Tag: MassDOT

making connections to make Stoneham safer for people walking

making connections to make Stoneham safer for people walking

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Earlier this week, WalkBoston staff facilitated a conversation between Stoneham’s Director of Planning & Community Development and a town resident who had read a recent Boston Globe story (“Together, neighbors can thwart speed demons. Here’s how“). She had reached out to WalkBoston with concerns regarding the lack of pedestrian crossings on the stretch of Main Street between North Border Road and Marble/Summer Streets, which is under MassDOT jurisdiction and signed as part of Massachusetts Route 28. South Elementary School is located on the east side of Main Street near the intersection with Summer Street, and she was concerned about her daughter and her friends being able to safely walk to and from school along this high-speed road. The town’s only public bus route, MBTA Route 132, also serves this section of Main Street and requires passengers to cross the wide stretch of road in order to access their origins and destinations.

The director of planning affirmed the resident’s concerns about pedestrian safety on Main Street, and shared a wish list for safe travel to and from school that had been compiled by parents and staff of the South School. She also discussed the potential for a road diet to be implemented on Main Street, which could tie into current planning efforts for a complete streets strategy in downtown Stoneham. She also informed us that approximately $4.2 million in Federal and State transportation funding has been allocated in the Boston MPO’s FY21-25 Transportation Improvement Plan to upgrade the intersection of Main Street, North Border Road, and Pond Street. For next steps, Stoneham will be reaching out to MassDOT District Four to discuss potential methods to improve pedestrian safety on Main Street in the short term.

Comments on Re-Imagining Massachusetts’ Post-Pandemic Transportation System

Comments on Re-Imagining Massachusetts’ Post-Pandemic Transportation System

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Comments to Senate Committee on Re-Imagining Massachusetts Post-Pandemic Resiliency

Dear Senator Hinds and Committee Members:

WalkBoston is Massachusetts’ primary pedestrian advocacy organization, working across the Commonwealth to make it safer and easier for people to walk for all activities of daily living such as access to transit, school and jobs. The COVID-19 pandemic gave stark evidence that walkable neighborhoods and communities are critical to physical and mental health, to reducing isolation and to the resilience of all Massachusetts residents and their neighborhoods.

In light of the pandemic, we have learned that key components of the transportation system to support walking should include:

  • Speed management. We need measures to control, and often reduce, speeds on Commonwealth roadways so that they are safe for all roadway users. During the initial months of the pandemic, there was dangerous speeding on roadways across Massachusetts. MassDOT’s ongoing initiative to create tools and measures to set and manage safe speeds on all MassDOT roadways (other than limited access highways) needs the support and encouragement of the legislature to ensure its success, and then to bring those same measures to municipal roads as well.
  • Safe connections to transit. As we learned during the pandemic, essential workers are more dependent on transit than many others. We need fully accessible transit and bus stops throughout Massachusetts, including safe street crossings and sidewalk connections to adjacent neighborhoods. These are crucial to a transit system that works for everyone.
  • More local funding to repurpose public space. The overwhelmingly popular MassDOT Shared Streets and Spaces program that was introduced in response to the pandemic has demonstrated that municipalities are interested and ready to rethink how they use their streets to enable more and safer outdoor recreation,
    commerce, community activities, and mobility.
  • Chapter 90 and Complete Streets. Chapter 90 funds have been traditionally used to build and maintain municipal roads without requirements that sidewalks and crosswalks be included. We suggest that the Committee review this standard and consider including Complete Streets measures within Chapter 90, similar to those requirements set by the legislature for MassDOT roadways.
  • DCR Parkways. DCR’s recently released (and long delayed) Parkway Master Plan clearly demonstrates that immediate action is needed to vastly improve safety for people bicycling and walking. Parkways are cultural and historic landmarks and should remain fully integrated components of parks and open spaces, used and enjoyed by people for walking, rolling, and riding as originally intended. With a commitment to accelerated improvement in partnership with MassDOT, parkways should remain under DCR’s purview. We urge the legislature to set funding and regulatory standards for DCR as follows:
    • Adopt MassDOT’s Complete Streets guidelines as their default design standard for all parkways;
    • Utilize MassDOT crash portal data to implement quick-build improvements on the most dangerous parkway roads and intersections within the next 12 months;
    • Align its parkway speed limits with local speed limits, especially in municipalities where the default speed has been reduced to 25 miles/hour or less;
    • Provide DCR with the budget needed to complete the recommendations in the DCR Parkway Master Plan;
    • Require DCR to set measurable goals to reduce the number of serious and fatal crashes on DCR roadways and report publicly and annually on progress toward these goals; and
    • Require DCR to add analysis and recommendations for several key parkways currently missing from the plan.

