REMINDER: Call to Action – Standouts to Promote New 25 mph Citywide Speed Limit – March 4, 11, 18, & 25

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REMINDER: Despite the cold temps forecast, we are going to stick with our first standout tomorrow morning, March 4, 2017 @ 11 am, at Washington & Cummins in Roslindale Square (Adams Park side of Washington). Bundle up and come on down!

Motivated by the common sense concept that slower vehicle speeds lead to safer streets, Boston, under the leadership of Mayor Walsh, recently exercised its local option to reduce the citywide speed limit from 30 mph to 25 mph as of January 9.  To draw attention to and increase awareness of this important change, WalkUP Roslindale will be organizing 60-minute standouts with hand-held signs around our neighborhood on each of the next 4 Saturdays.

Each standout will start at 11 am and end at 12 pm. The locations are as follows:

March 4 – Roslindale Square (meet on Adams Park side of Cummins/Washington)

March 11 – 5-way American Legion/Canterbury/Cummins (meet by the fire station)

March 18 – Walter/South (meet by Green T)

March 25 – Washington at WR Parkway (meet by the Dunkin Donuts)

We have secured a baker’s dozen signs from Councilor O’Malley (many thanks!), but it would be also be terrific for those interested in participating to bring your own homemade signs promoting the change as well. Thanks!!

Slow Streets Community Meeting Successful

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Neighborhood Slow Streets Application PacketDespite inclement weather, we had a good turnout for Monday night’s Slow Streets info session. For anyone who was unable to make it, please check out the slides from the presentation.. Let’s put Rozzie on the map as the next neighborhood to take this important step toward Vision Zero!

Neighborhood Slow Streets — They’re coming, so learn about how to participate!

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2/13/17 storm update: note changed location to 20 Belgrade Avenue!

On Monday, February 13, 2017, at 6:30 pm at 20 Belgrade Avenue, Unit 7 (2nd Floor) the Roslindale Community Center (Washington St & Cummins Hwy), WalkUP Roslindale will host a community organizing and informational workshop on the Boston Transportation Department’s new program on Neighborhood Slow Streets and how our neighbors throughout Roslindale can come together and go about preparing for and applying to become part of the program.

Learn more about the program here: https://www.boston.gov/transporta…/neighborhood-slow-streets

Here are the stakes for the FY2018 Boston Vision Zero Budget

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Take 5 minutes to:

  1. Read this article in the Herald: Battle for safer streets: Nine pedestrians hit in Boston in 1 day.
  2. View this local TV news piece from WCVB: Steps being taken in Boston to curb pedestrian crashes.

Here’s the upshot: Policy and aspirations in this city around walking and cycling and safer streets for all are not being met with resources. When the Herald takes note and publishes a front page article on the 9 pedestrian crashes that occurred on a single day last week and then local tv devotes as much time as they just have to the same issue, it begins to feel like the time may finally have come to really do what needs to be done to make our streets safer and better for all users. The municipal fiscal year starts every July 1. The FY2018 budget will be developed and approved in the next handful of months. The Vision Zero line item in the current FY2017 budget is $3.1 Million for a city of about 670,000 people. As the TV piece indicates, that’s woefully inadequate. On a per capita basis, it’s on the order of a third of NYC’s vision zero budget and 1/25th of San Francisco’s. Let that sink in. More to come on this.

South/Bussey Proposed Improvements – Public Meeting – 6 pm on 2/1 @ Arboretum Weld Hill Facility

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Bussey and South Street
Intersection of Bussey and South Street, seen from South Street heading southwest away from Jamaica Plain

Share this as broadly as you can: the Boston Transportation Department (BTD) and Public Works Department (PWD) will hold a public meeting on proposed improvements for the Bussey-South intersection – 6 pm on February 1, 2017 at the Weld Hill Research Building in the Arboretum (1300 Centre Street). This is currently one of the least pedestrian friendly intersections in and around the Arboretum and is in desperate need of a walkable redesign. Please attend to lend your critical thinking and advocacy skills for safer vehicle speeds and better walking and cycling in our neighborhood.

