walkboston

Boston University video storytelling partnership: tell your story!

WalkBoston is excited to partner with Boston University’s Cross-College Challenge (XCC), BU Hub’s interdisciplinary project-based elective course open to upperclassmen. The XCC engages students in team projects that address a real-world problem or an enduring human question — students in the course will utilize video storytelling to explore walkability and mobility through diverse perspectives.

WalkBoston began the project by giving students a Ped 101 presentation to establish a walkability knowledge base. We’re now looking for participants who live, work, or walk around the City of Boston (or within a 10-15 minute transit ride of the City) to be interviewed by the students.

These interviews and documentaries are looking to capture what walking and mobility looks like in an effort to reframe how these terms are understood and defined in the mainstream and by those with power — to encourage a more intersectional and justice-focused approach to mobility. In particular the project aims to capture perspectives from those who have been historically excluded from the transportation discussion (e.g. BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, low income, undocumented, disabled, non English speakers, and more). If you or someone you know would like to share your experiences navigating the public realm through walking (or not walking), please reach out to us at info@dev.walkboston.org by February 25th.

As part of this project, participants will need access to Zoom to engage in a preliminary interview and, if comfortable, be filmed while walking (or attempting to walk) in and around Boston during the month of March. Participants who speak languages other than English are encouraged to participate, as interpretation and translation will be available for all involved.

Participants will be compensated with a $25 gift card for their time and will have final approval over what is published from their interviews. Participants under 18 are welcome, though a guardian’s release will be required.

Save the Date: Annual Celebration 3/30, 5pm

Join us on March 30th (on Zoom) to celebrate & honor this year’s Golden Shoe winners!

Each March, we hold our Annual Celebration to celebrate achievements in walkability and to highlight the contributions of our wonderful volunteers, board members, and the many individuals and corporations who support us every year.

The presentation of our Golden Shoe Awards is an integral part of the Annual Celebration. The Golden Shoes recognize individuals, agencies, municipalities and companies exemplifying the ideals of WalkBoston’s mission.

More info on this year’s honorees and speakers coming soon, but registration is now open!

Comments on Memorial Drive Phase III

January 27, 2022

Secretary of the Executive Office of Energy & Environmental Affairs

100 Cambridge Street, Suite 900
Boston, MA 02114
Attn: MEPA Office, Christina Lyons

RE: Memorial Drive Phase III – Environmental Notification Form 16495

Dear Secretary Theoharides:

WalkBoston is Massachusetts’ primary pedestrian advocacy organization, working across the Commonwealth to make it safer and easier for people to walk for all activities of daily living such as access to transit, school and jobs. We are writing to you to show support for the MassDCR road diet of the 0.8-mile section of Memorial Drive from Eliot Bridge east to the intersection of Memorial Drive and John F. Kennedy Street near Harvard Square. We are happy to see this project move forward since it was last discussed publicly in the Summer of 2019.

We appreciate that there is continued attention to separating users by mode whenever possible on MassDCR facilities and within the Charles River Basin, following the recommendations from the 2002 Charles River Basin Plan. Converting the existing 6.5-foot-wide path to a 10-foot shared use path paired with a 5-foot wide stabilized gravel path for people walking and running will help reduce conflicts.

We also applaud you for the addition of mid-block crossings into the project area, an opportunity unlocked by the road diet’s narrower cross-section. There is a new mid-block pedestrian crossing proposed on Memorial Drive near Sparks Street and Mt. Auburn, which provides a direct link to the MBTA Bus Stop for Bus 71 and 73 to further enhance accessibility to this important park and transportation corridor for transit riders. An additional mid-block crossing is also proposed at Memorial Drive near University Road, closer to JFK. Both pedestrian crossings will include rapid flashing beacon lights (RRFBs) to alert drivers to crossing pedestrians.

With a projected increase in biking and e-bike usage in the coming years, we encourage you to highlight any possible conflict zones between people walking and biking with paint or signage to help minimize these conflicts, particularly at the new mid-block crossings.

Thank you for the opportunity to comment.

Stacey Beuttell, AICP

Executive Director, WalkBoston

Statewide Fatal Crashes In MA, December 2021

Each month, we post about the fatal crashes in Massachusetts from the previous month, and share any trends that we see. For the full list of monthly posts, head here. With a full year’s worth of posts now complete from 2021, we will be releasing a year in review in the coming weeks to highlight common issues.

Last month, we took a look at the nine fatal crashes listed in the MassDOT Crash Portal in November. In this post, we’ll look at crashes in MA in December 2021. The information in the chart below is compiled from news reports, and was checked against the MassDOT Crash Portal Dashboard “Fatal Information by Year.” The Google Street View images included below use the address listed in the crash portal.