Thank you for the opportunity to comment.

Stacey Beuttell
Executive Director, WalkBoston
405 Waltham Street, Suite 309
Lexington, MA 02421
617-367-9255

Poll: 64 percent consider making streets safer for walking “very important”

Poll: 64 percent consider making streets safer for walking “very important”

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Poll: Boston-area voters support changes to local streets, 64% consider making streets safer for walking “very important”

Good news! The MassINC polling group found that voters support changes to local streets, even if it means less space for cars. On top of that, 64% of people surveyed think it is VERY IMPORTANT to make streets safer for walking, while 39% of people surveyed said they will walk MORE than they did before the pandemic. Read more about it on Streetsblog MASS.

What’s this mean?

Today’s MassINC poll shows that voters love these efforts, and want to see more. The poll results reflect what we’ve been hearing as we’ve with people across Massachusetts over the last year: people want to be able to walk in their neighborhoods, but need to be able to cross the street safely. 

What can you do today to help? Comment on the CIP 

Communities big and small across the Commonwealth have re-examined how their streets can be used over the last year thanks to the MassDOT Shared Streets and Spaces program, and we’ve got good news: there is funding in the 2022 Capital Investment Plan (CIP) for it to continue.

Send in a quick note of support for the Public Realm Improvements Grant Program. That is the 2022 CIP name for MassDOT’s Shared Streets and Spaces program that was launched as a pilot this past year and has been WILDLY successful. (Check out our list of all the projects that cities and towns committed to implementing through Shared Streets and Spaces so far.) MassDOT extended the deadline for public comments on its draft FY2022 CIP to next Monday June 14th.

Here’s how to comment:

  • View a StopyMap of the CIP here, click “Public Comment” from the Table of Contents to send a message through the comment form. Click the big blue “General Comment” button to write your message.
  • Prefer to comment another way? You can email MassCIP@state.ma.us, or send a letter to: Capital Investment Plan, 10 Park Plaza, Suite 4160, Boston, MA 02116

More about the Public Realm Improvements (aka Shared Streets and Spaces)* This program will continue a successful initiative launched in FY 21 to provide grants for cities and towns to launch or expand improvements to sidewalks, curbs, streets, on-street and off street parking in support of public health, safe mobility, and commerce in their communities. $20 million has been authorized in the transportation bond bill, with $4 million in 2022 capital funding. *The authorization for Public Realm is reflected in the 2022 CIP as a new Shared Streets and Spaces program. (Source: DRAFT 2022 Capital Investment Plan, page 22)

Thanks for your support of safe walking and safe streets!

Statewide Fatal Crashes In MA, March 2021

Statewide Fatal Crashes In MA, March 2021

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Each month in 2021, we plan to post about the fatal crashes in Massachusetts from the previous month, and share any trends that we see. Last month, we took a look at the 4 fatal crashes listed in the MassDOT Crash Portal in February. In this post, we’ll look at crashes in MA in March 2021. The information in the chart below is compiled from news reports, and was checked against the MassDOT Crash Portal Dashboard “Fatal Information by Year.” The Google Street View images included below use the address listed in the crash portal.

