Just what we need: Treadmobil

I hope everyone has enjoyed whatever winter holidays you celebrate, and I hope you've had a chance to get out and about on foot. Here in the Boston area, almost all the snow we got a couple of weekends ago has melted, making walking once again easy and enjoyable.

Did you get any good walking gifts for your holiday of choice? If not, you could consider this extravagant absurdity:



(Click through to the YouTube page for [some profane] the amusing comments, if you're so inclined.)

This thing is hilarious. Tip o' the sneaker to agile reader Mark for pointing this out to me.

Let it snow?

Today, I'm surly.

It was a beautiful, cozy weekend to welcome the official start of winter with a couple of big snowstorms in the Boston area. I really love snow, both being out in it and also being inside and watching it fall while sipping a hot drink and enjoying the sight from the comfort of my living room.

What I don't love, however, is dealing with navigating through the complete mess our sidewalks become once the snow is done falling. If this were my personal blog, this post would be full of obscenities, so please feel free to fill them in wherever seems appropriate as you read.

This morning, I mentally praised my neighbors who have done even a moderate job of clearing the snow from their sidewalks in the last few days. Unfortunately, this was largely overridden by muttering about the people (and businesses!!) who haven't even begun clearing their sidewalks, making the sidewalks effectively impassable for pedestrians on their way to ... well, anywhere, really. This meant that nearly all the pedestrians I saw today were walking on the street, which is narrower than usual, due to piles of snow on either side, meaning cars have less room to maneuver around people on foot. This isn't safe or comfortable for anyone!

Also, the street is slippery, as I learned when I had my foot slide right out from under me, so surely some of my grumbling is due to having taken an unpleasant spill first thing today. Fortunately, the cab that was approaching was going slowly enough that there was no risk of my getting run over while I picked myself up.

Nevertheless, this is a great opportunity to remind everyone that snow clearing is an issue of vital concern to all of us. Please check out our snow/sidewalks page to see what WalkBoston has to say on the issue.

And if you have time, why not take a shovel out to the corner and dig a connection between the sidewalk and the street where the plows have left nearly impassable mountains of slush? If you do this and send me a picture, I'll praise you publicly and buy you a pony! Or a coffee. Whichever you'd prefer.

Extreme crosswalk geekery

I am about to get really crosswalk geeky on you:

There are a lot of different patterns used for crosswalks, all of which are intended to give pedestrians a clear, protected zone in which to cross a street. As I'm sure we've all observed, they can be used at intersections and at mid-block crossings. But what's the deal with all the different designs?

Okay, first, in Massachusetts, the "standard" design (and the one the state pays for when cities want to put in or repaint a crosswalk) is this:

There's one of these near my house, actually, I didn't realize until just a few months ago that this was a crosswalk at all -- I always figured that these were simply lines in intersections to tell cars where to stop, and I found them confusing when located mid-block. They're okay, I guess, but they're not very visible. Also, because they run perpendicular to traffic, they get worn and faded quite quickly. D






Even worse is the dashed style:

This one has all the disadvantages of the standard style, plus it's effectively pre-faded. Maybe the fact that it's dashed makes it more visible? I'm not sure. In any case, I don't like it. D-








Another that I don't see particularly frequently is the solid crosswalk:

This one is certainly more visually arresting than either the standard or the dashed. Sometimes I see these painted yellow, or with white borders and yellow fill. Not bad. It uses a lot of paint (or, more often, these days, thermoplastic), though, which is costly, needs a fair amount of maintenance, and might be slippery for both vehicles and pedestrians. C







The continental style is among the most commonly used in and around Boston, I think:

The stripes are attention-getting, and because they're oriented parallel to vehicular travel, they will be more durable over time. Vehicle tires will, at least some of the time, miss the markings, which should decrease skidding in cases where that material is more slippery than the pavement. Pedestrians also won't have to walk on a solid painted or plastic surface. B+







The ladder style has a lot of the same advantages:

The framing bars that run perpendicular don't, to my mind, add much, except a zone requiring more frequent maintenance. On the other hand, the kids I've worked with for Safe Routes to School liked the imagery of "climbing the ladder" as a reminder for them to stay within the crosswalk zone when crossing streets. And since the consequence of worn framing strips is that the ladder will simply look like a Continental style crosswalk, I suppose that's not a big deal. B






Zebra crosswalks have a certain visual appeal:

The problem, as you probably surmised, is that the angle means more wear over time. B-










So those are the most common crosswalk types I've seen out and about. But this post was actually inspired by a couple of new (to me) crosswalk styles that I think are pretty nifty:

First, there's the piano style:

The big win here is that you still have a very visible crosswalk, but by leaving extra room where most vehicle tires will wear, you cut down on any potential skidding and maintenance costs due to the markings getting worn down. Nice. A





In a different vein, you get the double ladder:

Instead of reducing skidding for vehicles, this one leaves an unmarked zones where pedestrians can walk and reduce potential slippage for them. What's not to like? A









Finally, putting those two good ideas together, there's the double piano:

It's visible. It experiences reduced wear and tear. It minimizes potential slipping and skidding for vehicles and pedestrians. This is a great crosswalk. A+

Hey, I'm in the news!

