“Dollars & sense”
“Small change has big impact: The Quincy Adams gate”
By Michelle Deng/Quincy-Penn’s Hill Neighborhood Association Gate Committee Member
“New state Pedestrian Plan is a positive step”
By Adi Nochur/Project Manager, WalkBoston
“WalkMA Network connects towns”
By Brendan Kearney/Communications Director, WalkBoston
Download the February 2019 Newsletter PDF
By Michelle Deng/Quincy-Penn’s Hill Neighborhood Association Gate Committee Member
Michelle is a Transportation Engineering graduate student with a background in traffic safety and a transportation advocate.
For three decades, residents of South Quincy could not access the nearby Quincy Adams MBTA station due to a locked pedestrian gate. Penn’s Hill neighborhood residents faced a 1.2-mile walk along busy streets to get to the station, instead of a 120-foot path connection. Thanks to the advocacy of the Penn’s Hill Neighborhood Association [PHNA], the gate is now opened. Residents have a short and pleasant walk to the station, reinforcing the walking-transit connection that is so important to walkable communities.
The PHNA was founded in 2015 with the mission to enhance the quality of life in the neighborhood by bringing residents and businesses together. In early 2016, after the MBTA announced the South Shore Red Line stations renovation project, the debate of reopening the gate escalated within the surrounding neighborhoods. The PHNA Gate Committee was formed in early 2017 to create a platform to discuss opening the gate.
The Committee conducted a neighborhood-wide survey in summer 2017 to obtain feedback from the residents. The survey was set up as a Google form and distributed via a neighbor email listserv, an online newspaper article, and Facebook. Over one month, 504 people responded, with the majority of feedback in favor of opening the gate.
Following the survey, the Committee hosted two neighborhood public meetings to discuss survey results and hear public opinion. Approximately 90 neighbors attend- ed each meeting. The survey results and neighborhood concerns were shared with the Quincy mayor soon after the first two public meetings. In April 2018, the mayor granted approval to reopen the gate and stated that the city would work with the MBTA to develop mitigation plans to address the residents’ concerns about parking and traffic impacts on their street.
The gate was finally reopened in December 2018. This simple action has reduced pedestrian travel time to Quincy Adams station from 35-45 minutes to 2-10 minutes, making walking a more viable option. The City of Quincy also upgraded the nearby intersection with new crosswalks, ADA compliant ramps, and a push button-activated traffic signal.
The PHNA Gate Committee continues to work closely with the city and the neighbors to ensure that negative impacts are minimized, and benefits to the surrounding neighborhoods are maximized.
Related Press:
The Boston Globe, 4/26/18: “A decades long transit debate in Quincy is settled with the simple crack of a gate”
The Patriot Ledger, 4/25/18 “City to open controversial Quincy Adams pedestrian gate”
This article was featured in WalkBoston’s February 2019 newsletter.
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MassINC/Commonwealth: “For walkers, the last six inches are important”
By Wendy Landman and Brendan Kearney
WalkBoston has been talking about transit as the middle leg of a walking trip for many years. We understand that even the most avid walker or walking advocate knows that many trips are too long to make a single-mode-walk trip possible. Now, the transit and active transportation worlds have become more attuned to the facts that buses serve the broadest network of transit riders, are often the transit mode that serves low-income riders, and are the transit mode that can be modified most easily. For American communities – urban, suburban, and rural – to become truly walkable, they must also be served by transit. Understanding how the bus and walking networks must be linked is critical to shaping investments in transit and the built environment.
Posted June 25, 2018
On May 2nd, WalkBoston and community partners hosted a free walk in Chelsea to highlight local walkability, transit and development projects and opportunities, while also emphasizing the need to maintain affordability and prevent displacement. Thanks so much to the 50+ people who attended, especially our speakers and co-hosts: GreenRoots, The Neighborhood Developers, TransitMatters, Transportation for Massachusetts, the City of Chelsea, and LOCUS Massachusetts. See photos on Facebook.
