Tag: MassBike

Inman Square Walk and Bike Assessment

Inman Square Walk and Bike Assessment

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Massachusetts Bicycle Coalition (MassBike) and WalkBoston led a walk and bike assessment in Cambridge, Massachusetts on Wednesday, November 5, 2014. The assessment is part of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation’s (MassDOT) Bicycle and Pedestrian Safety Awareness and Enforcement Program, funded by the Federal Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP), in association with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. The MassDOT program is a collaboration among Federal, State, regional, and local agencies, along with advocacy groups, WalkBoston and MassBike, working to improve pedestrian and bicyclist safety in identified high – crash areas.

Inman Square is a vibrant residential and retail district between Harvard Square and Kendall Square in Cambridge, MA. The Square has several well – known neighborhood restaurants, entertainment and retail destinations. People coming to Inman arrive by bike, foot, bus and car. Unlike Harvard and Kendall Squares, Inman Square does not have a Red Line T Station.

Read the full report here:

WalkBoston-InmanSquareWalkandBikeAssessment-Cambridge

MassDOT Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Program

MassDOT Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Program

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With MassDOT and the Massachusetts Dept of Public Health (DPH), WalkBoston and MassBike are helping develop and implement pedestrian and bicycle safety strategies aimed at achieving the state’s Strategic Highway Safety Plan (SHSP) goal of reducing fatalities and injuries among bicyclists and pedestrians by 20% in the next 5 years. 

The three major components of the strategy are:
1.     Enforcement
2.     Education/Awareness
3.     Preparation of communities for infrastructure improvements 

The pilot program is focused on 12 communities which were selected based on high rates of non-motorist crashes, high rates of walking and biking activity, and participation in the DPH Mass in Motion program (8 of the 12 communities selected are Mass in Motion communities).

The community-based efforts to increase walking and biking in Mass in Motion communities provides an excellent platform to support increased pedestrian and bicycle safety strategies, and then make effective infrastructure investments to make the built environment safer for those trips.

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HANDOUT: A More Robust DCR

HANDOUT: A More Robust DCR

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This is an informational handout that was part of the 2014 Bike/Walk Summit presented by MassBike and WalkBoston.

The Issue – The Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) owns and manages off-road paths and on street facilities for bicyclists and pedestrians throughout the Commonwealth. These facilities serve as essential active transportation corridors for local residents. As bicycling and walking continue to grow statewide, more residents are utilizing these facilities year-round and not just during warmer months.

DCR has been an active and positive partner in recent conversations with the advocacy community about how to bring agency policies around maintenance and snow removal into alignment with the use of their facilities as essential corridors for non-motorized transportation.

DCR’s budget has been cut by approximately 20% since 2008. These deep budget cuts have led to park closures, unstaffed campgrounds and unmaintained facilities.* DCR has committed to making bicycle and pedestrian transportation a priority on their facilities year-round, but the agency needs additional resources and investments to make this commitment a reality.

Ensuring that bicyclists and pedestrians can utilize our on- and off-road transportation infrastructure year-round is an essential component of achieving statewide mode shift goals.

The Ask – Funding decisions for the FY15 budget are being made right now, and we need our legislators to make sure that DCR has the resources to maintain its facilities in a manner suitable for year-round transportation.

Please ask your legislator to support increased funding for DCR parks in the FY15 budget, and urge them to provide DCR with adequate funding for its day-to-day operations and seasonal staffing so Massachusetts residents can safely use on- and off-road paths and parkways.

If you use a DCR path or parkway for your daily transportation or recreational needs, tell your legislator how increased funding for DCR would improve your ability to safely and conveniently access your destinations throughout the year.

*Source: Environmental League of Massachusetts (http://environmentalleague.org/)

HANDOUT: Funding for Healthy Transportation Options (Mass in Motion)

HANDOUT: Funding for Healthy Transportation Options (Mass in Motion)

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This is an informational handout that was part of the 2014 Bike/Walk Summit presented by MassBike and WalkBoston.

