and Revere

Help MassBike & WalkMass evaluate heat stress in Chelsea, Everett, Framingham, and Revere

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MassBike and WalkMass are working with the Boston MPO to analyze corridors in Chelsea, Everett, Revere, and Framingham that have been identified as places that have both high heat and are places where lots of people walk and bike. A series of walk and bike audits took place in August 2025 to help understand how heat impacts people walking and biking along streets in our neighborhoods. To add to our data collection we’re asking people to take self-audits through the forms available for each community so you can walk or bike a route and send in your experiences. 

Are you interested in adding to our data? Please follow these links to access the walking and biking feedback forms:

Chelsea | Everett | Framingham | Revere

(click footnote for other language options)1

What’s a walk/bike audit? 

An audit is a process where a person or group walks or bikes through a designated route (a neighborhood or commercial district) to assess pedestrian/bike accessibility and safety. Various factors are observed and evaluated, including the condition of sidewalks, crosswalks, and pedestrian signals, as well as the presence of amenities like benches, lighting, and landscaping. The goal of a walk/bike audit is to identify barriers or deficiencies that may hinder walking or biking as a mode of transport. Learn more about the walk and bike audit routes in each community below!

Why are we doing this?

Neutralizing Onerous Heat Effects on Active Transportation (NO-HEAT) is a project focusing on reducing the heat that people experience while walking, biking, or rolling. It’s a collaboration between the Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO), the cities of Chelsea, Revere, Everett, and Framingham, and several community partners, including WalkMass, MassBike, Bike to the Sea, and Mystic River Watershed Association.

Why should I do this? 

We appreciate your time and feedback, and we are offering gift cards to local establishments for anyone that takes part.

Audit Routes

Chelsea

Go to the form

Everett Ave (Broadway to Everett Border)  – The route is just under a mile, and crosses from the dense urban area of downtown Chelsea to the Silver Line and Commuter Rail MBTA stop, and newer residential developments along the Everett border.

Broadway (City Hall to Revere Border) – This stretch connects the businesses nearby Chelsea City Hall to the neighborhoods and parks out to Revere and the Mill Creek park. This route also crosses the Chelsea Greenway Community Path, and is a major corridor for trucking and MBTA buses.

Spruce Street (2nd Street to Route 1) – This route travels along the commercial section of Spruce St, connecting to Mystic Mall and passing by government and healthcare buildings.

Everett

Go to the form

2nd Street (From Revere Beach Pkwy to rail road tracks) – This route travels 2nd St through an industrial and commercial area that features a large apartment building.

Northern Strand Community Trail (Wyllis Avenue intersection to Waters Avenue intersection) – The Northern Strand Community Trail is the key corridor for bicyclists and pedestrians that connects Everett, Malden, Revere, Saugus, and Lynn. This section focuses on a particularly open segment with little shade that is susceptible to higher temperatures.

Main Street (Oakes Street to Malden Border) – Beginning at Meadows Park / Kearins Playground, this route travels through a residential neighborhood, passing through a few small commercial areas. You can also RSVP here to join a walk on September 25, 5pm.

Framingham

Go to the form

Beaver/Waverly to Beaver/Leland (Seabra Foods to Harmony Grove Elementary) – This travels Beaver & W Harmony Grove Elementary School, connecting Dennison Playground to the area near Sunshine Farm.

Irving/Loring Street (corner of Waverly Street to corner of Herring Ave) – From the major thoroughfare of Waverly Street, this route heads through the residential and business district and heads towards the South Middlesex Correctional Center, to highlight a recent ‘complete streets’ project.

Waverly Street (2nd Street to Cedar Street) – This travels major commercial corridor Waverly St, beginning near the Framingham MBTA station.

Cochituate Rail Trail – Cochituate Rail Trail is a multi-use trail that runs between Framingham and Natick, in the western suburbs of Boston. There may be a site visit to the Framingham end of the trail in late September. Email Brendan Kearney bkearney@walkmass.org to be kept in the loop.

Revere

Go to the form

Revere Street (Route 60 to Revere Beach) – This route focuses on the major destination to/from Revere Beach, and is a heavily used corridor for bicyclists to reach Wonderland MBTA station.

Washington Ave (Beach Street to Fuller Street) – This route connects the Washington Ave corridor to the Northern Strand Community Trail, passing through residential neighborhoods, religious centers, and municipal ball fields.

Malden Street (Route 1 to Vinny’s Food Market) – This route follows Malden St down a residential neighborhood between Disalvo Park at Susan B Anthony Middle School and Route 1. You can also RSVP here for a walk audit on September 17, 3:30pm. 