 

Looking back at 2016 – Pausing to take stock at WalkUP Roslindale

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We saw our share of highs and lows this year in advocating for the cause of a more walkable (as well as bikeable and transit-accessible) Roslindale. Here are my own personal five most important things that happened and as with last year, I would ask that any differences of opinion or emphasis be raised in the comments or in a follow up blog post:

  1. Arboretum Gateway Path Visioning and Initial Feasibility Analysis – Picking up a worthwhile idea that others in our neighborhood had already championed, we held a visioning session at the RCC in late March on the Arboretum Gateway Path. Turn out was high and enthusiastic and included the extremely able support of the students from Tufts University’s Urban and Environmental Policy program, who released their community vision report in May. We then partnered with LivableStreets Alliance on hiring Horsley Witten as the selected consultant to further the effort by doing an initial feasibility analysis, undertook a ride-walk of the proposed route in June and, in early December, we hosted a more focused potential route walk with LSA, HW, and the Arboretum. Surveying work on the portion of the proposed path within the MBTA property adjacent to the Needham Line was completed in late December. We hope to have the feasibility study available to share with our neighbors, the Arboretum, and city and state officials, in spring with a follow up meeting at the RCC.
  2. Responses to Pedestrian Fatalities – Our city witnessed a spate of pedestrian fatalities early in 2016, and Roslindale was not spared. Silvia Acosta was struck and killed by a hit-and-run driver at Washington and Blue Ledge in January and then Johnette Sims was struck and killed by a drunk/hit-and-run driver at Canterbury and Morton in September. Although it was slow in coming and the topic of much frustration, the tragedy at Washington and Blue Ledge did finally result in improvements to that intersection several months after a site visit by Boston Vision Zero Task Force members. Not so with the fatality at Canterbury and Morton. Because Morton is a state highway at that location, there has, to my knowledge, been no site visit or any attempted response of any kind to improve the safety of pedestrians and bicyclists at that location. The city has no jurisdiction there and the state agency that does have jurisdiction, MassDOT, has not taken any action.
  3. Ulrich Bike Corral – After what seemed like an interminable delay, the Ulrich Bike Corral was finally installed at Corinth and Cohasset in early June. Many WUR folks played a role in working with RVMS to bring the corral to fruition, especially including Sarah Kurpiel Lee, who was instrumental in the final push with city staff and elected officials. Special thanks are also due to the owners of Fornax – Chris and Kim Fallon – for taking on maintenance and care of the corral along with the parklet. We are hoping to be able to install some improved directional and identification signs for the corral this spring.
  4. Roslindale Village Walkable Film Series – With a huge lift from Kevin Tobin, son of Greg, we hosted a rotating film series in and around the village that focused on urban and social issues, including battling disinvestment in the Dudley Triangle, struggling against the 1970s arson wave in the Fenway, and issues concerning gun control in our country. We are hoping to have another set of dates and films of more general interest this year as well.
  5. Vision Zero Rally for Safer Streets – There is no question that the city, despite adopting Vision Zero in early 2015 and producing what seemed like an achievable action plan in December of 2015, moved far more slowly than had been expected in making real progress on improving the safety of our streets for all users – especially people on foot and on bicycles. The major advocacy groups involved in Vision Zero — WalkBoston, LSA, Boston Cyclists Union, and MassBike — felt compelled by the lack of access to hold a rally on City Hall Plaza in late September. I was happy to attend as WUR’s representative (we also signed on as co-sponsors) and focused on implementing Rapid Response and the Neighborhood Slow Streets components of the Action Plan. My comments especially urged that NSS be implemented city-wide in 3 years — currently policy calls for 2 areas per year and given the size of the areas, likely several decades to complete. Despite immense popularity among local residents in the proposed areas, NSS remains a dead letter. Plans that were supposed finalized in the late fall with a first phase done before year-end have come to exactly nothing on the ground. We will need to push, and push hard, for the city to move more quickly and do the right thing faster. Perhaps the imminent reset of the city’s default speed limit from 25 mph to 30 mph will help break the logjam.

Arboretum Gateway Path Tour and Feedback Session This Saturday, December 3, 2016 at 10am at Mendum Street Gate

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Rozzie Gateway Path Entrance (image courtesy Halvorson Design Partnership, Inc.)
Rozzie Gateway Path Entrance (image courtesy Halvorson Design Partnership, Inc.)

RSVP Link

Saturday, December 3, 2016
10am-11am
Meet at Mendum Street Gate

Join WalkUP Roslindale along with representatives from the Arnold Arboretum and path design consultant Horsley Witten Group for a site tour of the proposed Arboretum Gateway Path, focusing on the segment closest to Roslindale. We’ll provide updates on progress for this initiative which will improve access to the park from Roslindale Square, as well as provide a better active transportation link between Roslindale and Forest Hills. We’re also eager to get your feedback on path design, including surface materials, lighting issues, and proposed routes. This will be an opportunity to meet fellow Roslindale residents who love to walk. And at present, the weather forecast is good!

