walkboston

WalkBoston Comments on the GLX and the Community Path – March 15, 2016

March 15, 2016
Massachusetts Department of Transportation
10 Park Plaza, Room 4150
Boston, MA 02116

Attention: MassDOT Board of Directors
MBTA Fiscal Management and Control Board
GLX Interim Project Manager Jack Wright
Assistant Secretary for Policy Coordination Katherine Fichter

RE: GLX and the Community Path

WalkBoston has worked for over 25 years to promote improvements to pedestrian facilities throughout the state and region. We strongly believe that the proposed Community Path adjacent to the Green Line Extension in Somerville and Medford is an essential element to the successful operation of the extension. The path through this corridor is an integral part of the project that will help it to prosper and serve its riders well, especially when the need is reinforced by the lack of parking at the stations.

The Community Path is essential for the GLX to fully meet its potential in serving the residents of this corridor. It will function as the principal access route to and from the stations for walkers and cyclists, as it will be a safe and protected means of access between residences and the doors of the light rail vehicles. The same levels of access cannot be provided solely by relying on existing streets, which are frequently less direct for users. The safety of walkers is also improved by using routes that are not shared with vehicles.

We urge consideration all possible ways to fund the path and include it an integral part of the construction of this extension. Joint construction is the most cost-effective approach to construction, as the transit project and the Community Path share a common right-of-way and many elements of infrastructure, Cutbacks in the GLX project should not include reducing the number or safety of available routes of access for transit patrons going to or from the stations.

Thank you again for this opportunity to comment on this project.

Sincerely.

Wendy Landman
Executive Director

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Golden Shoe Award winners for March 2016 Annual Meeting

As presented at this year’s annual event on March 22, 2016

Charlotte Fleetwood – City of Boston Vision Zero Champion
As the Senior Planner for the Transportation Department, Charlotte is project manager for Vision Zero Boston and Boston Green Links. She helped develop Boston’s Complete Streets Guidelines that put pedestrians, bicyclists and transit users on equal footing with motor-vehicle drivers. To implement these guidelines, she has served as project manager for rebuilding Boylston Street and Audubon Circle in the Fenway district and Central Square, East Boston. Projects now include narrower travel lanes, new bike lanes, greenscapes of street trees, sidewalk widenings and curb extensions to guide traffic slowly through the area, while improving pedestrian safety and producing great public spaces. She was a senior planner during the Big Dig and played a role in the Greenway and new Charles River parks.

Paul Malkemes, The Boston Project Ministries / Talbot-Norfolk Triangle Neighbors United & David Queeley, Codman Square Neighborhood Development Corporation – Grassroots “Slow Zone” Pioneers
As the Executive Director of The Boston Project Ministries, a faith-based community non-profit that provides staff support to the Talbot-Norfolk Triangle (TNT) Neighbors United, Paul Malkemes has worked tirelessly with residents of Dorchester’s TNT neighborhood over the past two decades to address issues of community concern, including traffic safety and healthy living. As the Director of Eco-Innovation at Codman Square Neighborhood Development Corporation, David Queeley has worked closely with Paul to advance neighbors’ vision to establish TNT as Boston’s first Eco-Innovation District – a clean, healthy, safe and green community with active transportation options and safe streets for all. Paul and David have conducted walk assessments, engaged city agencies and neighborhood stakeholders, and mobilized resident Healthy Community Champions to advance walkability and bikeability in TNT. Their advocacy efforts have resulted in TNT being designated as one of two neighborhood “Slow Zones” as part of the City of Boston’s broader Vision Zero strategy.

Maggie Sachs-Mahmood – Inspiring Student Advocates at Codman Academy
Maggie Sachs-Mahmood, a 10th grade physics teacher at Codman Academy, reached out to WalkBoston in Fall 2014 for guidance on improving pedestrian safety. During the 2013-2014 academic year, a Codman Academy student was struck and seriously injured on Epping Street outside the school. Maggie wanted her students to collect robust data on roadways surrounding their campus in order to make a compelling case for built environment changes right outside their own front door.

After WalkBoston shared strategies for safe, walkable streets and helped the students conduct observations in the neighborhood, Maggie encouraged her students to share their findings with neighborhood groups and at public agency meetings – including at the State House as part of an event alongside MA Public Health Commissioner Monica Bharel. As a result of their efforts, the City of Boston has committed to making Codman Square a focus area of the Vision Zero Boston effort. We celebrate her for training her students to become advocates for walkable environments.

Comments on Old Northern Ave Bridge 2/24/16

February 24, 2016

Kevin Kotelly, P.E.
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
New England District
696 Virginia Road
Concord, MA 01742-2751

Brona Simon
Massachusetts Historical Commission
220 William T Morrissey Boulevard
Boston, MA 02125

Re: Old Northern Avenue Bridge

Dear Mr. Kotelly and Ms. Simon:

WalkBoston has been engaged in discussions about the Old Northern Avenue Bridge for more than 15 years – a remarkably long time for action to be taken on one of the City’s iconic and important pieces of infrastructure.

As a participant in the City’s informal review process during spring 2015, WalkBoston was one of the eleven groups1 that voted to support the rehabilitation of the bridge (two groups supported a new bridge). After being asked by the City to participate in an in-depth review and discussion process, we feel that this strong support for rehabilitation should weigh heavily in the City’s final decision about the future of the Bridge.