Please send any feedback or questions to bkearney@walkmass.org or bikeinfo@massbike.org.

  1. Other Language Options
    اَلْفُصْحَىٰ Chelsea | Everett | Framingham | Revere
    Español Chelsea | Everett | Framingham | Revere
    आधुनिक मानक हिन्दी Chelsea | Everett | Framingham | Revere
    Kreyòl Chelsea | Everett | Framingham | Revere
    简化字 Chelsea | Everett | Framingham | Revere
    Português Chelsea | Everett | Framingham | Revere ↩︎
Shared Spaces Tremont Street Site Visit April 2025

Shared Spaces Tremont Street Site Visit April 2025

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We are ‘Shared Spaces’, a coalition of advocates from the community, Boston Center for Independent Living (BCIL), Riders’ Transportation Access Group (RTAG), Transportation for Massachusetts (T4MA), WalkMass, Boston Cyclists Union (BCU), and MassBike.

Our mission is to promote collaboration and understanding of the challenges associated with shared spaces – such as bike lanes, sidewalks, crosswalks, and bus stops statewide. We are committed to advocating for safety and accessibility in the design of these shared spaces, with a focus on the unique experiences of individuals with disabilities. Through education, outreach, and active engagement, we will advocate for and support inclusive policies that enhance the safety and accessibility of shared spaces for all people with disabilities, pedestrians, bicyclists, drivers, and transit riders.

We organized this site visit to bring together individuals from the city and provide them with a firsthand understanding of these shared spaces, their limitations, and potential conflicts—this initiative aimed to promote more informed decision-making. Additionally, the visit facilitated relationship-building between our communities, allowing for a more authentic and accurate experience of these shared spaces.

We want to express our gratitude to the participants of this site visit, which included representatives from the MBTA’s System-Wide Accessibility Department, the City of Boston’s Commission for Persons with Disabilities, the City of Boston’s Street Cabinet, the Boston Transportation Department, and the Institute for Human-Centered Design. Thank you for your time, consideration, and efforts to make our streets safer for vulnerable users.

Please find at the link below a summary of the key observations from our group’s site visit of Tremont Street on April 14, 2025. We have included photos and can provide more examples if that is helpful. We recognize that some of our recommendations outline ideal scenarios. However, any improvement to roadway safety benefits all users. If achieving the ideal is not possible, we should still take action. Slowing down all users minimizes harm in case of conflicts.

Read the PDF report

Fitness challenges to get ready for November 

Fitness challenges to get ready for November 

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Can’t wait for Beat the Bay State to return in November? Check out these partner events to keep you occupied this spring!

MassBike’s 30 Days of Biking Challenge (Month of April)

All you have to do is ride every day in April, even if it’s just once around your block, and you’ll have a chance to win a Rover Rain Cape from Cleverhood. The April 30 Days of Biking is a great way to kick off your riding season before Bay State Bike Month starts in May!

Mattapan Walks Spring 2022 Walking Challenge (starting April 6)

Track your steps per day and be entered to win prizes for new & returning walkers per week for each theme. Challenge starts April 6th and will last for 5 weeks (Wednesday, April 6th to Wednesday, May 11th). Each week is a different theme:

  • Week 1: Buddy Week

  • Week 2: Adventure Week

  • Week 3: Pets and Family Week

  • Week 4: Kindness Week

  • Week 5: Whacky Week

MA Councils on Aging’s Walk Massachusetts Challenge
(registration now open, challenge goes May 1 – October 31)

Lace up your sneakers! The Walk Massachusetts Challenge is back and better than ever! This year, we are opening up the challenge to everyone age five and up. Anyone under 60 can sponsor an older adult to walk with or for. You can sponsor your parent, grandparent, neighbor, teacher, Council on Aging employee, etc. What are you waiting for? Your participation helps your local Council on Aging/Senior Center win money for fitness programs and gives you the chance to win one of several prizes!

Choose one of four challenges based on a Commonwealth of Massachusetts fun fact:

  • The 1788 Challenge – Walk 88 Days (at least 30 minutes per day) 

    • Complete 88 days to celebrate the year Massachusetts became the sixth state! It is only a 30 minute walk every other day for the duration of the promotion.

  • The Turnpike Challenge – Run, Jog, Walk 126.6 Miles(or about 253,000 steps)

    • Complete 126.6 miles to celebratethe length of the Massachusetts Turnpike from Boston to Lee! It is only about 0.7 miles or about 1,380 steps a day for the duration of the promotion.

