We have been working for many years with our elected leaders to make the Roslindale Gateway Path a reality and were delighted to learn that Sen. Mike Rush has successfully pushed through an amendment to this year’s state budget bill allocating $100,000 toward development of the path. Rep. Liz Malia and her staff are on board to help see this through on the House side. This is a significant step forward for the path, which we hope will be fully funded in the coming years.
Tag: Budget
Important Boston Transportation Department Budget Hearing This Tuesday, May 7, 2019 at 10:30am
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!
RSVP and/or spread the word from this Facebook event page.
Funding is a critical component for building safer streets. Now is your chance to influence the Boston budget process!
Join us in calling for more support and faster implementation of projects this year, by:
1. Attending the Boston Transportation Department Budget Hearing and testifying.
Event
Details:
Tuesday, May 7, 10:30 am – 1:00 pm
@ Boston City
Hall, 5th Floor, Iannella Chamber
2. Asking for support from your at-large and district city councilors for the following priorities:
- 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.
Thank you and we hope to see you on Tuesday!
Massachusetts Vision Zero Coalition
http://www.visionzerocoalition.org
Background
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:
Here are the stakes for the FY2018 Boston Vision Zero Budget
Take 5 minutes to:
- Read this article in the Herald: Battle for safer streets: Nine pedestrians hit in Boston in 1 day.
- 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.