Well, okay, mostly it's walking that's in the news in Hub workers: These routes are made for walking in the Boston Herald over the weekend. Though the photo isn't in the online version, there paper includes a picture of me and WalkBoston's Bob Sloane leading a group of Greenbuild conference attendees to an off-site session led by Wendy Landman and Doug Farr the week before Thanksgiving.

Do you know why you drive the way you do?

As far as I can tell, all drivers speed. I do it; every single driver I've been driven by in the last year does it; you almost certainly do it, too. I find myself speeding for a lot of reasons, but they nearly all boil down to: I speed because I feel safe doing so. After all, if I didn't feel safe, I'd slow down, right?

That's the conclusion reached by An empirical analysis of driver perceptions of the relationship between speed limits and safety, a recent study at Purdue University. As the abstract states:

A key motivating factor in drivers’ tendency to exceed the speed limit is that they believe that the excess speed does not threaten safety. This paper, specifically studies this matter by using a survey that asked drivers how fast above the speed limit they feel they can drive before safety is threatened ... Estimation findings show that drivers’ perception of the speed above the speed limit at which they will receive a speeding ticket is a critical determinant of what they believe is a safe speed – suggesting that enforcement plays an important role in safety perceptions. Other variables found to be significant factors in determining the speed above the speed limit at which safety is first threatened include age, gender, being previously stopped for speeding, and drivers’ ethnicity.

This means that planners and advocates who want cars to slow down should focus not on speed laws but instead on changing drivers' perceptions. We don't want streets that are unsafe, but we do want them to feel unsafe, or just a little. For example, we know that narrowing the lane of traffic will slow driving speeds as drivers feel more constrained. Making neighborhood streets bumpy rather than smooth will discourage people from flying down the street far better than putting up a speed limit sign.

What are other effective ways you've experienced a decrease in your sense of safety at speed?

Contested Streets

Do you ever wonder what our cities will look like 10, 50 or 100 years in the future? I was recently watching the trailer for "Contested Streets: Breaking New York City Gridlock", which included some film clips from the early part of the 20th century, showing how city streets were shared by pedestrians and cars then, and, of course, now. I would dearly love to get a glimpse into the future to see what we're doing in 2088, but for now, I'll have to settle for looking back and thinking about planning well for a good future for our city streets.

If you're interested in seeing Contested Streets, but you don't want to buy the DVD, and you're in the Boston area, check out these screenings:

· Thursday, November 20, 2008, 4-5pm at the Harvard School of Public Health, Kresge G3 (Boston, MA)

· Thursday, December 4, 2008, 6-7pm at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, Piper Auditorium (Cambridge, MA)

This movie is being offered as an extension of the "Bicycle Environments in the U.S. and the Netherlands/Denmark" class (Harvard School of Public Health). The showing of the movie is sponsored by the following groups in alphabetical order:

Harvard Urban Planning Organization at the Graduate School of Design (HUPO)
Harvard School of Public Health Post Doc Association (HSPH PDA)
Interdisciplinary Consortium on Urban Planning and Public Health (ICUPPH)
Livable Streets Alliance

Who uses sidewalks?

Who uses sidewalks?

We first think of walkers when we think of sidewalks, and typically able-bodied walkers at that. We might think of people of different ages, and with different goals to their activities -- some are on an errand and in a hurry, and some are just out for an aimless stroll or wandering with small children. Thinking of being at different paces makes me think also of runners, who frequently use sidewalks, too, and when they're crowded, runners wind up running into frustration, weaving amongst slower users.

Among less able-bodied people, we might see people with canes, crutches, walkers -- moving very slowly -- and people in wheelchairs and scooters -- moving quickly!

Speaking of wheels, I also see kids on kick scooters and the occasional person on inline skates. Probably my least favorite wheel-based travelers on sidewalks are people on bikes, who I always imagine must be equally annoyed by the pedestrians they encounter.

Are the sidewalks in your neighborhoods well designed for all the people who use them?