  • The Shoreline Challenge – Run, Jog, Walk 192 Miles(or about 384,000 steps)

    • Complete 192 miles to celebrate the length of the Massachusetts shoreline! It is only about 1.1 miles or about 2,090 stepsa day for the duration of the promotion.

  • The Commonwealth Challenge – Run, Jog, Walk 351 Miles(or about 702,000 steps)

    • Complete 351 miles to celebrate the number of cities and towns in the Commonwealth!

The challenge runs May 1 to October 31, 2022. During this time, you will have chances to be entered into a drawing to win a $50 Visa, $25 Amazon or $10 Dunkin’ gift card. The more you walk, the more chances you have to win. Reach each milestone and receive a total of five entries. By completing the challenge, your local Council on Aging gets a raffle entry to win up to $1000 for fitness programming.

Safe Roads Alliance Global Road Safety Week Relay (starting May 15)

In this primarily virtual event, we are asking participants to run the width of our Commonwealth to help raise awareness of road safety. The event will take place May 15-22, 2022 during Global Road Safety Week. It will start in Lenox on May 15th and end at the Marathon Finish Line in Boston on May 22nd.

Most of the relay legs are 5 miles long and participants can run, walk, bike, or roll their leg that they have selected. The number of people completing each leg is unlimited and we set a goal of raising $500 for each leg for a total of $16,500.

Where and when is the event?

The first leg will kick off on May 15th at 10am in Lenox, MA and the last leg will be on May 22nd with a ceremony at the finish line in Boston. The legs in between will be mapped and tracked but participants will be able to complete them at the leisure virtually during that week.

For a few sections of the route, we are recommending that people opt to do a virtual run/walk/bike due to the safety of the roads in some areas. We tried to create a route that would have sidewalks or wide shoulders and a low speed limit, but in some parts of the state, this was not possible. We highlighted over nearly two dozen virtual options around MA that are on bike paths or rail trails and these can easily substitute for a leg along the route where we recommend a virtual option. Massachusetts has many beautiful, connected off-road paths that we want more people to know about, so check these out too when you are selecting your leg. Just make sure to log your finish so we can see if we successfully relayed across our Commonwealth!

Joint Comment Letter – Recommendations for Boston’s Healthy Streets COVID Response

Joint Comment Letter – Recommendations for Boston’s Healthy Streets COVID Response

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Below is the letter Boston Cyclists Union, MassBike, LivableStreets Alliance and WalkBoston sent to Chief of Streets Chris Osgood regarding Boston’s Healthy Streets plan on June 16, 2020.

June 16, 2020
Chris Osgood, Chief of Streets
1 City Hall Square, Room 603
Boston, MA 02201

Dear Chief Osgood,

On May 12th, the Boston Transportation Department (BTD) presented a plan to the City Council for adapting streets for COVID-19 response and recovery. However, we are concerned about the focus and scope of the first phase of the Healthy Streets plan that the Transportation Department announced on May 30th, and want to ensure these issues are addressed before future phases of the plan are implemented:

Equity

The most glaring issue with the Healthy Streets plan is the lack of attention paid and investment made in the Black and brown neighborhoods that are disproportionately suffering from the health and economic impacts of the pandemic. As early as April, members of this group reached out to BTD staff with specific recommendations for tactical interventions in the most impacted communities. These recommendations came directly from community leaders and individuals in Mattapan, Hyde Park, Roxbury, and Dorchester. Almost none of these recommendations have been included in the first phase of the Healthy Streets plan.

Additionally, the City has offered no transparency or criteria for how they chose the first phase projects and no timeline or criteria for how they will choose and implement additional phases of the plan. This seemingly arbitrary approach has already compounded the pre-existing inequitable investment in streets in our communities of color, and will likely only exacerbate these existing inequities of investment if not addressed explicitly and immediately.

Bike Network

The Healthy Streets plan only includes implementation of bike lanes on downtown corridors. We know that a network of bike lanes are essential infrastructure for safe travel — at all times, as well as during this time of physical distancing. The recent death of a person biking on Cummins Highway on June 9, 2020 only underscores the urgency of building safe infrastructure in all neighborhoods, not just in the city’s core. While protected bike lanes on downtown streets are long overdue, the corridors laid out in the Healthy Streets plan do not build out the network that is required for people to travel safely throughout the city. Go Boston 2030 provides a clear plan for where interventions are needed. We recommend prioritizing these corridors for quick-build protected bike lanes in Phase 2 of the Healthy Streets plan:

  • Cummins Highway
  • Malcolm X Boulevard, from Nubian Square to the Southwest Corridor
  • Albany Street, from lower Roxbury to South Boston
  • Western Ave, in Allston and Brighton
  • Hyde Park Avenue
  • Dorchester Avenue
  • American Legion Highway
  • Columbus Ave, from Mass Ave to the Downtown Network
  • Columbia Road
  • Columbus Ave, in Roxbury
  • Cambridge Street in Allston, from Union Square to the Charles River
  • Commonwealth Ave from the BU Bridge to the Bowker Overpass
  • East Broadway and Summer Street, in South Boston

As street space is reconfigured to allow for outdoor dining and retail, it’s important that plans for protected bike lanes are incorporated into the new layouts. For example, Charles Street is a key corridor in the protected bike network, but the neighborhood civic association is calling for a lane reduction that only accommodates outdoor dining, not protected bike infrastructure. Neighborhood associations should not be given the power to supersede years of public process that identified the need to create a critical bike network link on a corridor like Charles Street. It is clear that both outdoor dining space and protected bike infrastructure could be achieved there.

Many Main Streets and business associations are in support of swiftly repurposing parking lanes into cafe seating (as was installed on Hanover Street in the North End), which leaves the travel lane to be repurposed for critical mobility access. Improving safety for people walking and biking to Main Streets and other commercial districts is a key goal of Go Boston 2030, and COVID-19 response and recovery plans must align with this goal.

Enforcement + Policing

We have already provided several recommendations to Mayor Walsh regarding the role of policing and enforcement on our streets (see attached for reference). As outlined in the general recommendations to follow, it’s important that any adaptations to streets for COVID-19 response and recovery do not require police enforcement. As has been made so apparent in the last several weeks, policing is not a solution for street safety in communities of color. It’s important that the City develop a plan for how these interventions can be maintained and enforced without a police presence. We recommend that the City facilitate a community-led program which can be maintained by local organizations and residents.

Pedestrian Experience

The City should prioritize automatic recall of WALK signals in low-income and communities of color which have been most impacted by COVID-19, as well as WALK signals that are close to the most heavily used bus stops (which are already highlighted on the City’s Healthy Streets map). This work should be included in Phase 1 and should begin now. It is a long overdue and basic adjustment to all signals in Boston.

We already recommended in mid-April that BTD automate WALK signals so pedestrians do not have to push buttons. It is one less surface to touch and potentially contract/spread disease. Brookline, Cambridge, and Somerville have already implemented this effort.

Lack of Engagement with Community Partners

We understand there are staff capacity limitations for rapid response and tactical implementations, especially due to COVID-19. As many other cities have done, we believe it is critical for the City to partner with Main Streets organizations, community groups, advocacy organizations, and other partners to implement, manage, and help communicate about these interventions.

We have offered, on numerous occasions, to deploy our own staff to act as a liaison to community groups and to engage with community members to help identify neighborhood needs. As you know, the City has already worked with us to conduct community outreach and support City-led efforts in the past. We have community trust and a track record of success. Without explicit collaboration with community partners, the City will not be able to implement and manage tactical streets interventions at the scale and pace needed.

Communication, Data Collection, and Measuring Success

While we support the concept of “the pilot is the process,” this does not mean implementing quick-build or tactical projects without a proper strategy to inform the community, collect feedback, and measure success.

Many other communities have strong, established strategies for communications and measurements of success for these projects that can be used as models for Boston efforts. The City should develop a strong plan for monitoring these interventions, including relying on staff, consultants, and volunteers to count people walking and biking (and collect gender and race data), and using automatic technology to measure vehicle speeds and volume. The City can coordinate with employers to better understand how workers are commuting.

In addition, clear coordination between BTD’s Transit Team and Active Transportation Team is critical to ensure that the needs of transit users are balanced with the safety needs of those who are walking and biking (and those who would if there was a connected network). The Transit Team is overdue in developing a clear bus network plan that is based on public process, data, and analysis that takes equity, safety, and mobility needs into account. The City must balance rapid response with adherence to long-standing network plans, and ensure that building out the bus priority network does not preclude a safe bike network and safe pedestrian infrastructure.

We look forward to working with the City to ensure that we adapt our streets as rapidly and effectively as possible to respond to the current health and economic challenges.

Sincerely,

Becca Wolfson, Boston Cyclists Union
Stacy Thompson, LivableStreets Alliance
Galen Mook, MassBike
Stacey Beuttell, WalkBoston

CC: Mayor Martin J. Walsh, Boston City Council

Comment Letter on Waltham High School Project #16097

Comment Letter on Waltham High School Project #16097

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June 19, 2020

Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs Kathleen Theoharides
Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA)
Attn: MEPA Office, Page Strysky
100 Cambridge Street, Suite 900
Boston MA 02114

Dear Secretary Theoharides, 

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the Waltham High School Project #16097 for Waltham High School located at 554 Lexington Street in Waltham, MA. WalkBoston and the Massachusetts Bicycle Coalition (MassBike) would like to submit the following comments based on our reading of the DEIR as submitted on May 15, 2020.

