Transportation for America and the reauthorization of the transportation bill
You all probably already know about Transportation for America, the excellent transportation and lobbying organization that is bringing transportation interests to national planning, beyond the simple...
View ArticleSix bills to keep an eye on at the federal level
Every six years, the federal transportation bill needs to be re-authorized. The current one is overdue to be reauthorized -- the vote on it was postponed from October to December 18. The following...
View ArticleTexting while driving
Today's Boston Globe reports that the Boston City council is developing a measure to ban texting while driving in the City of Boston.This is great. As far as I can tell, no one doubts that texting and...
View ArticleIt made my day
A friend recently introduced me to the entertaining website It Made My Day. It has nothing to do with pedestrianism or urban planning; it's just funny little stories about things that made people...
View ArticleTravel lanes vs parking vs active transportation
Getting back to removing travel lanes, we need to become bolder in our thinking and stop believing there’s a level playing field out there. The cities that have high rates of walking and bicycling also...
View ArticleSanta should have cookies AND veggies if he's going to walk
I am utterly charmed by this analysis of Santa's energy expenditure while delivering presents.According to our Holiday Calorie Calculator, if Santa had a cup of carrot and celery sticks at each...
View ArticleFund public transit! Call your legislators and Gov. Patrick
For those of you with short attention spans for this sort of thing, I'm going to start with my call to action and then move into the essay portion of it.Did you or someone you know get stuck in Tuesday...
View ArticleMr. Walker vs. Mr. Wheeler
You know how, when you're walking, drivers are all inconsiderate jerks, and when you're driving, pedestrians are slow, annoying obstacles?Certainly Disney's Goofy has some experience with this: Goofy...
View ArticleToday's worst idea: dashboard computing
Yesterday's New York Times included Driven to Distraction - Despite Risks, Carmakers Integrate the Web With the Dash. This article reports on the increasing number of carmakers and technology companies...
View ArticleThis Thursday, StreetTalk: "Streets for whom?"
StreetTalkStreets for whom?by Barbara Knecht, Director of Design, Institute for Human Centered DesignThurs, Feb 4, 7-9 PM@ LivableStreets office, 100 Sidney St, CambridgeOpen to the public. Suggested...
View ArticleIt's the middle of February; how's your winter going?
You wouldn't expect your neighbor to clear the snow on the street in front of his house, so why would you depend on him to clear the sidewalk in front of it?(From Phil's Blog)In Massachusetts, we get...
View ArticleCreative visualization of transportation data
In addition to being a bit of a transportation geek, I love creative and engaging ways of displaying data, so this post over at infrastructurist is enough to make me scream like my mother at a Beatles...
View ArticleCell phone impairment and pedestrians
There's a lot of talk lately about the dangers of distracted driving. In Massachusetts, state legislators are working on a safe driving bill (it passed in the House in February, and is currently in the...
View ArticleWalkBoston news
Here at WalkBoston, we're busy getting ready for our annual meeting on Thursday! I hope you're all planning to attend. Click here for the invitation and details. Spread the word!Also, we got a nice...
View ArticleLife takes place on foot
Wow, our annual meeting happened and I forgot to blog for a month. Oops!Yesterday, one of our interns was raving to me about a book he recently discovered about the design of public spaces: Jan Gehl's...
View ArticleWalkBoston pleased with USDOT's stance on walking and biking
Today, we're sending this letter to Ray LaHood, US Secretary of Transportation:Dear Secretary LaHood,WalkBoston is delighted with your new Federal Department of Transportation policy statement in...
View ArticleThe pain of commuting
There are a lot of reasons we at WalkBoston love walking. We love the opportunity to interact with our neighbors when we're on foot. We love the human pace of it. We love the vibrancy of a neighborhood...
View ArticleMobile outdoor treadmills: a new trend?
Long time readers of this blog will remember this post about the Treadmobil, a ungainly device for people who want to use a treadmill outside. Who could imagine there would be call for such a thing?...
View ArticleThe urban realm for children
I tend to be quite wary of the refrain "But what about the children?" As a rule, I hear this trotted out in alarmist tones calling for conservatism and decisions based on fear. Especially in my work on...
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A Longfellow Bridge for the 21st century
WalkBoston and fellow advocates urge MassDOT to consider a visionary plan for the Longfellow Bridge, taking advantage of the necessity for repairs and turning it into an opportunity to make the bridge...
View ArticleImpatience and distracted driving
Last week, I was out in Fitchburg to talk to a youth group about being pedestrian advocates and how to do walking audits in their communities. I got a zipcar to go to and from, and on my way back into...
View ArticleSidewalks Make Safe Places
Recently here at WalkBoston we had an internet and phone outage that left me, trusty intern, without my usual work to do. Fortunately it so happened that I had been reading Jane Jacobs' prolific book,...
View ArticleLivableStreets Street Party! This Thursday
This is going to be a super fun party:LivableStreets Street Party!Celebrate our 5th anniversary!Thursday, July 22, 5-8 pm (rain date 29th)Enter at 100 Sidney Street, Cambridge (map), and play on...
View ArticlePedestrianism Under The Influence
We’ve all been warned not to drink and drive, but where does pedestrianism fit in? Statistics show that pedestrians killed in vehicular collisions are disproportionately likely to be intoxicated. These...
View ArticleCraigie Bridge bike/ped use?
Our friend Megan Ramey writes to ask:Dear Boston bicycle and pedestrian community,Anybody commute or ride regularly on the Craigie Bridge? If so, can you get in touch with me? Here's what I'm trying...
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