  • Of the 23 fatal crashes in Massachusetts in March in the MassDOT Crash portal, 7 were people walking. We’ve identified 1 additional fatal incident during March covered in the news media:
    • 1 person lost their life in Malden when a mechanic with a suspended license crashed an SUV through the door of an auto body shop and struck her as she was walking on the sidewalk. View a segment from WCVB about 86-year-old Athena Hartwell, who walked this section of sidewalk almost every day with her walker: “Neighborhood mourns woman killed in SUV crash.“
    • Updated 4/29/2021: We listed a crash that occurred in Sterling as not being in the portal for March, but this crash occurred in April and is listed. We apologize for the error. We’ve updated this post accordingly.
  • The crash portal does not include names. The names of 7 of the people walking who died have not been made public yet; unlike previous months in 2021, news articles were more difficult to find for many of these crashes.
  • The average age of pedestrians hit & killed in March was 59.6.
  • 3 of the crashes all have 12:00AM listed as the time; it is possible data was incomplete when initially submitted.
  • At least 4 of the crashes were hit & runs (as referenced in news articles).
  • The name of the person driving was not identified in any of the crashes in news articles that we found.
Date 3/3/2021, 12:00 AM
Location 800 Morrissey Blvd.
Town Boston
Type PEDESTRIAN
Age 56
Sex M

A 56-year old man was hit and killed on Morrissey Boulevard in Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood. According to the MassDOT Road Inventory, Morrissey Boulevard is under MassDCR jurisdiction. We have not been able to find additional information about this crash.

Date 3/7/2021, 12:00 AM
Location 232 Stafford Rd.
Town Monson
Type PEDESTRIAN
Age 94
Sex F

A 94-year old woman was hit and killed on Stafford Road. According to the MassDOT Road Inventory, Stafford Rd/Rt 32 is under MassDOT jurisdiction. There are no sidewalks on this road. We have not been able to find additional information about this crash.

Date 3/7/2021, 12:40 AM
Location Auburn St. + Summer St.
Town Bridgewater
Type PEDESTRIAN
Age 34
Sex M

Ian Dalgliesh, a 34-year old man, was found unconscious in the roadway at the intersection of Auburn and Summer streets in Bridgewater around 12:40 a.m. on Sunday, March 7. WCVB reported three weeks after that crash that police were still seeking help to find the driver who left the scene. The article noted that the intersection is located in a residential neighborhood, with stop signs located at all four corners.

Google Streetview shows a sidewalk on one side of the street for one leg of the intersection. It also shows a house on the corner with guardrails at the intersection, possibly indicating that drivers have driven recklessly in this area before.

Date 3/10/2021, 7:00 PM
Location Meadow St. + Chicopee St.
Town Chicopee
Type PEDESTRIAN
Age 53
Sex M

A Chicopee man was hit & seriously injured in a hit & run crash on March 10th near Rivers Park. He died later in the month from his injuries. The Chicopee Police released photos of a dark colored SUV on March 25th as part of the investigation to track down the driver. While there is a signalized crosswalk near the Meadow/Chicopee PVTA bus stop at one corner of Rivers Park, there are no crosswalks at the intersection of Meadow & Chicopee Streets.

According to Streetview, a crosswalk across Chicopee Street nearby that did not have curb ramps was removed between 2016 & 2017 during street & sidewalk reconstruction at the corner of Chicopee, Margaret & Whitman Streets.

Date 3/12/2021, 9:40 PM
Location 189 Chestnut Hill Ave.
Town Boston
Type PEDESTRIAN
Age 77
Sex M

A 77 year old man was hit and killed on Chestnut Hill Ave in Boston’s Brighton neighborhood. We have not been able to find additional information about this crash.

Date 3/17/2021, 12:00 AM
Location 511 Broadway
Town Everett
Type PEDESTRIAN
Age 67
Sex M

A 67-year-old man was hit and killed on Broadway in Everett. We have not been able to find additional information about this crash.

Date 3/25/2021, 8:10 PM
Location Parker St. + Ellery St.
Town Springfield
Type PEDESTRIAN
Age 40
Sex M

A 40-year old man was hit and killed on March 25th at Parker Street & Ellery Street in Springfield. Ellery Street is a private way. Parker Street has 2 travel lanes in each direction, and is at least 48 feet wide curb to curb. While WWLP reported breaking news on March 25th that a crash may have involved a motorcycle at this location, we have not been able to find additional information about this crash. [Update, 3/23/2022: this was re-categorized as a motorcycle crash.]