The walk began after a group of WalkBoston staff, partners and supporters rode the new MBTA Silver Line (SL3) from South Station to Chelsea to meet another group of walkers at the new Eastern Ave Station. As we walked along the new multi-use Chelsea Greenway and down Broadway, we heard from a number of speakers who highlighted the need to think holistically about community development and transportation.
Maria Belen Power of GreenRoots spoke powerfully about the imperative for transit justice and equitable fares in low-income communities of color like Chelsea. Marc Ebuña of TransitMatters described the history of the SL3 project and the need for better bus service across metro Boston. Aaron Wasserman of The Neighborhood Developers and Elijah Plymesser of LOCUS Massachusetts highlighted the Box District as an example of affordable housing and transit-oriented development that can advance a broader smart growth agenda. Alex Train from the City of Chelsea described his work to advance Complete Streets that work for all road users. Finally, youth from GreenRoots’ ECO Teens program highlighted the potential to transform the underutilized Chelsea Walk into a community destination (support their crowdfunding campaign here!).
The spirited conversations that began on the walk continued over food and drinks at Tijuana Restaurant on Broadway. Special thanks to LOCUS Massachusetts for sponsoring the appetizers!
Moving forward, WalkBoston will build off our past work in Chelsea and stay engaged in the community. Having conducted walk audits in the Sector 4 and Park Square neighborhoods in 2017, we now look forward to improving pedestrian safety on Marginal Street as Chelsea develops its broader Harbor Plan. We will also continue to support the city’s Re-imagining Broadway project, as well as other forthcoming Complete Streets initiatives. You can stay in the loop about WalkBoston’s work in Chelsea here.
New coalition plans to promote walkable, transit-rich communities
America Walks announced today the formation of the Transit-Walkability Collaborative, whose purpose is to expand safe, healthy, equitable, and sustainable communities by harnessing the synergy between walkability and quality public transit service.
The nine founding members of the new coalition work at the national, state, and local level in the walkability and transit advocacy movements. They are Center for Transportation Excellence, American Public Transportation Association, National Association of Public Transportation Advocates, Victoria Transport Policy Institute, Circulate San Diego, WalkDenver, Health by Design/Indiana Citizens’ Alliance for Transit, WalkBoston, and America Walks. Each organization has signed on to a shared Statement of Purpose, which can be found on the America Walks web site here:
The Transit-Walkability Collaborative notes that integrating walkability and public transit helps to create safe, affordable, and enjoyable neighborhoods, whose residents complete their daily activities while owning fewer vehicles and driving less often. These communities experience significant public and private-sector cost savings, lower rates of traffic fatalities, reduced air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, higher levels of physical activity, and a better quality of life – especially for low-income families.
“Walkability and transit advocacy complement each other and accomplish common goals neither can achieve on its own,” said Ian Thomas, State and Local Program Director with America Walks and coordinator of the Collaborative. “By ensuring a high level of service for both walking and public transport, we stimulate mutually-reinforcing community benefits that help address a range of social problems – from health to economics to quality of life.”
The Transit-Walkability Collaborative has identified long-term objectives in the areas of research, communications, capacity-building, and policy change, and adopted a 2017 Action Plan. One of the first priorities will be to conduct an environmental scan of walkability and transit advocacy groups, and then expand the circle further. “We also plan to reach out to organizations with primary interests in bicycling, disabilities/access, social equity, public health, and smart growth,“ said Thomas.
Several upcoming events are being planned to stimulate more interest and discussion about the alignment of walkability and transit campaigns. A fact sheet will be published in March in conjunction with a special webinar, and an online survey will be launched at the same time – to collect information about the ways walkability and transit advocates are collaborating around the country and what support they need.
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About WalkBoston: WalkBoston makes walking safer and easier in Massachusetts to encourage better health, a cleaner environment and vibrant communities.
About the Transit-Walkability Collaborative: The Transit-Walkability Collaborative exists to promote the benefits of walkable, transit-rich communities; to bring together transit and walkability advocates at the local, state, and national level; and to identify and implement programs and policies that simultaneously expand walkability and transit services in communities across the U.S. The founding members are:
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