Watertown Walks! Belmont, November 15, 2:00pm

Rock Meadow - Belmont
Saturday, November 15th 2 pm

Join the Watertown Citizens for Environmental Safety for a walk through this 70 acre parcel of conservation lands in Belmont, where we'll see meadowlands, wetlands and community gardens. Options will be available for a short walk, and a somewhat longer walk through BeaverBrook in Waltham.

Rock Meadow is located on Mill Street in Belmont. Pick up Mill Street where it intersects with Trapelo Road, turn right on Mill Street. Heading west, go .3 mile past the entrance to McLean Hospital. Turn left into the driveway to the parking area for Rock Meadow. There is a sign post on the road. If you get to the Concord Street intersection, you've gone too far.

By public transportation, take the #73 bus to Waverly Square. Walk west (toward Waltham) to the intersection of Mill Street, turn right. Follow directions as above.

Join WalkBoston!

As you know, I work (and blog!) for WalkBoston and we are a Massachusetts-based walking advocacy nonprofit working to improve the physical environment for walking and to encourage people to walk more for health and in their daily lives. It's pretty awesome.

And if you ever walk in Massachusetts, or you wish it were easier for you to do so, you should be a member! Membership funds help us do all sorts of advocacy, education and outreach, and, even more importantly, more members make our voice stronger in our efforts to make improvements.

To join, click here, read about the benefits (including, for people joining at the $30 individual level, a $25 Zipcar credit, so your WalkBoston membership is practically free!)

You know you want to :)

This post isn't about walking; it's about hope

[This post does not express the official views or opinions of WalkBoston.]

Last night, I was figuring that today I would write a cheery little post about walking to my polling place, chatting with a few people while waiting in line, and then walking to the subway to come to work, before exhorting y'all to be sure to vote today.

Imagine my surprise, then, when the line at my polling place was not only out the door (which has never happened in my time voting here), but all the way down the block and around the corner. "Perhaps I'll vote after work," I thought to myself. Imagine my further surprise to find myself not only tearing up, but on the verge of full blown crying as I walked by the long line of people waiting to vote.

I have largely been in denial this election season. I feel so afraid, after the last two presidential elections, that getting my hopes up will only result in their being dashed. And in neither of those was I so moved and inspired by any available candidate as I have been by Barack Obama. But even more, I'm grateful to have had my ideas about what's possible, politically, blown open this year.

Until even a year ago, I believed that I would not, in my lifetime, see the United States take seriously the presidential candidacy of a woman or a person of color. To have this happen not only when I'm here to see it but when I'm still in my early 30s amazes me, and it gives me hope. To see so many people in my neighborhood, where our individual votes matter rather less, given the inevitable allotment of Massachusetts's electoral votes to the Democratic party, speaks to inspiration and hope felt by many.

I want to hold onto this feeling when I feel stuck or discouraged in my political work, now and into the future. I want to hold onto this feeling even if I wake up tomorrow to find the election hasn't gone as I wish. I want to imagine that everything we work for is possible.

Halloween safety!

Happy Halloween, everyone!

I'd like to say I dressed up today, but I'm afraid I overslept and am dressed as just a boring old pedestrian, as usual. Oh, well.

But! I'm looking forward to tonight, when hordes of young (and not-so-young) children descend upon my neighborhood in search of treats. Last year, we had nearly 300 trick or treaters come to our house, so you can see that it's serious business in my neck of the woods.

Everywhere, though, Halloween is a time when it's important to take extra care moving about, whether you're on foot, bike, or car.

The Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center has put together these tips for Halloween safety. Check 'em out! And have a safe weekend!

Measure twice, cut once

Last night, I was walking down Elm Street in Davis Square past the bus stop in front of the Social Security office and Dunkin Donuts. As usual, there was a big crowd of people waiting on and around the bench for a bus. And since it was prime after-work time, there was a lot of car and foot traffic around and about, too.

The sidewalk there is about 8 feet wide, and it's an extremely high-traffic spot. Both the Dunk and the Social Security office have a lot of visitors, the bus stop, especially during rush hour, probably has no fewer than 10 people waiting at any given time, and often 20 or more. And, of course, there are a lot of people walking by on their way to or from engagements in Davis Square.

This sidewalk, I thought to myself as I stepped off the curb and into the street to get around the mass of people waiting for a bus, is insufficient. It's insufficient for any of the uses it sees at rush hour, much less all of them. And it leads to pedestrians stepping out into the street in order to get by, not to mention a lot of frustration and annoyance for all involved.

