walkboston

Bloomberg Baystate Business – Self-Driving Cars

Bloomberg Radio: “Bloomberg Baystate Business: Self-Driving Cars”

We also talked about self-driving cars in the wake of the decision to allow Nutonomy to test its cars throughout the city of Boston. Nutonomy President Karl Iagnemma joined us to give us the details. We also spoke with MIT research scientist Bryan Reimer about the technology. Taking a more cautious tone was Wendy Landman of Walk Boston.

(Wendy’s segment is on the broadcast from 00:44:03-00:51:50)

Originally aired June 22, 2018

Imperfect technology, Boston’s ‘chaotic’ streets raise fears of self-driving cars

Boston Herald: “Imperfect technology, Boston’s ‘chaotic’ streets raise fears of self-driving cars”
By Mary Markos

But keeping them vigilant is another concern, raised by Wendy Landman, executive director of WalkBoston.
“Generally speaking, when you have people in the vehicles who don’t have much to do except watch out for possible problems, you need to make sure people can stay alert and really be on top of things,” Landman said. “It’s hard to pay attention when you’re not doing much.”
The intricate street patterns of Boston aren’t easy to navigate, Landman added.
“Nobody really knows how this is going to work,” she said. “How good will these vehicles be at dealing with the incredibly complicated environment that is Boston streets?”

Posted June 21, 2018

MA Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Board seeking interested candidates

CALL FOR INTEREST IN SERVING ON THE MASSACHUSETTS BICYCLE AND PEDESTRIAN ADVISORY BOARD

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is seeking interested candidates in serving as public members on the Massachusetts Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Board (MABPAB). MABPAB public members volunteer their time for the benefit of advancing bicycle and pedestrian transportation across the Commonwealth. Nominated candidates will be appointed for a two-year volunteer term, beginning fall 2018. Official nominations will be made by the Governor of Massachusetts.

Mission:

Legislatively established in 2004 and appointed by the Governor of Massachusetts, the Board’s purposes are to:

Advise Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) and other State Agencies on bicycle and pedestrian transportation initiatives
Advise MassDOT on issues of interest to people who walk and bicycle today, or wish to walk and bike more
Monitor the implementation of the Massachusetts Statewide Bicycle Transportation Plan and the Massachusetts Statewide Pedestrian Transportation Plan, and assist MassDOT in preparing future plan updates.

Meetings:

The Board meets six times a year, every other month during the day. Three of these meetings are held at the State Transportation Building in Boston and three are held at different locations across the Commonwealth. Advisory Board members are expected to attend every meeting in person.

Sample topics covered at Advisory Board meetings:
– Statewide Bicycle Plan
– Statewide Pedestrian Plan
– Safety
– Year-round Maintenance
– Monitoring and Evaluation
– Public Health
– Trails/Multi use paths
– Safe Routes to School
– Complete Streets
– Events and Outreach
– Access to Transit
– Accessibility
– Sustainable Mobility
– Planning and Design
– Education and Enforcement

Membership:

The Board is made up of public members representing the following:
– Bicycling organization representatives
– Bicycling representatives
– Bicycle industry representative
– Pedestrian representatives

The Board also consists of designees from statewide bicycle and pedestrian advocacy organizations, WalkBoston and MassBike, and the following governmental agencies:
– Department of Transportation
– Department of Conservation & Recreation
– MBTA
– Department of Public Health
-Department of Energy and Environmental Affairs
– Representative from a Regional Planning Agency
– State Police
-Office of Travel & Tourism

Terms:

Candidates should be residents of Massachusetts interested in serving as public members. Nominated candidates shall serve without compensation for a term of two years, beginning September 2018. Member-volunteers may be reappointed. All nominated individuals will be subject to a standard background check.

To Apply:

Interested candidates should email or send a resume and letter of interest to the Massachusetts Department of Transportation at mabpab@dot.state.ma.us or Att: MABPAB, State Transportation Building, 10 Park Plaza, Suite 4160, Boston, MA 02116. In your resume, please include contact information, including mailing address, email address and phone number where we can contact you. In your letter, please include what public seat you are applying for (i.e. bicycle organization representative, pedestrian representative); your background (work and/or life experience) that relates to the mission of the Board; what, if any, groups you will be formally representing while serving on the Board; what you would like to contribute to the Board; and any additional information for consideration. Please apply by June 25, 2018 to be considered.

If you have any questions about the Board, please contact MABPAB@dot.state.ma.us

Want to get involved? Join the newsletter team

We mail out copies of our printed newsletter 3-4 times a year to supporters, state & local officials; with our new website, these articles are also added as individual posts to be shared online (see previous newsletters). We’re looking for a new volunteer newsletter editor to help!

What’s it take to be a newsletter editor?

The role of newsletter editor involves more coordinating than editing. Here is the current lifecycle of a newsletter, from inspiration to a supporter’s mailbox:

A WalkBoston newsletter starts with a brainstorming session at the Communications Committee (we meet after work on the first Thursday of the month). Together with the editor, the Committee picks a topic and often creates a list of potential authors. Armed with that information, the editor drafts emails to each author inviting them to participate and explaining logistics. Each edition has 2-4 stories.
After each author agrees to participate, the newsletter editor is responsible for checking in with authors and getting final drafts. With last drafts in hand, the editor does a preliminary review for content and word count. Once the articles are a reasonable length and flow together in an interesting way, the editor passes a word document with all articles included on to WalkBoston board member Nina Garfinkle at Garfinkle Design.
You’re not all on your own as an editor! Nina drops all the articles into the WalkBoston newsletter branded format and circulates the newsletter to you and our crack editing team from the Communications Committee. This team does all the detailed line editing and helps us create a perfect product. Nina inputs each edit directly from the group into the formatted draft. Once the newsletter is as clean as possible, Nina sends the draft to WalkBoston’s staff for final edits and information on upcoming events.
When this is complete, the office runs a mailing list and the newsletter is out the door! Brendan converts the articles to posts for the website so they go live a week or so after the newsletter hits mailboxes, making sure the articles receive additional visibility.

As you can see, this is not a job that requires spectacular editing skills as much as it needs organization, communication and an interest in putting out exciting newsletters that help spread the WalkBoston mission. Interested? Questions? Ideas? Get in touch!

Communication Committee Members:
Nina Garfinkle, Communications Chair
Hillary Borcherding, outgoing Newsletter Editor (who is helping with the transition, but stepping down as she has recently moved to Vermont!)
Joyce DiBona
Don Eunson
Shay Karime
Brendan Kearney, WalkBoston staff
Ken Krause

Wicked Local Belmont – Keep our students safe

Wicked Local Belmont: “Keep our students safe”
Opinion

We are writing to express our concern about student safety in the proposed design for the new Belmont High School. Over the past several months, the School Building Committee has sought input from Belmont residents on the inside design of the building as well as the exterior traffic and parking plans. The Building Committee met with community members, the Traffic Advisory Committee, and the Planning Board as well as Safe Routes to Schools and Walk Boston — organizations that advise communities on how best to design access.

Posted June 7, 2018