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Improving Walking Conditions in Westhampton

Westhampton residents participating in the walk audit

On Thursday, July 7th, WalkBoston led a walk audit in the town of Westhampton, MA, joined by three community members representing concerns from residents, the town board, the Council on Aging, Westhampton Connects, and other town organizations. The walk audit took place along Westhampton’s North, South, and Stage roads, which intersect in the town center. Prior to the walk audit, WalkBoston led a virtual Ped101 session that offered introductory knowledge on rural walkability, its importance, and various examples of interventions used to improve the pedestrian experience in rural communities.

Westhampton residents hope to improve walking safety throughout the town, particularly in the town center and along the shoulders of the roads that stretch out of the town. Participants shared a variety of concerns around pedestrian safety in the town, many residents walk in the roads and fast moving traffic along with limited sightlines are dangerous. Participants and WalkBoston staff brainstormed various ideas that might help mitigate these various concerns such as: white striping along the sides of roads to create a dedicated pedestrian area, signage warning of pedestrians and the upcoming central intersection, and speed feedback signs, among others. WalkBoston will soon publish a summary report of the walk audit, offering recommendations to the town for infrastructure improvements and funding opportunities. Westhampton can use these recommendations to make adjustments that support and encourage walking for those of all ages and abilities.

The Hilltown CDC, together with Healthy Hampshire and WalkBoston, are leading a 5-year grant project to promote Age-Friendly Walkability in the Hilltowns Village Centers, funded by the Dept. of Public Health’s Healthy Aging Fund. In partnership with community residents and leaders, the team will be conducting a series of walk audits in partnering Hilltowns villages. The goal of these walk audits is to identify infrastructure improvements and policy changes to make village center walking safe and enjoyable for people of all ages in the Hilltowns. The town of Westhampton is one of the partnering communities in this grant project.

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.

Wayfinding report

Our experience shows that wayfinding projects can be adapted to meet the needs of diverse communities at different scales. Follow-up evaluation surveys we conducted in Turners Falls and Fall River suggest that wayfinding signs are a highly visible and tangible measure that can catalyze community interest in walking.

Codman Square (Dorchester/Boston)
Downtown Boston
Springfield
Fall River
Montague (Turners Falls)
Northampton
Belchertown

To learn more about these projects and our methodology for implementation, download our summary wayfinding report.

Read the full report:
WalkBoston-WayfindingSummaryReport

Check out our new report – “Walk to school? But how do I find the front door? Strategies for improving pedestrian safety through walkable campus design.” (Click for instructions to download PDF).

Walking rarely enters the conversation when new schools are planned. In fact, the regulatory and approval
processes focus on facilitating bus and automobile access to schools, and ensuring that there is sufficient
parking. Public meetings are usually dominated by those who complain about traffic volumes or inadequate
parking – not by those who seek a safe walking route to school. It happens in wealthy communities and low-
income communities alike. In most cases, it’s not that drivers are given priority over walkers, it’s that nobody
is thinking about walking. And that needs to change.

This report was prepared by WalkBoston for Mass in Motion, an initiative of the MA Department of Public Health.

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Walking to Transit Research Report

Using a real-life setting, WalkBoston’s project focused on developing and testing techniques to broaden the scope and range of public participation in transportation planning is a large neighborhood in Boston. The team explored methods of seeking out and talking with people who are seldom involved in the formal planning processes. The goal was to explore public participation techniques designed to elicit their opinions on the plans being developed by public agencies.

Read the full report here:
WalkBoston-WalkingToTransit-PublicParticipationTechniques2011