#WalkBoston Newsletter

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The key to BRT success? Walking.

By Joseph Cutrufo  Joseph Cutrufo is a former member of the WalkBoston staff and current Director of Communications and Connecticut Policy at Tri-State Transportation Campaign.  In March 2015, Connecticut cut the ribbon on CTfastrak, New England’s first bus rapid transit system. CTfastrak features a 9.4-mile bus-only guideway which runs from downtown New Britain through Newington and West Hartford to its terminus in downtown Hartford. CTfastrak has outpaced ridership projections so far. But the real test for CTfastrak will be whether it can transform the way people travel in greater Hartford, where 81 percent of commuters drive to work alone — even higher than the national average of 76 percent. Not long after the system launched, prospective riders bemoaned the lack of parking near stations. Predictably, the Connecticut Department of Transportation responded by building more parking. But when people won’t use the system due to a lack of parking, we shouldn’t ask, “Where can we build more parking.” We should ask, “Why can’t people get here without a car?” In greater Hartford, the answer is simple: the neighborhoods surrounding CTfastrak stations aren’t dense enough, and the streets in station areas don’t safely accommodate walking.  Some in the CTfastrak corridor recognize these challenges. The City of New Britain hired a consultant to run a series of public workshops to identify what kind of developments would be most appropriate for the city’s three CTfastrak stations. And in West Hartford, town officials amended local zoning regulations to allow mixed-used development around CTfastrak stations, where much of the land is currently zoned for industrial uses. But in suburban Newington, the town’s zoning board passed a moratorium on “high density development” shortly after CTfastrak service launched. Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy has set aside funds to help speed along transit-oriented development projects, but ultimately the region needs a more holistic approach to making greater Hartford a more walkable region. The state had a chance to start the process through legislation in 2015, but a bill proposing a “Transit Corridor Development Authority” was viewed unfavorably by towns that saw it as a threat to home rule. That won’t be the end of the movement to unchain the greater Hartford area from car-dominant planning. One place to look for inspiration is the city of Hartford, where a major zoning overhaul seeks to undo a half-century in which the city’s parking inventory increased by 30,000 as the population declined by 40,000 people. 

This article was featured in WalkBoston’s Winter 2017 newsletter.

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Improving mobility for seniors and those with disabilities

By Rachel Fichtenbaum  Rachel Fichtenbaum is a mobility information specialist at MassMobility. She researches best practices in community transportation, and disseminates them to practitioners statewide, providing technical assistance to help organizations improve mobility. Finding transportation can be a challenge for seniors and people with disabilities looking to get to medical appointments, jobs, or other destinations, especially in suburban and rural areas. While some require a ride, walking is also an important mode of travel. Over the last five years, the state’s MassMobility program – a joint initiative of the Executive Office of Health and Human Services and MassDOT – has worked with transportation providers, human service agencies, and advocates in all regions of Massachusetts to identify needs and develop solutions to increase mobility for seniors, people with disabilities, and low-income commuters. Improved walkability is a recurring theme of our conversations and our work. Walkability facilitates access to transit, getting from home to the bus route, and then from the bus stop to the destination. When the members of the Cape and Islands Regional Coordinating Council reviewed results of a survey of over 250 transit riders and potential riders, lack of sidewalks or other infrastructure along bus routes emerged as the number one barrier preventing people from using public transit. As a result, the Cape Cod Regional Transit Authority has partnered with regional planners on a bus stop audit to determine where improvements may be needed. Walkability near bus stops is a particularly important issue for travel trainers, people who teach seniors and people with disabilities the skills and knowledge they need to ride transit independently and safely. Earlier this year, travel trainers from around the state convened for a presentation on intersection design from Meg Robertson, Director of the Orientation and Mobility department at the Massachusetts Commission for the Blind. Using images of Massachusetts intersections to illustrate her points, Robertson presented an overview of types of intersections and challenges each type can present to pedestrians. She emphasized that street crossing involves a number of choices, and that while no travel trainer can prevent all danger, risk factors can be reduced. Pedestrian safety is also important for people who use wheelchairs and mobility devices. AGE TRIAD, a group of public safety officials and senior centers representing the Berkshire County towns of Alford, Great Barrington, and Egremont, as well as the local Fairview Hospital, sponsored a “Be Seen, Be Safe” event at the Great Barrington Senior Center in July – all attendees received free, safety-yellow vests. Staff and volunteers gave out flags for scooters and helped attendees decorate their scooters with reflective tape. The event was spurred by a tragic crash in which a driver of an SUV hit a person using a scooter who was crossing the street from senior housing to a grocery store in Great Barrington in 2015. The driver said she never saw the pedestrian, so AGE TRIAD, at the urging of the Great Barrington Chief of Police William Walsh, decided to conduct a public awareness campaign to increase pedestrian safety and visibility.  To learn more about these or other projects, please visit MassMobility at www.mass.gov/hst, or subscribe to its monthly newsletter at www.tinyurl.com/MassMobility This article was featured in WalkBoston’s printed Winter 2017 newsletter. ———————————————————————————————— Join WalkBoston’s Mailing List to keep up to date on advocacy issues.

