Tag: walking

HANDOUT: Funding for Healthy Transportation Options (Mass in Motion)

HANDOUT: Funding for Healthy Transportation Options (Mass in Motion)

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This is an informational handout that was part of the 2014 Bike/Walk Summit presented by MassBike and WalkBoston.

The Issue – Active transportation plays an essential role in achieving important public health outcomes like lowering obesity rates and reducing chronic disease and health care costs associated with a sedentary lifestyle. More than half of adults and 1 in 4 high school and middle school students in Massachusetts are overweight or obese.*

In recent years, there have been increasing opportunities to use public health funding to support local efforts that improve biking and walking safety, and encourage education and awareness of biking and walking as transportation.

Mass in Motion is a statewide program that promotes active living and healthy eating in the places people live, learn, work and play. MassBike and WalkBoston have both been working alongside Mass in Motion coordinators in the 52 Mass in Motion communities to get more people walking and biking. Please review the enclosed Mass in Motion info sheet for program highlights.

Mass in Motion is funded through a unique partnership among leading health organizations in the Commonwealth, five major health foundations, and, most importantly, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control’s Community Transformation Grant Program (CTG), which was defunded by Congress in January 2014. The CTG program was scheduled to continue until September 2016, but instead will end this September. This loss of funding will leave many communities and organizations without the resources to continue working for more active transportation and healthier food options.

The Ask – We need our legislators to know that funding for active living programs like Mass in Motion have real benefits for individuals and communities, and that investing in these programs will save money in the long run by reducing future health care spending. Mass in Motion has already achieved real outcomes that will be jeopardized by a premature end of the program.

We ask that legislators connect with their local Mass in Motion programs to learn what is happening in their communities. Please also consult your legislators for advice about opportunities for state funding to ensure that Mass in Motion can continue beyond September 2014.

*Source: Mass in Motion (http://www.mass.gov/eohhs/gov/departments/dph/programs/community-health/mass-in-motion/)

HANDOUT: Gas Tax Indexing is Necessary for Meeting Mode Shift Goals

HANDOUT: Gas Tax Indexing is Necessary for Meeting Mode Shift Goals

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This is an informational handout that was part of the 2014 Bike/Walk Summit presented by MassBike and WalkBoston.

The Issue – The Transportation Finance Bill (H. 3535), passed during the current legislative session, includes a provision for indexing gas tax to inflation – meaning that the gas tax will allow for continued funding of transportation investments by rising incrementally with inflation.

A group called “Tank the Gas Tax” has qualified a question for the November 2014 ballot that would repeal the indexing of gas tax to inflation. The referendum proponents have incorrectly stated that the indexing money goes to the General Fund, rather than for transportation.

Without indexing, we will lose over $1B in the next 10 years.* Construction costs are expected to increase approximately 3% annually over the next several years, and we will be unable to keep up with this growth in costs without indexing. Biking and walking infrastructure is paid for through transportation funding, and without gas tax indexing it will be much more difficult for Massachusetts to reach the goal of tripling the share of trips made by biking, walking, and transit by 2030.

Losing this needed money for transportation means that we won’t have adequate resources to make the critical transportation investments that will grow jobs and the economy. For instance, if the legislature had not acted, Massachusetts could have faced losses of up to 15,000 jobs and as much as $11 billion in increased operating costs due to the deteriorating transportation network.*

The Ask – We need the support of our legislators to make sure that this significant piece of transportation funding does not get rolled back in November.

Ask our legislators to vocally oppose the repeal of gas tax indexing to preserve funding for transportation investments. As active members of the Transportation for Massachusetts (T4MA) Coalition, MassBike and WalkBoston are asking legislators to join  their constituents and the 23 organizations of T4MA – representing the business sector, public health, and transportation – from across the Commonwealth who are opposed to repeal.

Bottom Line – The repeal of gas tax indexing will jeopardize bike and pedestrian projects across Massachusetts by defunding crucial transportation investments, hurt our economy, continue the cycle of deferred maintenance, reverse the momentum for investing in infrastructure, and doom efforts to reach mode shift goals.