The Issue – Active transportation plays an essential role in achieving important public health outcomes like lowering obesity rates and reducing chronic disease and health care costs associated with a sedentary lifestyle. More than half of adults and 1 in 4 high school and middle school students in Massachusetts are overweight or obese.*

In recent years, there have been increasing opportunities to use public health funding to support local efforts that improve biking and walking safety, and encourage education and awareness of biking and walking as transportation.

Mass in Motion is a statewide program that promotes active living and healthy eating in the places people live, learn, work and play. MassBike and WalkBoston have both been working alongside Mass in Motion coordinators in the 52 Mass in Motion communities to get more people walking and biking. Please review the enclosed Mass in Motion info sheet for program highlights.

Mass in Motion is funded through a unique partnership among leading health organizations in the Commonwealth, five major health foundations, and, most importantly, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control’s Community Transformation Grant Program (CTG), which was defunded by Congress in January 2014. The CTG program was scheduled to continue until September 2016, but instead will end this September. This loss of funding will leave many communities and organizations without the resources to continue working for more active transportation and healthier food options.

The Ask – We need our legislators to know that funding for active living programs like Mass in Motion have real benefits for individuals and communities, and that investing in these programs will save money in the long run by reducing future health care spending. Mass in Motion has already achieved real outcomes that will be jeopardized by a premature end of the program.

We ask that legislators connect with their local Mass in Motion programs to learn what is happening in their communities. Please also consult your legislators for advice about opportunities for state funding to ensure that Mass in Motion can continue beyond September 2014.

*Source: Mass in Motion (http://www.mass.gov/eohhs/gov/departments/dph/programs/community-health/mass-in-motion/)

HANDOUT: Gas Tax Indexing is Necessary for Meeting Mode Shift Goals

HANDOUT: Gas Tax Indexing is Necessary for Meeting Mode Shift Goals

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This is an informational handout that was part of the 2014 Bike/Walk Summit presented by MassBike and WalkBoston.

The Issue – The Transportation Finance Bill (H. 3535), passed during the current legislative session, includes a provision for indexing gas tax to inflation – meaning that the gas tax will allow for continued funding of transportation investments by rising incrementally with inflation.

A group called “Tank the Gas Tax” has qualified a question for the November 2014 ballot that would repeal the indexing of gas tax to inflation. The referendum proponents have incorrectly stated that the indexing money goes to the General Fund, rather than for transportation.

Without indexing, we will lose over $1B in the next 10 years.* Construction costs are expected to increase approximately 3% annually over the next several years, and we will be unable to keep up with this growth in costs without indexing. Biking and walking infrastructure is paid for through transportation funding, and without gas tax indexing it will be much more difficult for Massachusetts to reach the goal of tripling the share of trips made by biking, walking, and transit by 2030.

Losing this needed money for transportation means that we won’t have adequate resources to make the critical transportation investments that will grow jobs and the economy. For instance, if the legislature had not acted, Massachusetts could have faced losses of up to 15,000 jobs and as much as $11 billion in increased operating costs due to the deteriorating transportation network.*

The Ask – We need the support of our legislators to make sure that this significant piece of transportation funding does not get rolled back in November.

Ask our legislators to vocally oppose the repeal of gas tax indexing to preserve funding for transportation investments. As active members of the Transportation for Massachusetts (T4MA) Coalition, MassBike and WalkBoston are asking legislators to join  their constituents and the 23 organizations of T4MA – representing the business sector, public health, and transportation – from across the Commonwealth who are opposed to repeal.

Bottom Line – The repeal of gas tax indexing will jeopardize bike and pedestrian projects across Massachusetts by defunding crucial transportation investments, hurt our economy, continue the cycle of deferred maintenance, reverse the momentum for investing in infrastructure, and doom efforts to reach mode shift goals.

*Source: Transportation for Massachusetts (http://www.t4ma.org/)