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Rural walking in Massachusetts

WalkBoston began its work in rural communities with the publication of “Rural Walking in Massachusetts.” Historically walking was the primary mode of travel in rural areas, so town boundaries were drawn an acceptable three-mile walking distance around the town center. Today, the car has taken over as the primary mode of transportation for rural residents. As a result many roadways are now dangerous for people walking to town and development patterns add challenges. Challenge 1: People must walk along narrow roads with no sidewalks to reach everyday destinations. The topography, drainage, and land ownership make widening roads complicated and sometimes impossible. Even if a road were wide enough, community resources may not be prioritized for walking. To accommodate all users safely on narrow rights-of-way two design recommendations may apply: • Pedestrian lane: pavement striping to create space for walkers on the roadway itself • Shared roadway or yield street: an unmarked road (no lines) designed to serve people walking, biking, and driving within the roadway.   These strategies are typically used on residential streets with low traffic volumes. The Urban, Rural and Suburban Complete Streets Design Manual for the City of Northampton and Communities in Hampshire County has specific design information and graphic examples. Challenge 2: State-owned roads are the main streets of many rural communities. Since many rural towns do not own these roads, the local government has limited control over design, maintenance, or speed limits on their main streets. This makes it difficult to implement infrastructure changes that slow traffic and improve pedestrian safety, goals that many of the communities we’ve worked with are hoping to achieve.  MassDOT’s Complete Streets Funding Program provides money to make short-term, low cost road improvements, but this funding cannot be used on state-owned roads. This is because all MassDOT-owned roads are already required to adopt a complete streets design approach. Municipalities are dependent on the state’s interpretation of a complete streets design for these main streets - and more significantly, improvements happen on the state’s timeline. Despite these limitations, WalkBoston encourages communities to pass Complete Streets policies. A Complete Streets policy is an effective tool to improve pedestrian safety and community walkability. With a policy in place, cities and towns demonstrate their commitment to the approach.  As we learn of barriers to walking that are specific to rural communities, WalkBoston will continue to advocate for solutions that address these issues and allow rural communities to take advantage of the funding initiatives and legislative changes that suburban and urban communities already enjoy.   Stacey Beuttell is the Deputy Executive Director for WalkBoston. This article was featured in WalkBoston’s October 2017 newsletter.

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Town of Lenox on the move

Lenox, in the Berkshires, has just over 5,000 residents. It is largely rural with a small downtown, parks, public art, great restaurants, Tanglewood, and The Mount/Edith Wharton’s Home. In Lenox, you get the small-town vibe but big-city culture. Residents want to stay in Lenox as they age. Millennials across the country are opting to live in traditionally dense, accessible neighborhoods. So in the past year, Lenox has embraced walkability and adopted a Complete Streets policy. The process started by conducting two walk audits with WalkBoston and working with local partners to install “pop-up” Complete Street interventions. Working with Age Friendly Berkshires, the town installed two temporary curb extensions on Main Street and ordered “WalkYourCity” signs directing residents and visitors to destinations such as Tanglewood, Shakespeare and Co., restaurants, and playgrounds.  Getting decision makers and stakeholders into the neighborhood has been a big “win.” Seeing is believing. The “pop-up” curb extensions were a low-cost and very effective tool to demonstrate how to slow down car traffic and give walkers better visibility and more ability to be seen. During one walk audit, a Board of Selectmen member joined us. Noting an inaccessible curb ramp, the group stopped to take a look. The Selectmen asked the Department of Public Works Superintendent and Town Planner to fix the ramp before the current repaving project ended. It got fixed that week. Partnerships, walk audits, temporary, low-cost installations all make what often seem like lofty or challenging goals and solutions, seem doable. You leverage resources and expertise, and get feedback immediately. We plan to submit our curb extension project as part of our Complete Streets Tier III funding request. This project makes the street safer for all users and we know we have support after testing and educating people about the benefits. This effort has been positive due to the many partnerships including WalkBoston, Mass in Motion, Be Well Berkshires, MassDOT Complete Streets Program, Berkshire Regional Planning Commission, Age Friendly Berkshires, the Department of Public Works, and members of the Board of Selectmen. Gwen Miller is the Land Use Director and Town Planner for Lenox, MA. This article was featured in WalkBoston’s October 2017 newsletter.