*Source: Transportation for Massachusetts (http://www.t4ma.org/)

HANDOUT: Vulnerable Road Users, Senate 1639 & amp; Bike Lane Protection Bill, Senate 1640

HANDOUT: Vulnerable Road Users, Senate 1639 & amp; Bike Lane Protection Bill, Senate 1640

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This is an informational handout that was part of the 2014 Bike/Walk Summit presented by MassBike and WalkBoston.

Vulnerable Road Users, Senate 1639 – This bill defines “vulnerable users”, including bicyclists, pedestrians, wheelchair users, and other non-motorized road users, and will encourage motorists to exercise greater care when operating around vulnerable users. Specifically, when a motorist kills or severely injures a vulnerable user, the legislation would require them to:

  • Pay up to double the fines currently defined by statute;
  • Attend a traffic safety class;
  • Perform up to 100 hours of community service directly related to improving interactions of motorists and vulnerable users of the road.

The bill also addresses the problem of motorist harassment of vulnerable users by creating both criminal and civil liability for motorists who use their vehicle to physically harass a vulnerable user, and civil liability for motorists who engage in other forms of harassment of vulnerable users.

Co-sponsors: William Brownsberger,  Denise Provost,  David Rogers,  Jonathan Hecht,  Kay Khan,  John Scibak,  Frank Smizik,  Gailanne Cariddi,  Carl Sciortino, Jr.,  Lori Ehrlich,  James Eldridge,  Sonia Chang-Diaz,  Kate Hogan,  Carolyn Dykema,  Peter Kocot,  Kenneth Gordon,  Denise Andrews.

Bike Lane Protection Bill, Senate 1640 – This bill protects bicyclists by prohibiting motor vehicle operators from parking in on-street paths or lanes designated by official signs or markings for the use of bicycles, or placing the vehicle in such a manner as to interfere with the safety and passage of bicyclists. Motorists frequently endanger bicyclists by parking in bicycle lanes, forcing bicyclists to merge into traffic. There is currently no applicable state law, and communities are passing local ordinances that will result in inconsistent rules and enforcement unless statewide action is taken.

Co-Sponsors: William Brownsberger,  Denise Provost,  David Rogers,  Jonathan Hecht,  Kay Khan,  John Scibak,  Frank Smizik,  Patricia Jehlen,  Carl Sciortino, Jr.,  Lori Ehrlich, Kenneth Donnelly,  Elizabeth Malia,  Sonia Chang-Diaz,  James Eldridge,  Kate Hogan, Carolyn Dykema,  Peter Kocot,  Kenneth Gordon,  Denise Andrews.


Status: On March 19, 2014, both bills were extended in the Joint Transportation Committee. The bill has not been reported out, either favorably or unfavorably.

The Ask: This year’s ask is the same for both bills:

  • If the legislator you are meeting with is already a cosponsor, please thank them.
  • If you are speaking to Rep. Straus or Sen. McGee, the co-chairs of the Transportation Committee, ask them to report favorably on the bills.
  • If you are speaking to any other legislator, ask them to speak to their respective co-chair on the Transportation Committee (Rep. Straus or Sen. McGee) and ask them to report favorably on both bills.——————————————————————————————————————-
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Can you please describe how you are planning to help educate bicyclists, walkers, runners and drivers about the new ways in which they will interact as the built environment is changed to provide a richer set of separated bicycle facilities? In particular, can you tell us about the lessons that were learned in such cities as Copenhagen and Amsterdam as they made a similar transition several decades ago?

WalkBoston question asked at #BostonBikeUpdate – March 31, 2014 

Nicole Freedman from Boston Bikes’ summarized response: Will soon be working with two volunteers from Mullen to help with that process. There’s a need for all of us to be more responsible in order to have pedestrians & cyclists be supportive of each other and make streets safer for everyone. That makes the process of asking for more changes easier if the everyday interactions are less confrontational.

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Since 1990 when WalkBoston became the first pedestrian advocacy group in the country, people have looked to us to lead the way on walkability issues in Massachusetts and nationally. Here is our latest brochure “We Connect People to Walking” [click for pdf download of above image] which shares some of the numbers behind our work!