But what can you do about a sidewalk that's not wide enough? Obviously, taking down the buildings and pushing them back isn't an option. The best bet in this case, actually, is probably a curb extension, which would approximately double the width of the sidewalk and could provide plenty of waiting room for bus riders while clearing the rest of the sidewalk for through foot traffic. This would not lose parking, since the curb would extend into the bus zone, but it would mean that one lane of traffic would be blocked when buses stop to load and unload passengers, which would make it a hard sell.

This got me thinking about the importance of careful and thoughtful design at the beginning of any development. In most cases in urban settings, we're working within the constraints of previous decisions with regards to the built-environment, and that limits what we can do going forward. This will always be true, so it's super important for planners and designers to consider all the uses an area might see. These days, as we look ahead to increasingly costly personal-vehicle use, we know that pedestrian and bike uses of streets will represent more and more of the traffic, especially in dense neighborhoods where that's realistically likely to be a major portion of people's daily trips.

This is one of the reasons that I think the work of WalkBoston is so important. The decisions we make today have a real, immediate, and long-term impact on people, communities and neighborhoods. The fact that I have to step into the street to get through shows a failure in the past to effectively foresee the current uses, and that failure constrains how we can respond now. We're not always going to foresee in an accurate way, but it's incumbent upon us to think carefully about our decisions. At WalkBoston, we daily raise this kind of issue with urban designers and planners to keep all street uses on the table in the planning process.

Presidential Campaigns in Boston Walk: Saturday, November 1, 10:00AM

Hey! Do you have plans this weekend?

Oh, sure, we're all dressing up and handing out candy on Friday, but what are you doing on Saturday morning? How about a walk?

Join us for our Presidential Campaigns in Boston Walk this Saturday morning 10-11:30AM. ($10/members free)

Walk with Clint Richmond, author of "Political Places of Boston," to places where presidential candidates have campaigned with speeches, rallies, and fundraising since 1860. Sites will include the iconic "Cradle of Liberty," the 2004 Convention, and the backrooms of Boston politicking.

Meet at 60 State Street, T-accessible by the Blue and Orange lines, near the State Street Station stop.

Volunteer needed: graphic design for our enews

Here at WalkBoston, we're working on updating the format of our enews, and we could use a couple of hours of help from someone with expertise in graphic design for electronic communications. Is that you? Drop me a note!

Cold weather walking

Now that the weather around Boston is starting to get blustery and cold, I know a lot of people have a more difficult time motivating themselves out the door for a walk.

I know that, for myself, there are a couple of hurdles to get over when I'm thinking about walking in cooler weather. First, if I'm comfortable in my house or office, it's pretty tough to get excited to step out into the cold. If I'm a little chilly, as sometimes happens if I'm sitting still indoors, it's even more difficult to consider going out! The best way for me to encourage myself up and out, in either case, is to think about the good things about getting outside. If the sun's out, even if it's cold, I'll be glad for a hit of bright light. If it's grey, I just focus on feeling good through movement or getting errands done. I must admit, this doesn't always work, so if any of you have other ideas here, I'm all ears.

Once I'm feeling inspired to leave the house, there's the issue of dressing appropriately. In warm weather, all I have to do is put on comfortable shoes and be on my way. In the cooler months, there's the additional step of bundling up. Of course, I can't recommend this enough. Nothing will hamstring my decision to stay active in cold weather like one or two walks that see me arriving home with a case of hypothermia. If I do that in October, you're not going to see me leaving the house voluntarily until April, maybe May. So I'm a big fan of bundling up. I don't care if it makes me look silly (okay, well, I care a little bit, but I get over it) to wear a hat, scarf, gloves, three sweaters, and two pairs of long underpants under my winter coat. I understand this is particularly difficult for people who come from warmer climates. Trust me; having the right clothing for being outdoors makes a big difference in your experience of time spent out and about. SRSLY.

I'm a big believer in structurally encouraging myself to do the things I know I want to do, so I like to make plans to have hot cocoa at a coffee shop that's a pleasant walk from my house, for example, so I'm motivated (i.e., forced) to leave the house, but there's a built-in reward at the end. I mean, a reward beyond the satisfaction of getting up and moving around, which can be hard to get excited about when you're cozy on the comfy couch in the middle of winter, for sure.

Physical activity guidelines

The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has released their 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans (that link will take you to the summary of their recommendations). In even more summary form: The findings won't surprise anyone. The recommendation is that people should engage in physical activity. Some is better than none and more (quantity, intensity, frequency) is better.