WalkBoston is a strong supporter of rehabilitating the existing bridge and doing so immediately to restore an important element of the City’s pedestrian network, end the endless debate, and maintain a piece of the city’s character. Specifically, rehabilitating this bridge, rather than replacing it with a new structure is important for the following reasons:

• The ONAB was, and should again be, the route of daily walking for thousands of Bostonians. Maintaining a level crossing for pedestrians between the waterfront and the seaport significantly enhances the walking experience by being easy, allowing walkers to have full views as they walk between the districts, and giving walkers the experience of being close to
the water and the harbor. The arched Moakley Bridge is less comfortable and less attractive for walkers than the Old Northern Avenue Bridge (and used less by walkers when the ONAB was open to pedestrians). This is the opposite of what we should be thinking about for the future of this important connection.

• The industrial character of the Bridge is an enormous part of its charm, and creates an everyday link to Boston’s working and seafaring past – we should not lose this important part of our personality. Perhaps the bridge also presents an opportunity to link our old technology with the arrival of GE and its focus on new technology. New York’s High Line is a wonderful and evocative example of how old industrial infrastructure can be a source of joy and economic development – the ONAB should be thought of in that same creative way. A “Friends of the Old Northern Avenue Bridge” group should be formed to immediately and creatively raise funds and develop a plan for rehabilitating and re-using the Bridge.

• The ONAB is an important element of the Harbor Walk, and in its existing place and configuration is one of its most interesting spots.

• WalkBoston does not oppose allowing emergency and high occupancy vehicles to use the Bridge, but we are skeptical that allowing general vehicle use of the Bridge will do anything to alleviate the transportation problems of the Seaport, and will only result in more cars jammed into a portion of Atlantic Avenue that cannot accommodate them. In fact the opposite may occur. As a very attractive and pleasant way for walkers to get around the City, the ONAB will encourage walking, biking and transit use – exactly what we need to be doing for the future of the Seaport and all of Boston.

• While WalkBoston strongly and emphatically supports the rehabilitation of the ONAB, we believe that this may not necessarily entail a full and meticulous restoration of every element of the structure. We think that it is important to capture the functionality, spirit and identity of the bridge, while also acknowledging that timely and cost-effective implementation is of great importance.

We hope that the ACOE and MHC will support the rehabilitation of the Old Northern Avenue Bridge and we would be pleased to answer any questions you might have about our position.

Sincerely,

Wendy Landman
Executive Director
WalkBoston

Want to submit your own comments? Here are some tips from the Boston Preservation Alliance:
http://www.bostonpreservation.org/allianceviews/2016/02/urge-city-hall-key-agencies-to-preserve-the-northern-avenue-bridge/

#MBTA Control Board & Gov. Baker shouldn’t punish riders to fix the T. #KeepFaresFair & resist unjust fare hikes http://thndr.me/MhjDHY

Vision Zero Boston and Pedestrian Fatalities Press Conference, 2/11/16

Notes from WalkBoston Executive Director Wendy Landman’s remarks, City of Boston’s Press Conference 2/11/16, on Vision Zero Boston and Pedestrian Fatalities

Video of remarks on YouTube

The four people in Boston, and seven people in other Massachusetts communities who lost their lives in January, were doing the most natural, ordinary and necessary of things – walking in their own communities. We need to make such tragedies rare, not ordinary.

The Vision Zero approach to ending deaths from traffic crashes is based on making streets safer for everyone with a special focus on slowing down traffic speeds and improving street crossings.

WalkBoston is glad to be included in this press conference while at the same time working hard to make sure that we will not have to do this in years to come

Making Boston a safe place to walk is key to the City’s equitable access to opportunity, to long-term economic vitality, to fighting climate change and creating a resilient city, and to making Boston a great place to live, work and play.

We are pleased to be working with the City of Boston and state agencies on this very important issue.

I also want to thank and recognize our fellow advocates in the Vision Zero Coalition – we are all working together on this critical effort.

We urge the City to set aside the dollars needed to make both long and short term improvements.

Engaging with the advocacy community, the grassroots neighborhood organizations and Boston’s residents, workers and visitors is key to success in reducing pedestrian fatalities and injuries

The City’s planned 2016 Vision Zero actions to improve safety along Mass Ave and in Codman Square and to implement neighborhood slow zones in the Talbot-Norfolk Triangle and Stony Brook are great first steps – we look forward to seeing their implementation and working with the City to identify the subsequent actions.

WalkBoston has been a core member of the City’s Task Force, pushing hard to make sure that we know where crashes are happening and then figuring out how to make both immediate and longer term improvements to reduce the chances for future crashes in those places.

We are also excited to be starting a Safe Routes for Seniors project with the Elderly Commission under the City’s Age Friendly Boston initiative. Working with many city departments we will identify senior-friendly walking improvements in 3 target neighborhoods to be implemented over the next several years and also outlining policies and protocols that the City will follow to ensure that senior’s walking needs are well addressed.

The City’s launch of a new online tool to collect information to take pro-active steps to improve safety at locations where the public has noted dangerous conditions is an important step toward achieving Vision Zero – one that helps move beyond reaction and toward solutions.

Finally, we pledge to continue our advocacy for walking safety, to working with the City, and to engaging with many City residents to ensure that their voices are heard on this critical issue. Thank you.

City of Boston’s Vision Zero Task Force site: VisionZeroBoston.org

Massachusetts Vision Zero Coalition site: VisionZeroCoalition.org

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