Author: walkboston

Event: Rally to Pass Hands-Free Bill In Massachusetts, July 11th – 12:30pm

Event: Rally to Pass Hands-Free Bill In Massachusetts, July 11th – 12:30pm

Please join us on your lunch break this Wednesday, July 11th at 12:30pm on the State House steps. We will have signs, lemonade and a really important message for the legislature to hear: We are gathering to show our elected officials that we cannot and will not wait another year to pass a Hands-Free law in MA. Distracted driving is an epidemic on our roads, and a hands-free bill is a first step to solving the problem and making our roads safer.

Rich Levitan and Anna Cheshire Levitan, parents of the late Merritt Levitan and leaders of Text Less Live More, a national education and awareness campaign, joined Radio Boston on Monday.

More info and updates at the Facebook event page

PBS NewsHour – Pedestrian deaths are up nationwide, fueled by people who walk while drunk

PBS NewsHour – Pedestrian deaths are up nationwide, fueled by people who walk while drunk

PBS NewHour: “Pedestrian deaths are up nationwide, fueled by people who walk while drunk”
By Jenni Bergal

Some pedestrian advocates caution that officials need to be careful not to send out a message that blames the victims, who have tried to do the right thing by not getting behind the wheel when they’ve had too much to drink. Instead, the priority should be on designing safer roadways, which will influence drivers’ behavior and curb speeds where people are walking, said Brendan Kearney, a spokesman for WalkBoston.

Posted July 5, 2018

We encourage you to read the Detroit Free Press/USA TODAY NETWORK investigation “Death on foot: America’s love of SUVs is killing pedestrians” [posted July 1st but not referenced in above piece] as a complementary report:

…the SUV revolution is a key, leading cause of escalating pedestrian deaths nationwide, which are up 46 percent since 2009.

Walk audit today in Leominster (in the heat!)

Walk audit today in Leominster (in the heat!)

Whether it’s pouring rain or searing heat, our walk audits don’t stop! Thanks to our colleague Andrea Freeman at the Massachusetts Public Health Association, as well as City Councilor Mark Bodanza, State Representative Natalie Higgins, and her legislative aide Taylor Landry, for joining us on an EOPSS-funded walk in downtown Leominster today to look at opportunities for safer pedestrian crossings and traffic calming.

Event: Cambridge to Allston Walk

Event: Cambridge to Allston Walk

We will meet on the Malkin Athletic Center (MAC) steps that face the Lowell House construction site. To reach the MAC steps from Harvard Square, walk down Dunster Street, cross Mt. Auburn Street to Winthrop Street (one block south of Mt Auburn Street). Take a left onto Winthrop Street at a right onto Holyoke Street.

Joe Beggan, WalkBoston board member and Senior Manager for Transportation Planning at Harvard’s Allston Initiatives program will lead the tour from Cambridge to Allston.

In Cambridge Linda Kuczynski, Project Manager for Harvard’s House Renewal Program, will discuss the construction activities at Lowell House and the larger program that is transforming the University’s Neo-Georgian River Houses.

Once we leave the MAC, we will walk to the Weeks Bridge to take a moment to discuss the bridge and enjoy the river views. We will then cross the river and pass through the Business School Campus to the i-lab on Western Avenue. We will be joined in Allston by Ed Leflore, Principal and Founder of CSL Consultants, to talk about Harvard’s consultation projects in Allston including the new Science and Engineering Complex on Western Avenue.

Our next to last stop is the “Grove” at Barry’s Corner. We will finish the walk at Zone 3 Allston’s “Aeronaut Allston” summertime musical beer garden series for food, drink and conversation. EDIT: the beer garden closed for the chance of rain, so we’re ending at Our Fathers, the restaurant across from the Grove.