Of the 35 fatal crashes in Massachusetts in November in the MassDOT Crash portal, four were identified as people walking.
The crash portal does not include names. The name of one of the people walking who died have not been made public yet.
The average age of pedestrians hit & killed in December was 45.
The name of the person driving was not identified in any of the crashes in news articles that we found.

Date	12/5/2021, 5:35 PM
Location	I-291 WEST, south of EXIT 3
Town	Springfield
Type	PEDESTRIAN
Age	39
Sex	M

WWLP reports that a 39-year old man was struck and killed after a 42-year-old man from Ludlow was traveling on I-291 westbound in a 2009 Toyota Matrix struck him in the left travel lane/center median. The male pedestrian was then struck by a 2015 Chevrolet Sonic driven by a 29-year-old man from Springfield in the left travel lane.

According to the MassDOT Road Inventory, this road is under MassDOT jurisdiction. It is a limited access highway, with a median and 3 travel lanes in each direction. The speed limit is 55mph.

Date	12/8/2021, 2:48 PM
Location	Dwight St. & State St.
Town	Springfield
Type	PEDESTRIAN
Age	16
Sex	F

16-year old Springfield Central High School student Alexangeliz Medina died after the driver of a school bus struck and killed her near the MassMutual Center at Dwight & State Street in Springfield.

Western Mass News spoke to Alexangeliz’s parents, Sorangel Ayala and Alex Medina:

“She was the life of the party always making everyone laugh,” said mother Sorangel Ayala.
“That’s why it makes it even harder because she did the right thing, why did it happen, why? She didn’t try to run a light nothing, she crossed the street when she was suppose to,” said Ayala.
Her parents detailed Alexangeliz’s love for art and what it meant to her. “This was just her hobby and her way of expressing herself and being who she is,” said Ayala.
Now, as they learn to navigate life without Alexangeliz, her family has ways they remember her bright energy.
“She wanted to be a teacher, she wanted to change, she wanted to cause change and that we don’t have to hate each other because of our differences, we need to celebrate each other becasue we have differences,” said Medina.

According to the MassDOT Road Inventory, Dwight Street and State Street are both under local jurisdiction. State Street is two-way, with 2 travel lanes in each direction. Dwight Street is one-way, with 3 travel lanes. There is a sidewalk on both sides of each street. The speed limit is listed as 35mph in the Road Inventory.

This was the fourth fatal pedestrian crash on State Street in Springfield in 2021, and followed two fatal pedestrian crashes in November (see last month’s post).

Date	12/15/2021, 6:20 AM
Location	280 Washington St.
Town	Brighton
Type	PEDESTRIAN
Age	62
Sex	F

Ann O’Flaherty, a nurse at St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center, was struck and killed by a driver at Washington and Cambridge Street in Boston’s Brighton neighborhood while on her way to work at the hospital.

Irish Central shared that Ann was originally from Ireland and had been a nurse at St. Elizabeth’s since 1988. Boston 25 News spoke to people that lived nearby:

Locals say this stretch of Washington Street is very fast.
“It can be because you have cars coming from both ways and coming off the section right there they are coming from three different ways,” said Everett Mills who lives nearby.
Jim Long also a resident of the area said “A lot of times cars just go through here real quick and don’t slow down. Particularly when they come down the hill.”

According to the MassDOT Road Inventory, this street is under local jurisdiction. It is two-way, with 1 travel lane in each direction. There is a sidewalk on each side. The speed limit is listed as 30mph.

Date	12/20/2021, 5:19 PM
Location	204 Bridge St.
Town	Dedham
Type	PEDESTRIAN
Age	63
Sex	F

63-year old Marguerite Scanlon was hit and killed by a driver on Bridge St (Route 109) in Dedham near the Doggett Circle senior and elderly housing community. Boston 25 News talked to people near the scene:

“I was almost hit the other day going out. They don’t care how they drive. This is a senior citizen place. They don’t care if they’re going 100 mph,” said Janet, who didn’t want to use her last name.
Neighbors are recalling their own close calls with vehicles on Route 109, also known as Bridge Street.
Police have not said if speed was a factor in Monday night’s deadly accident.
“They drive quickly. I think this is a dangerous area because there’s a curve in the road, and you can’t see the cars coming,” said neighbor Jo-Ann Burnett.

According to the MassDOT Road Inventory, this street is under MassDOT jurisdiction. It is two-way, with 1 travel lane in each direction. There is a sidewalk on each side. The speed limit is listed as 35mph.

