Category: Newsletter

Small change has big impact: The Quincy Adams gate

By Michelle Deng/Quincy-Penn’s Hill Neighborhood Association Gate Committee Member

Michelle is a Transportation Engineering graduate student with a background in traffic safety and a transportation advocate.

For three decades, residents of South Quincy could not access the nearby Quincy Adams MBTA station due to a locked pedestrian gate. Penn’s Hill neighborhood residents faced a 1.2-mile walk along busy streets to get to the station, instead of a 120-foot path connection. Thanks to the advocacy of the Penn’s Hill Neighborhood Association [PHNA], the gate is now opened. Residents have a short and pleasant walk to the station, reinforcing the walking-transit connection that is so important to walkable communities.

The PHNA was founded in 2015 with the mission to enhance the quality of life in the neighborhood by bringing residents and businesses together. In early 2016, after the MBTA announced the South Shore Red Line stations renovation project, the debate of reopening the gate escalated within the surrounding neighborhoods. The PHNA Gate Committee was formed in early 2017 to create a platform to discuss opening the gate.

The Committee conducted a neighborhood-wide survey in summer 2017 to obtain feedback from the residents. The survey was set up as a Google form and distributed via a neighbor email listserv, an online newspaper article, and Facebook. Over one month, 504 people responded, with the majority of feedback in favor of opening the gate.

Following the survey, the Committee hosted two neighborhood public meetings to discuss survey results and hear public opinion. Approximately 90 neighbors attend- ed each meeting. The survey results and neighborhood concerns were shared with the Quincy mayor soon after the first two public meetings. In April 2018, the mayor granted approval to reopen the gate and stated that the city would work with the MBTA to develop mitigation plans to address the residents’ concerns about parking and traffic impacts on their street.

The gate was finally reopened in December 2018. This simple action has reduced pedestrian travel time to Quincy Adams station from 35-45 minutes to 2-10 minutes, making walking a more viable option. The City of Quincy also upgraded the nearby intersection with new crosswalks, ADA compliant ramps, and a push button-activated traffic signal.

The PHNA Gate Committee continues to work closely with the city and the neighbors to ensure that negative impacts are minimized, and benefits to the surrounding neighborhoods are maximized.

The Patriot Ledger, 4/25/18 “City to open controversial Quincy Adams pedestrian gate”

This article was featured in WalkBoston’s February 2019 newsletter.
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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

March 2018 Newsletter

Building on nearly 30 years of advocacy in more than 100 cities and towns across the Commonwealth, WalkBoston has adopted a framework on how to make Massachusetts more walkable. This framework is guided by a set of principles that will challenge us to evaluate new technologies, continue to create evidence-based best practices, and address equity and inclusion more specifically in our community engagement. This newsletter edition is the second in a two-part series designed to share our goals with the larger WalkBoston community and encourage each of you to lace up your shoes and get involved. Click here to read the first newsletter in this series.

“Age-Friendly Walking – better walking for all ages”
By Adi Nochur/Project Manager, WalkBoston
“The pedestrian/transit connection—walking to transit”
By Erik Scheier/Project Manager, MBTA
“#ClearCurbCuts Letter to the Globe”
By Carol Steinberg/Board Member, WalkBoston

Download the March 2018 Newsletter PDF

#ClearCurbCuts Letter to the Globe

To highlight challenges pedestrians face daily, WalkBoston produced a short video showcasing Amy Corcoran Hunt, who uses a wheelchair, navigating curb cuts 5 days after a snowstorm. In just 3 blocks Amy encountered 6 impassable curb cuts. The video was posted on Twitter and Facebook and viewed 55,000 times. WBUR then interviewed Amy, Channel 5/WCVB did a piece on the video, and the South End News featured it on its front cover. A letter to the editor by WalkBoston Board member Carol Steinberg followed:

During these snowy, icy days, we want to remind everybody to keep curb cuts completely cleared at all times so that wheelchair users are able to cross the streets like everybody else. I have often rolled to the end of a shoveled sidewalk, only to find the curb cut blocked with snow.
When my path is blocked and I stop, looking desperate, kind strangers will sometimes attempt to hoist my power wheelchair over the piles or stop traffic to help me cross at a driveway. We certainly cannot rely on the kindness, availability, and possible muscle power of strangers.
We must handle the snow so that everybody can get around.

Excerpt of Boston Globe letter 1/12/2018 WalkBoston Board member Carol Steinberg

This article was featured in WalkBoston’s March 2018 newsletter.
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The pedestrian/transit connection—walking to transit

By Erik Scheier/Project Manager, MBTA

More than 30 percent of MBTA customers rely on the MBTA bus system for all or part of their daily commute. Almost all bus customers traverse public roads and sidewalks to access their bus service, which serves over 7,600 bus stops. Providing pedestrians with a safe, accessible, and convenient path of travel to and from each bus stop is critical if the MBTA is going to adequately serve the public, including seniors and persons with disabilities.

The MBTA’s Systemwide Accessibility Department (SWA) recently completed an accessibility audit of all bus stops throughout the system. The audit revealed that a significant portion of the MBTA’s bus stops have varying degrees of accessibility and safety deficiencies. WalkBoston has been a very active participant in the advisory committee and with MBTA staff carrying out these audits under the Plan for Accessible Transit Infrastructure (PATI).

It’s not uncommon for a bus stop to be located along a busy roadway where there are no sidewalks present. For a pedestrian to get to the bus stop, they must travel along the edge of the road — often less than a foot from a busy vehicular travel lane. In other cases, bus customers are dropped off on an isolated sidewalk or traffic island without any ramps or sidewalk connections. For someone in a wheelchair, they are literally stranded. A significant portion of bus stops don’t meet ADA requirements; pedestrian ramps are too steep or non-existent and sidewalk paths of travel are blocked.

The MBTA is currently advancing a program that starts to address these deficiencies and dramatically improve walking connections to bus service. Starting this summer, the MBTA will be engaging in a yearlong project to construct improvements at over 140 bus stops located in 20 different communities. These bus stops were identified in the recently completed audit as being the worst bus stops in the system in terms of accessibility.

Improvements will include new sidewalks, curbing, pedestrian ramps, signage, and general path of travel improvements. New crosswalks will be installed at multiple locations and several of these will be provided with flashing beacons or warning signs with flashing LEDs. The project will also include limited construction of bulb-outs, bus shelters, and benches.

Along with removing serious safety hazards and barriers to access, these improvements will improve and enhance walkers’ experience along sidewalks and streetscapes. Reconstructed and fully accessible bus stops with customer amenities will improve the experience of our current customers, and encourage new bus riders.

In addition to the MBTA, 15 Regional Transit Authorities (RTAs) provide bus service to cities and towns across the state. WalkBoston is expanding our work to help RTAs meet walkers’ needs. By improving customer conditions at RTA bus stops and stations, we can further expand transit use and reduce driving trips.