Meet at the Arnold Arboretum, Peters Hill at the Mendum Street Gate (corner intersection of Mendum and Fairview) at 10am, this Saturday, December 3. The event should run about an hour. RSVP so we can plan for the group size, and spread the word.

Child hit by car on Metropolitan Avenue in Roslindale

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On this World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims (according to the World Health Organization, 1.2 million people killed every year by traffic violence and 50 million injured), we are dismayed to report another serious pedestrian crash in our neighborhood. On Friday, a nine-year old boy was hit by a car shortly after stepping off his school bus at the intersection of Metropolitan Ave and Kittredge Street. The most informative media report comes from WCVB: Boy recovering after being hit by car in Roslindale. We extend our sympathy to the boy and his family, and wish him the speediest possible recovery.

Although it looks like the child will recover, we must remember it is predictable and indeed certain that crashes like this will happen again and again until and unless we do more than pay lip service to Vision Zero Boston. A quick look at the intersection, which is in the middle of a slope just past a peak limiting line-of-sight visibility, reveals a stark absence of critical infrastructure to protect people on foot: no crosswalk, no traffic calming, no curb bump-outs, not even a stop sign on the main street in a densely settled area with chronic speeding problems. There are dozens (perhaps hundreds) of intersections like this in Roslindale alone, and the fact that people keep getting hit and occasionally killed by cars in them is a reminder that these incidents are crashes, not accidents.

Intersection of Metropolitan Ave and Kittredge Street
Intersection of Metropolitan Ave and Kittredge Street

It’s time to demand more. We can’t just wait for someone to be seriously or fatally injured on a one-off basis to take a look at specific street crossings, and then spend a year patching up that one spot. Sign the Vision Zero Petition, speak to your neighbors, and tell your elected leaders and appointed bureaucrats at every possible opportunity that it’s time to proactively address road safety across the entire city. There are plenty of successful examples to follow, but at the rate we’re going now it will be a century or more before we realize the core Vision Zero principle: No loss of life is acceptable.

Boston City Council Transportation Policy Briefings

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Let's talk transportation policyWe are delighted that the Boston City Council’s Committee on Parks, Recreation & Transportation has announced a series of public discussions, in partnership with Northeastern University Professor Peter G. Furth, on several critical topics. These discussions will be held in the Iannella Chamber on the 5th Floor of City Hall, and also livestreamed at http://www.cityofboston.gov/citycouncil/live.asp. Come in person to be part of the conversation, and please spread the word! Kudos to City Council President Michelle Wu for taking the major leadership role to make this happen.

  • Tues, Nov. 15th, 12-1:30pm — Low-Stress Bicycle Network
  • Tues, Dec. 6th, 4-5:30pm — Pedestrian Service and Safety
  • Thurs, Jan. 5th, 4-5:30pm — Systematic Safety — European Vision Zero Principles Applied to Boston
  • Thursday, Feb. 2nd, 4-5:30pm — Transit Signal Priority
  • Thurs, Mar. 2nd, 4-5:30pm — Parking Management

See also this flyer for these events. Questions or comments to Henry Cohen at 617-635-3115.

The Community Preservation Act: Yes! on 5

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Yes!Most public and media attention to the questions that will appear on our ballots next Tuesday has focused on questions 1 through 4. But for WalkUP Rozzie and many allied organizations, Question 5 has the greatest impact potential. We need your help in spreading the word (both via social media and in the real world)!

On November 8th, Boston voters have the opportunity to secure a lasting investment for local parks and open space, historic preservation, and affordable housing. The Community Preservation Act (CPA), which will appear as Question #5 on the ballot, is your opportunity to improve quality of life in Boston by helping the city:

  • Build and improve parks, playgrounds, trails, and gardens – including greenways that make up the Emerald Network
  • Acquire land to protect water quality and reduce climate change impacts
  • Restore and preserve historic buildings, and rehabilitate underutilized resources
  • Create thousands of new, affordable homes for seniors, families, and veterans

Currently, too many people in Boston lack adequate access to parklands and open space. WalkUP Roslindale strongly believes that safe, enjoyable streets, parks, and neighborhoods should not be a privilege afforded to some, but a right guaranteed to all. It’s time to invest in a better, more equitable Boston.

Through CPA, the City of Boston has an opportunity to generate over $20 million every year in dedicated funding to create and improve parks, restore historic sites, and build new affordable homes throughout Boston’s neighborhoods.

Thanks to our friends at Livable Streets Alliance for help with this copy. See also the Yes on 5 website and this well-written column from Adrian Walker at the Boston Globe in support of the measure.