Tag: stoneham

Join upcoming walk audits in Wakefield and Melrose

Join upcoming walk audits in Wakefield and Melrose

By |

Help us make our streets safer, more accessible, and climate resilient: join WalkMassachusetts and local community partners for our upcoming Climate-Safe Walk Audits this September! These walk audits are funded through a grant through MAPC’s Accelerating Climate Resilience grant program. We are exploring local streets to identify infrastructure challenges and opportunities related to safe mobility, heat islands, and flooding. In addition, these walk audits will help you develop the skills to lead a walk audit in your own neighborhood. Everyone is welcome: residents, business owners, and advocates alike!

Participants will observe, discuss, and help identify opportunities for improvement. We’ll also discuss climate/sustainability goals and how they might connect to our streets/sidewalk design. 

Upcoming Dates & Locations:

  • Wakefield: September 9th @ 6 PM
    Meet at Galvin Middle School
    We’ll begin with a brief overview and then walk together through key areas including the Main Street/Water Street and Main Street/Nahant Street/North Avenue intersections. RSVP & more info here. 
  • Melrose: Sept 10th @ 4:30 PM
    Meet at Wyoming Hill MBTA
    We’ll begin with a brief overview and then walk together through key areas, including Main St, the business district, and ending on W Emerson St where the farmer’s market is held every Thursday from 2:30 – 6 PM. Note: This audit is a point to point route. RSVP & more info here. 
Walk audit participants gather to share observations on the Tri-Community Greenway where it crosses Main Street / Route 28 in Stoneham, MA. August 27, 2026. Photo by Marc Armena.

As part of this project, we’ve also led walk audit trainings in Danvers, Salem, and Stoneham. Be on the lookout for the walk audit findings from each of those efforts, as well as next steps on how you can keep in touch with other participants who may be leading additional audits in those communities in the future. Curious if a walk audit has happened in your community before? Take a look at our interactive map, or learn how to lead your own!

making connections to make Stoneham safer for people walking

making connections to make Stoneham safer for people walking

By |

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.

Community Safe Routes to School

Community Safe Routes to School

By |

The Community Safe Routes to School (CSRTS) Program was a WalkBoston initiative jointly funded by the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Foundation, the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT)and the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH). The purpose of the CSRTS program was to study how best to apply the Safe Routes to School concept to promote changes in the travel patterns of school children by working both inside the schools and with a broad set of community partners. The four communities who participated in the program were Brockton, Newton, Stoneham and Watertown.

WalkBoston Community SRTS Final Report

Community Safe Routes to School 2008-2009 Summary Report

Community Safe Routes to School 2008-2009 Summary Report

By |

This report summarizes the accomplishments of the first year of an intensive pilot Community Safe Routes to School Program (CSRTS) in four municipalities over the 2008-2009 school year. The goal of the pilot was to see if a part-time, paid, community-based coordinator (assisted by WalkBoston staff) working with municipal and school system staff and volunteers could achieve an increase in the number of children walking to school and begin to change community culture around walking.

To read the full report please click the link below:
2008-2009 CSRTS Report