Tag: Mattapan

WalkBoston and Consult LeLa team up for Blue Hill Ave youth workshop

WalkBoston and Consult LeLa team up for Blue Hill Ave youth workshop

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Consult LeLa, a consulting group dedicated to encouraging youth involvement in municipal planning processes, partnered with WalkBoston to lead a workshop series on walkability and equitable transit infrastructure, and conduct a walk audit on Blue Hill Ave in Mattapan Square. The goal was to encourage community involvement in the redesign of Blue Hill Ave that will expand transit, walking, and biking access. The workshops also focused on planning community events and presenting community findings and feedback to City of Boston staff.

On Wednesday, August 3, WalkBoston and Consult LeLa members led a walk audit for participants in the Blue Hill Ave Youth Workshop. Staff and participants walked a half mile from Mattapan Square towards the library, noting any key concerns about pedestrian and transit infrastructure. Key points of discussion included: extreme heat, lack of shade, high speed traffic, need for trash receptacles, and desire for bike lanes or biking infrastructure. 

Ish, one of the students involved in the Youth Engagement Committee with Consult LeLa, presented the data collected from this walk audit to City of Boston staff on Friday, August 26, 2022. On a day in Mattapan when the air temperature was 80 degrees, the surface temperature of a bus stop bench was 105 degrees & a sidewalk with no shade was 116 degrees. The surface temperature of a shady sidewalk under a tree was significantly lower: 92 degrees.

They also plan to share their concerns with other youth in the area by creating educational content to be shared on social media. We truly enjoyed working with Consult LeLa and the youth advocates and hope our partnership continues!

City of Boston aims to create an Age-Friendly Cummins Highway

City of Boston aims to create an Age-Friendly Cummins Highway

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The City of Boston is currently designing the complete reconstruction of Cummins Highway in Mattapan and they are calling out the project as Age-Friendly Cummins Highway! This is exactly the outcome WalkBoston hoped to see when we began our age-friendly walking work with the City in 2016. Many of the design elements are a direct reflection of what WalkBoston and the City learned during meetings and walk audits with Mattapan residents. 

The project will include a total rebuild of the street, including sidewalks, curbs, street lights, traffic signals, road pavement, and replacement or updating of utilities with a project budget of approximately $24 million.

Mattapan residents and WalkBoston staff walk down a sidewalk in Mattapan Square during the 2016 WalkBoston Mattapan Square walk audit; photos included in the 4/26/22 Cummins Highway BTD/PWD Presentation.

The proposed Cummins Highway design includes narrower street crossings with curb extensions, fully accessible sidewalks, longer WALK times and audible signals, high visibility crosswalks, raised crosswalks to slow drivers turning onto or from side streets, new trees and plants to reduce the heat effect, new street lights, bus shelters and benches.

Age-friendly intersection design shown in the 4/26/22 Cummins Highway BTD/PWD Presentation, showing plans to narrow crossing distances, add accessible ramps, raise crosswalks and increase crosswalk visibility.

As city staff said during a recent public meeting, the goal is to:

“Transform Cummins Highway into a tree-lined neighborhood street that is safer for families to walk, wait for the bus, ride bikes, or travel by vehicle. It will connect residents to the City’s network of open spaces and make it easier for elders to cross the street.”

WalkBoston is thrilled to see the City of Boston’s adoption of some many age-friendly walking elements in the project and to see age-friendly street design come of age in the city. 

Want to learn more?

Comments on Morton Intersection Improvements, Project: 608755

Comments on Morton Intersection Improvements, Project: 608755

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Patricia Leavenworth, P.E., Chief Engineer
MassDOT-Highway Division
10 Park Plaza Boston, MA 02116-3973

Attn: Roadway Project Management – Room 6340

Re: Morton Intersection Improvements Project: 608755

December 21, 2018

Dear Ms. Leavenworth:

We are submitting comments in regards to Intersection Improvements at three intersections along Morton Street after seeing the plans at a public meeting on December 19, 2018.

First, we ask the Department to please extend the 10-day public comment period given that the meeting was held just before the Christmas holiday and it may be hard for residents to get feedback in on time. We are pleased to see MassDOT undertaking this project and look forward to continuing to work with you on implementation of safety improvements to the corridor.

Overall, we feel the project will improve safety for drivers, but will do little to improve the safety or convenience for pedestrians or cyclists. In this area, pedestrian safety needs to be prioritized in the design utilizing Complete Streets guidelines. We also ask that these spot improvements are the beginning and not the end of a process to improve the entire stretch of Morton St and create connections from Mattapan to Franklin Park and walking/biking paths in Jamaica Plain, especially as this stretch is identified in Go Boston 2030 for connecting the Southwest Corridor to the Blue Hills Reservation. In addition, we are advocating for the following adjustments and additions the plans presented on December 19:

  • Increased traffic calming on Morton Street
    The high speeds on Morton Street make the street unsafe for drivers, cyclists and pedestrians. We applaud that the design calls for narrower travel lanes but additional measures need to be taken to slow speeds. Possible solutions might be raised intersections, additional STOP signs and/or traffic signals.
  • Create a safe pedestrian crossing between Morton/Blue Hill Ave and Morton/Harvard
    There is no crosswalk in the 1000-foot stretch between Blue Hill Ave and Harvard Street. This is a dense residential neighborhood and the lack of a safe crossing here is a major community concern. The crossing could either be at Courtland/Havelock/Morton or Wellington Hill/Morton depending on the neighborhood’s preference.The lack of a crosswalk contributes to the highway feel of Morton Street and hence the high speeds and extremely high crash clusters over the past four years. Any crosswalk should include a HAWK beacon for improved notice and safety of pedestrians crossing the street.
  • Design a traffic signal system which enables pedestrians to easily and safely cross Blue Hill Ave
    People wishing to cross Blue Hill Ave must now push a button to wait for a WALK signal. Once the intersection is redesigned they will still have to push a button to cross the street. We strongly request traffic signals that “rest in WALK”.
    Push buttons result in very long waits for walkers. Depending upon when a walker pushes the button in the traffic cycle he/she may wait for over two minutes to get a walk signal. Furthermore, pedestrians must be able to cross the six lanes of Blue Hill Ave in one cycle. Neither MassDOT staff nor their consultants could guarantee that walkers would be able to cross in one cycle.
  • The bike boxes at the Blue Hill Ave and Morton St intersection are an important safety measure however the placement of one in the Southeast corner of the intersection could pose a dangerous conflict with right turning cars. We would like to look more closely at the designs to assess this. An additional left-turning bike box is needed at the northeast corner in so that cyclists can safely turn left off of blue Hill onto Morton St towards Jamaica Plain.
  • We support the overwhelming response from residents who advocated to keep the bus stop where it currently is on Blue Hill Ave.
  • We applaud the design’s tightening of curb radii at Blue Hill/Morton and if floating bus stops are in a location supported by community members, we would support them and the addition of bike facilities at the intersection. It appeared that at least some people at the public meeting had never seen or experienced floating bus stops and more education is needed about how they work when proposing them. We understand that parking will not be permitted within 20 feet of the intersections but we also heard that there are many violations of this regulation. We recommend that additional curb extensions, either concrete or flexposts, be added to the design.

Sincerely,
Dorothea Hass, WalkBoston
Eliza Parad, Boston Cyclists Union
Galen Mook, Massachusetts Bicycle Coalition
Tony Lechuga, LivableStreets Alliance

Age-Friendly Walking – better walking for all ages

Age-Friendly Walking – better walking for all ages

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By Adi Nochur/Project Manager, WalkBoston

Age-Friendly Walking is an emerging framework to increase pedestrian safety for children and older adults. WalkBoston has spent many years working with children on Safe Routes to Schools efforts, and over the last two years we have focused on seniors through an Age-Friendly Walking initiative with Boston. In close collaboration with the City’s Elderly Commission and many other municipal agencies, community partners, and local residents, we are advancing safe and comfortable walking for Boston seniors – and by extension everyone!

With financial support from the Tufts Health Plan Foundation and the Mass Councils on Aging, we are working with three pilot neighborhoods in Boston – the South End, East Boston, and Mattapan Square – to identify key issues and concerns, and to implement street and sidewalk improvements that create safe and pleasant walking conditions for seniors. We are also using the lessons learned from these pilots to create guidelines for a long-term citywide approach to senior walking. Providing benches as places to rest and repairing unfilled and uneven tree pits to eliminate tripping hazards are among the top priorities we have identified (as well as sidewalk snow shoveling, of course). Thanks to our efforts, improving pedestrian safety is a key recommendation in the City’s Age-Friendly Boston Action Plan. We look forward to our continued partnership with city agencies and community partners to make a positive impact on these issues.

As elderly populations continue to grow across the state and country, the need for walkable communities increases. Walkability is key to ensuring that seniors can age in place, access important goods and services, remain socially active, and maintain physical and economic mobility. Working with low-income seniors and seniors of color has helped us incorporate equity into this work. We have learned that Age-Friendly Walking is a powerful frame to bring diverse stakeholders and new partners to the table.

We encourage your community to consider joining the global Age-Friendly Communities movement, with leadership from the World Health Organization and AARP. We also invite you to contact WalkBoston if you’re interested in starting an Age-Friendly Walking initiative in your community! Visit our page for more details on our Age-Friendly work to date.

This article was featured in WalkBoston’s March 2018 newsletter.
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RFP for 872 Morton Street and Rear Parcel

RFP for 872 Morton Street and Rear Parcel

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April 4, 2016

Christopher Rooney, Project Manager
Department of Neighborhood Development
Boston City Hall
City Hall Plaza
Boston, MA 02201

Re: RFP for 872 Morton Street and Rear Parcel

Dear Mr. Rooney:

WalkBoston is very pleased that the 872 Morton Street parcel is being developed with strong community input. From your presentations, we understand that the goal of the development will be to enhance the social and aesthetic character of the neighborhood.

WalkBoston requests that the Request for Proposal (RFP) for the development site include the following items:
• A vegetative buffer around the Steven P. Tranquility Garden that will enhance its serenity and sense of healing. As noted in the several Renew Our Community (ROC) meetings, the 5,000 s.f. dedicated to the Garden should not be adjacent to access roadways or development that would detract from its restorative atmosphere of peace.
• Separation between access to the development site and residences on Hopkins Street. Current plans call for an access road between 21 and 27 Hopkins Street. Because of the small house lots, the roadway would be virtually next to the houses, especially 21 Hopkins and might necessitate the taking of mature trees. As discussed at the neighborhood meetings and also brought up at the public hearing on March 24, the neighborhood would like to see every effort made to create an access/egress directly off of Evans Road that would be further away from the Hopkins residences. Furthermore, an access off Hopkins Street would be very close to the Steven P. Odom Tranquility Garden and detract from the sanctuary nature of the Park.

Sincerely,
Dorothea Hass

cc: Trena Ambroise
Daniel Ayala
Frederick Paulsen
Johnathan Kitchen
Councilor Andrea Campbell