Updates
If you have an update about a community member who was killed in one of these crashes, please contact Brendan so we can update our . WalkBoston has maintained a list each year since 2016, pulling the information from news reports, social media, and from people like you that share the information with us.
Yearly trackers: |||||

Reminder about the data from the MassDOT portal
MassDOT makes no representation as to the accuracy, adequacy, reliability, availability or completeness of the crash records or the data collected from them and is not responsible for any errors or omissions in such records or data. Under no circumstance will MassDOT have any liability for any loss or damage incurred by any party as a result of the use of the crash records or the data collected from them. Furthermore, the data contained in the web-based crash report tool are not an official record of what transpired in a particular crash or for a particular crash type. If a user is interested in an official copy of a crash report, contact the Registry (http://www.mass.gov/rmv/). The City of Boston Police Department may be contacted directly for official copies of crash reports and for crash data pertaining to the City of Boston. In addition, any crash records or data provided for the years after 2018 are subject to change at any time and are not to be considered up-to-date or complete. As such, open years’ of crash data are for informational purposes only and should not be used for analysis. The data posted on this website, including crash records and other reports, are collected for the purpose of identifying, evaluating or planning the safety enhancement of potential crash sites, hazardous roadway conditions or railway-highway crossings. Under federal law, this information is not subject to discovery and cannot be admitted into evidence in any federal or state court proceeding or considered for other purposes in any action for damages that involves the sites mentioned in these records (see 23 USC, Section 409).

First snow storm of the season: January 2022

Today, January 7th, marks one of the first significant snow storms of this season with some areas seeing close to a foot of snow.

WalkBoston has been advocating for sidewalk snow removal for many years as part of our work to improve pedestrian safety and accessibility when it snows. Snow and ice present significant challenges to pedestrians. Cleared sidewalks are critical for people to access everyday goods and services, and are particularly vital to people with disabilities and to seniors.

Though snow clearance is a challenging task for municipalities, regional transit authorities, and property owners due to the mix of responsible parties, and the unpredictable and episodic nature of the need – we know and have seen that it is not an impossible feat to clear snow for cars and there is an urgent need to be prioritizing the removal of snow from sidewalks all the same.

We are excited and encouraged by the renewed energy to include sidewalks in snow removal plans by many more communities this winter. We’d love to hear what your community is doing, and highlight it in a future post. Get in touch with us.

Community Spotlight: Somerville

The City of Somerville announced their sidewalk snow removal pilot program for the 2021-2022 winter season (fiscal year 2022). Somerville’s pilot includes the entirety of Broadway Ave. and School St. which represents about 8.5 miles of sidewalk, 200 crosswalks, 350 sidewalk ramps, and 70 bus stops, and the hope is that the pilot will shed light on the costs and the logistics of expanding this service in the future. The pilot will start with the next snow storm so that the City and its new administration can work through logistics of the first snow emergency of the year.

City Councilor Ben Ewen-Campen, who was involved in legislative advocacy efforts to ensure the City’s budget would include funding for a small sidewalk snow removal pilot, highlights that “the hope with this pilot would be to answer the empirical question of what works the best.” Somerville faces problems with the enforcement of sidewalk snow removal where absentee landlords or developers on vacant lots have likely decided that the cost of a ticket for non-compliance is not a big deal. Coupled with the fact that some property owners (or renters) may be physically unable to remove snow, a walk through Somerville during or after a snow storm can be treacherous for some or keep others confined to their home because it is unsafe. Ewen-Campen is hopeful and encouraged by the renewed focus on sidewalk snow removal by many communities across the state, citing that COVID-19 likely brought the issue to the forefront for many people who were staying home: “Cities learn from each other, this is not impossible and we can decide to do it.”

Funding for Snow Removal Equipment Now Available Through MassDOT’s Shared Streets and Spaces Program

While the creation of a sidewalk snow removal plan is only one small step in actually removing snow from sidewalks in the winter, another obstacle many communities (especially smaller ones) face is that of purchasing equipment. Commercial grade equipment to remove snow from sidewalks can run anywhere between $5,000 to $25,000 or more and amidst a surge of COVID-19 cases due to the Omicron variant, many communities are already stretched thin. However, with the opening of the next grant round of the MassDOT Shared Streets and Spaces Grant Program, there is hope for communities for whom a capital purchase of equipment has been holding them back from creating a sidewalk snow removal program.

MassDOT will be adding an ‘equipment’ category to the program — which will operate separately from the other categories and will not exclude a municipality from receiving another award — for up to $50,000 to allow for the purchase of equipment (such as sidewalk snow plows) that will assist municipalities in aligning their mobility efforts with the goals of the program. The next round of applications for the program opens on January 10th.

Of course, Somerville is just one of 351 municipalities in the state and a handful of others have had sidewalks included in their snow removal plans for some time. In Newton, City Councilor Andreae Downs wrote about the steps it took to establish a snow clearing ordinance. In Framingham, the City is responsible for plowing approximately 84.5 miles of sidewalk in and around key areas such as schools, city-owned buildings, the commuter rail, and business districts. As WalkBoston continues our advocacy work around sidewalk snow removal and hopes to put together sidewalk snow clearance guidance and resources for communities, we’d love to hear more from communities across the Commonwealth that have seen success in their sidewalk snow removal plans and highlight it in a future post. Get in touch with us.