During the summer of 2012, WalkBoston completed five walkability assessments of the pedestrian environments around five of Woburn’s public schools. Walkability assessments are commonly used in the vicinity of schools to identify problems with the pedestrian infrastructure. These problems often include discontinuous sidewalk networks, unsafe street crossings, damaged sidewalks and paths, unreliable pedestrian signals, and maintenance issues, such as crosswalks that need repainting or vegetation that has encroached on the pedestrian right of way. When a community wants to encourage more walking and biking to school, it is important that there are safe ways to do so.

This report highlights the observations that were made and makes recommendations on how to improve walking safety, especially for children walking to and from school. Many of the observations are related to vehicular speed, visibility for both pedestrians and drivers, and also predictability and consistency. While lower-cost solutions are emphasized, some longer-term more costly investments are also suggested.

Read the full report here:
WalkBoston-SchoolWalkabilityAssessment-Woburn-Summer 2012