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Automated enforcement?

Our streets are experiencing a rise of serious injuries and fatalities. As the Boston Globe recently reported, all traffic deaths in 2017 are up 46% over the same period of 2013. This unacceptable trend affects people walking, biking, and driving. Drivers who are distracted by texting and apps are a major cause of crashes. An Act to reduce traffic fatalities (Senate Bill 1905 / House Bill 2877) is intended to make our roads safer in the face of troubling trends. Drafted with broad input, it has 85 cosponsors led by Senator Will Brownsberger and Representatives Jon Hecht and David Rogers. Recognizing that cities and towns need tools to enforce traffic rules, the legislation allows use of automated road safety cameras to enforce speeding, red-light, and school bus stop sign violations. While Massachusetts does not currently enable this, 29 states have some form of camera enforcement and it is common in other countries. Research shows automated cameras are effective. In Montgomery County, Maryland, streets with speed cameras experienced a 39% reduction in fatal and serious injuries. A University of North Carolina Highway Research Center study found installation of red-light cameras can contribute to a slight rise in rear-end crashes, but almost always leads to significant reductions in typically more severe side-impact crashes. The National Transportation Safety Board has endorsed automated enforcement as an effective way to reduce speed and crashes. With the right regulations, automated enforcement can be a highly effective safety tool, and one that doesn’t increase traffic stops—a concern by many in a time of increased racial profiling, and immigration issues. The language In this bill is designed to ensure the best system of enforcement: • Location of cameras would be based on safety benefits, not targeting any population or neighborhood. Cameras would be at high-crash locations where other interventions such as road redesign are not feasible. • It would not be a money grab. The best cameras act as deterrents and not to trick people into fines—few violations are a sign of success. The bill directs the majority of revenues into road improvements, not general funds. Cameras would be well-marked. Revenue-sharing with private camera installation or operating companies would be prohibited, avoiding inappropriate incentives. • Photographs would be of rear license plates, no faces or identifying information, and only if a violation has occurred. Photos would be permanently deleted after ruling. Fines, assessed to the owner of the vehicle, would not exceed $50, won’t increase with additional violations, nor add to insurance points. Law enforcement would need a court-approved warrant to access photos for purposes beyond traffic enforcement. • There would be state oversight, an appeals process, and common-sense emergency exemptions.  Charlie Ticotsky is the policy director of Transportation for Massachusetts (T4MA). Sign up for their email list & follow T4MASS on Twitter.  This article was featured in WalkBoston’s October 2017 newsletter.

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A note from the executive director

Over the last six months WalkBoston worked to craft our 3-year action plan. The journey was as important as arriving. We took stock of what WalkBoston has achieved and thought about the critical next steps toward “Making Massachusetts More Walkable.” This newsletter and the next focus on our new goals and how you can be a part of the changemaking process.

We have accomplished the formidable task of making walking a part of transportation and planning conversations statewide and have helped spread the word that walkability is critical to the health of people and communities.

Next we must ensure communities are safer for people walking, and that investments are made to improve the built environment across the state. By using an equity lens as we work to meet these goals, we will be intentionally inclusive of all ages, abilities, and communities.

How you can help: • Ask for and support changes. Speak up for walking in your own neighborhood, city or town —make sure that local officials hear your voice. • Support laws that improve safety. Ask your State senator and representative to support laws such as banning hand-held device use, and allowing automated traffic enforcement. • We can coach you on how to ask for changes. Reach out to us when you see problems that need to be addressed—we can’t be everywhere all the time but we can support you. • Donate your voice, time, and money to WalkBoston.

Wendy Landman is the executive director of WalkBoston. This article was featured in WalkBoston’s October 2017 newsletter.

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