Updates

If you have an update about a community member who was killed in one of these crashes, please contact Brendan so we can update our . WalkBoston has maintained a list each year since 2016, pulling the information from news reports, social media, and from people like you that share the information with us.

Yearly trackers:  |||||

Reminder about the data from the MassDOT portal

DISCLAIMER:  The compilation of data is based on preliminary data we receive from a variety of local sources.  Some of the data may differ slightly from information provided by NHTSA as this dashboard does not use imputation methods.  Information is subject to change when/if updated information becomes available. Data updated daily as reported by police departments.

*Updated 4/29/2021: We listed a crash that occurred in Sterling as not being in the database for March, but this crash occurred in April and is listed. We apologize for the error. We’ve updated the post accordingly.

Advocates letter re Allston I-90: Next Steps (March 2021)

Advocates letter re Allston I-90: Next Steps (March 2021)

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March 30, 2021

Jonathan Gulliver
Highway Administrator
Massachusetts Department of Transportation
10 Park Plaza, Suite 4160
Boston, MA 02116

Subject:  Allston Multimodal Project Recommended Next Steps Regarding Upcoming Notice of Project Change

Dear Administrator Gulliver:

Thank you for convening the recent Allston Multimodal Project Task Force meeting, and for your request for ideas to make Task Force meetings and the environmental review process more productive moving forward.

As evidenced by the voluminous formal comments made to MassDOT last October, as well as the letters from our coalition, there is a demonstrably strong consensus for the Modified All At-Grade option from stakeholders across the region. Based on that strong consensus and in response to your request for ideas to improve the public process associated with this transformative project, we write today with a few specific suggestions requesting they be incorporated now into the upcoming Notice of Project Change (NPC):

  1. Please refine the Modified All At-Grade to ensure no roadway in the river—and include that version in the NPC. MassDOT’s most recent drawings (shared in the fall of 2020) showed about 4-feet of roadway intrusion. Members of the coalition have worked collaboratively and individually, on numerous occasions, to offer design modifications that avoid unnecessary incursion into the river. Refining your current design will allow for continued productive collaboration with stakeholders and ensure that the NPC begins with a refined, improved, and community-supported design.
  2. Please develop a list of issues requiring further analysis to be included in the NPC. Despite several years of hard work by both the project team and the public, this coalition and other stakeholders strongly believe that a number of key issues have yet to be fully developed or presented to the Task Force. We suggest the top three issues on such a list should include:
    1. Constructability and maintenance for all Build and No-Build options, as well as the Substantial Repair Option to temporarily repair the highway viaduct in its current location initially introduced by MassDOT in November 2020;
    2. Methods of mitigating construction and traffic impacts; and
    3. Details for the remediation of the degraded riverbank, infrastructure upgrades needed to address untreated storm drainage, details about ecosystem services, such as constructed wetlands, and the integration of the improved river edge and the Paul Dudley White Path with the Agganis Connector, Cambridge Street South promenade, and River Street into a unified high quality urban design, as well as broader corridor-area analysis to minimize impacts on the Charles River and optimize mobility and open space access.

We know you and the team have a lot on your plate and are up against important and fast approaching deadlines. We are happy to work with MassDOT to identify a more comprehensive list of issues needing further analysis so that the MassDOT project team can maintain its ambitious schedule, while also continuing to resolve outstanding questions to keep us on a positive path to improved communication.

In short, we believe that advancing an improved All At-Grade Option as well as a list of issues requiring further analysis in the NPC will lead to a productive process—and the most ideal outcome for the project.

We look forward to continuing to work with you to ensure the success of the project.

Sincerely,

A Better City
Allston Brighton CDC
Allston Civic Association
Boston Society for Architecture
Charles River Conservancy
Conservation Law Foundation
LivableStreets Alliance
MassBike
Sierra Club of Massachusetts
WalkBoston
Kendall Square Association
Anthony D’Isidoro, Allston resident and Task Force member
Harry Mattison, Allston resident and Task Force member
Jessica Robertson, Allston resident and Task Force member
Fred Yalouris, Cambridge community representative on the Task Force

CC: Secretary Tesler, Project Manager Davidson, Secretary Theohardes, Ken Miller, Commissioner Rooney