Hot off the presses, our friends over at West Rox Walks just released the results of the first ever Walk Roxbury Walk Audit, highlighting aspects of Centre Street most in need of pedestrian safety improvements. We welcome our neighbors to the walkability club. Many who live in Roslindale work and shop and West Roxbury, and vice-versa, and thus we care deeply about improving walking conditions there. Be sure to follow West Rox Walks on Twitter and like them on Facebook.
The report’s key recommendations are 1) decrease the speed of vehicular traffic, 2) improve crosswalk safety, 3) add protected bike lanes, and 4) conduct studies of the business section between Knoll and Weld Streets and of the rotary by Holy Name. Stay tuned for next steps!
Please stop by on LILAC SUNDAY (this coming Sunday, May 12) to learn about the project and enjoy some ice cream and music on your way to viewing the lilacs! The entrance is not yet paved, so please wear sturdy shoes or boots
Date and Time: Sunday, May 12, 2019, 10 AM to 3 PM
WalkUP Roslindale is a proud member of the Massachusetts Vision Zero Coalition. The Coalition has been doing great work following the City budget process with respect to safe streets. We’ve reproduced below an announcement about an important transportation budget hearing this Tuesday, May 7, 2019. Please show up if you can!
Faster implementation and more focus on
improving safety along arterial corridors, which are
disproportionately dangerous for all modes.
A permanent, full-time, Boston Police Department
data analyst to clean up crash report data, investigate
trends, and work closely with the Transportation Department, Boston
EMS, and MassDOT to ensure Boston’s crash data is properly
reported.
Clear organizational structures that will help establish
how projects are managed and executed, and better integration
of operations and policies between the Public Works and Transportation
Departments.
In past years, hundreds of you have shown up for the
Boston Transportation Department Budget Hearings, and it has had a
direct impact on securing more funding benefiting Vision
Zero. Can we count on you to keep the momentum going in
2019? Speak up to support safe streets!
For more details about the proposed Transportation
Department budget and what we’re advocating for, read on below.
The Mayor’s proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2020 (FY20)
includes a $4 million investment in Boston’s Walkable Streets and $2
million in bike infrastructure, which will be funded through strategic
changes to the City’s current parking meter rates. Join us at
Boston City Hall to comment in support
of the City Council approving this budget proposal and to call for
more support and faster action.
Within this budget, Massachusetts Vision Zero Coalition
members are working on several specific issues. For more information
and talking points about the following aspects of the budget, see
below:
Please join us to create a street mural on Arboretum Road with Artists from the Mayor’s Mural Team!
Date: Monday, May 6, 2019 Time: 5pm to 8pm Location: Arboretum Road near Washington Street, Roslindale
Please join artists from the City of Boston’s mural team and volunteers from WalkUp Roslindale, and the Arnold Arboretum as we paint a street mural on Arboretum Road! The mural will draw attention to the future entrance to the Arnold Arboretum at the end of the road. The lilacs in the street mural will help celebrate Lilac Sunday.
The road will be closed except for essential traffic while the mural is being painted.
We here at WalkUP Roslindale are just simply awed at the progress that RVMS and the Birch Street merchants have been making on seeing what can be made of the one-block section of Birch between Corinth and Belgrade. Following up on last year’s series of Open Birch Saturdays during June, they’re plunging even further ahead and, as part of the city’s new pilot program for tactical public realm interventions and in cooperation with A Better City and architects Merritt Chase, we will see the first fruits of their labor this week. Check out the facebook page and let the world (or at least the world on facebook) know that you’ll be stopping by to enjoy a little bit more of our city that is being repurposed for people instead of vehicles. It’ll be worth your while — and remember, we’re not closing this part of Birch to anyone, we’re opening it fully to everyone — so, feel free to walk around, sit, read, enjoy, converse in this bit of our neighborhood, and, if you like it, support making it permanent.
We encourage everyone to attend the Robert Street Bridge replacement project’s public meeting scheduled for tomorrow, Monday, 29 April 2019, at 6:30 pm at the Roslindale Community Center (6 Cummins Highway). There should be an opportunity to influence the final design of the project as well as learn more about what the MBTA has planned for the construction period and how it will affect both access to Robert Street and Roslindale Square as well as service on the Needham Line. [NOTE: Photo courtesy Universal Hub.]
In the wake of the driver-on-pedestrian crash on Centre Street in West Roxbury that took the life of neighborhood resident Marilyn Wentworth, there has been a renewed focus on how to make West Roxbury safer for the most vulnerable users of its streets. While much of this focus will be on addressing Centre Street and its manifest problems in the near-term, this is really a neighborhood-wide (indeed, a city-wide) problem. To that end, working with our friends at WalkBoston and walking safety advocates in West Roxbury convened by West Roxbury Main Streets, we’re happy to spread word of a “Ped 101” training and organizing meeting to be held at the Area E-5 Police Station’s community room on Tuesday, April 30, at 6:30 pm. Details can be found at the event’s facebook page. We hope to see you and many of our friends from West Roxbury there and then!!
The meeting comes after two pedestrian fatalities in West Roxbury over the last four months, one on Washington Street in November, and one on Centre Street in February. We urge you to speak up this week for traffic calming measures that also make the roads safer for both cyclists and pedestrians. Details of the meeting below; please spread the word:
Wednesday, February 27, 2019 7-8:30pm Boston Lodge of Elks #10 248 Spring St West Roxbury