Though we appreciate the work involved in relocating and constructing a new high school which will have significant impacts for the City of Waltham for generations to come, our primary concerns arise from the fact that unless the site is designed so that motor vehicle trips are replaced by safe and sustainable modes of walking and biking to and from school, this project will unacceptably increase the amount of expected car and bus traffic coming to and from the site on a daily basis and will have dramatic impacts to worsen the congestion on Lexington Street and increase greenhouse gas emissions.

We implore you to rethink the decisions to a.) remove bike lanes on Lexington Street and b.) raise the speed limit on Lexington Street without other traffic calming measures. As we shared previously in our letter dated November 26, 2019, the TMP noted that the Waltham Police Department identified speeding “as a significant issue” on Lexington Street. However, when a speed study was conducted for the high school project, the 85th percentile speed recorded was 41mph, leading to a new design speed set at 45mph. This does not mitigate the existing problem of speeding drivers on Lexington Street, but instead legitimizes it. The purpose of this project should not be to maximize vehicle speed and throughput. On the contrary, the goal must be to create a safe access to the new high school for all modes and ages, especially the most vulnerable on foot and on bike.

The DEIR states:

 “It is not possible to accommodate an exclusive bike lane through this portion of Lexington Street without taking private land along the right-of-way, which the Project will not pursue.” 

This is a misleading statement, and this project is only not accommodating exclusive bike lanes due to the addition of vehicle turning lanes. We are extremely concerned that adding turn lanes to “mitigate delays” will reduce safety of people who are walking and biking to the site. The DEIR also makes statements of “smooth flow,” “to ease traffic congestion,” “improve travel time reliability within a corridor, and reduce congestion,” but makes no mention of safety of students, staff, and faculty who are walking or biking to school. Instead, the DEIR is proposing “shared lanes” on Lexington Street, essentially a “sharrow” which does nothing to separate bicyclists from fast moving traffic. We believe forcing high school students to ride in “shared lanes” on Lexington Street is a dangerous option.

In contrast to “mitigating delays” of traffic, the roads around a community school should be safe for residents to get around, whether by walking, cycling, using transit, or in a vehicle. That safety and comfort is impacted by the design of our streets and intersections. All existing elementary schools in Waltham currently participate in the Massachusetts Safe Routes to School Program, which encourages students and their parents to walk and bike to school, something they hopefully would continue through high school. Yet we are not confident this roadway design allows for safe bicycling and walking, especially for students, staff, and faculty coming to the school early in the morning. Please take a moment to ask yourself: Would you want a 14-year old student riding a bike at 6:50am in a “shared” lane, or crossing a multi-lane road that has a design speed of 45mph?

Many students walking to and from school will have to cross Lexington Street, with a design speed of 45 mph, which obviously is not consistent with safe crossing by pedestrians. Yet Lexington Street has the opportunity to see more students walking and bicycling to school in the years to come: a proposed new K-8 public school may occupy the site of the existing high school. With additional vulnerable road users in this area, it is important to ensure that anyone driving on Lexington Street is doing it at a safe speed, and that safe and comfortable facilities are provided for vulnerable users. The City should consider expansion of the 20mph School Zone on Lexington Street to include all three schools, or through creating a 20mph “Safety Zone,” which was established in 2016 under Mass General Law Chapter 90, Section 18B. 

The DIER does mention the placement of bike racks for 5% of the building occupants, though without detail if these will be protected or covered or otherwise secure, and building occupancy can be up to 1,830 students, teachers, and staff, plus 600 field spectators. We see no analysis of trips being taken to and from the site by people on foot or on bike, only that dedicated bike lanes outside the entrances and exits will be removed, and crosswalks and ADA accessibility will be studied further. This omission is telling that this project goes completely against the goals of Safe Routes to Schools, and the mode-shift goals that Massachusetts is attempting to pursue. This project, as described in the DEIR, will be a detriment to the sustainable and safety goals that are so essential to mitigate dangers of traffic and the climate crisis, and goes against our goals for Safe Routes to Schools. We feel that the City of Waltham should be constructing a school that facilitates and exemplifies safety and sustainability for their students, staff, and faculty.

Thank you, 

Brendan Kearney, Deputy Director, WalkBoston
Galen Mook, Executive Director, MassBike