I have a couple of problems with these guidelines:

First, I believe the "some is better than none" message gets obscured by the "more is better" message. I see it as being easy for people to feel discouraged by their perception that they aren't doing enough, and thereby doing even less, because they're never going to reach the recommended amounts of activity, so what's the point? So, let me say: Some is better than none! Get up and walk around the block, or walk to the store, or walk around your house while you're talking on the phone or brushing your teeth or waiting for your spouse to get ready to head out the door. Making small changes to your habits can be an effective way to increase your activity level and make it easier to make larger changes.

Second, the guidelines are, predictably, in a very structured format. I mean, hey, that's what guidelines are, right? But I don't see this as a particularly organic way for people to integrate activity into their lives. I know there are people who look at it as a checklist item with a set-aside time-frame, and that's great, but for the rest of us, hearing that we should be aiming for 2.5 hours of moderate physical activity each week is a little abstract. What does that mean for me?

Finally, this is a great example of how we put our activities in different categories and don't let them blend between each other. Work for 8 hours a day, exercise for 30 minutes a day, sleep for 8 hours, etc. To my thinking, this makes physical activity a chore to be checked off a list rather than a pleasurable component of a good, healthy, happy life.

So, I know the US Department of Health and Human Services can't say something like this, and they might not even agree with it, but my guidelines for physical activity are a little more lax: Get up and move. Make it a habit. Make it a part of your life that doesn't take any serious thought or feel like a chore. Move because it makes you feel good, and it helps you see your neighborhood and your world or because it gives you time to think or not to think. Be active for yourself and for whatever reasons speak to you most. Want to join me for a walk? Let's!

Thursday, October 23: Pedestrianism in Belmont

Next Thursday evening at 7:30, I'll be speaking in Belmont on issues related to walking-friendly neighborhoods and snow clearance.

Join WalkBoston and representatives of other community and government agencies for an evening discussion of benefits of and challenges to walking in and around Belmont.

We'll be in the Belmont Public Library Auditorium at 336 Concord Avenue, Belmont MA.

And, of course, other neighborhoods or organizations that would like to have WalkBoston attend a meeting or event to talk about issues relating to walking, that's one of our favorite things to do!

Franklin Park walk, Thursday, October 16

Join me and others for a wonderful walk around Franklin Park tomorrow evening from 5:30 to 7.

About the walk: Follow trails past unfamiliar parts of Frederick Law Olmsted's renowned park with Christine Poff of the Franklin Park Coalition and with walkers from the Uphams Corner Health Center walking program.

Where to meet: Meet at the Valley Gates parking area on the main park road across from the golf course

How to get there: MBTA - Orange Line to Forest Hills Station, MBTA Bus #16 to Valley Gates

International Walk to School Day! Wednesday, October 8

Hey, parents!

Did you know that tomorrow is International Walk to School Day?

How are you going to celebrate it?

Greenway Inauguration in review

I'd like to tell you all about the fabulous activities and events that happened at the Rose Kennedy Greenway Inauguration this Saturday, but I can't, because I spent the whole time at the WalkBoston table, handing out stickers, maps, brochures and talking about the importance of a pedestrian-friendly infrastructure. We had beautiful weather, and loads of people stopped by and shared their stories of pleasures and challenges walking in their various communities.

By the end of the day, we'd handed out so many of our bright orange and green stickers that people from other parts of the Greenway came seeking us out wanting to know what they were all about.

Big thanks to our many volunteers: Georgette, James, Reggie, Karla, and Daniel!

Fall walking pleasures

Last night, I was walking home by one of my favorite routes, which takes me past a neighbor's house with a spectacular set of rose bushes, and then, serendipitously, through fall's first pile of dry leaves on the sidewalk.

I don't know what my neighbors do to get the blooms they do, but whatever it is, it's brilliant. Four or five times a year -- June through November -- the six rose bushes in front of their house are loaded with beautiful, wonderfully scented flowers. I love it, and I make it a point to walk by their house when the roses are in bloom so I can stop and smell them.

As fall approaches, another feature I enjoy in my walks is walking through piles of leaves. Now, I know this is an able-bodied pleasure, and the piles of leaves can be an issue for people who are less sure-footed or on crutches or in wheelchairs, and even for me, after a rain, a big pile of leaves represents a real slipping hazard. Still, I take a deep pleasure in wading through a pile of crispy leaves along my way.

Greenway Inauguration!

This weekend, the Rose Kennedy Greenway, the park portion of the infamous Big Dig highway construction project, celebrates its official inauguration with a number of events and activities on and near the Greenway itself. I'll be representing WalkBoston there at a table in Dewey Square, and there's a whole slew of fun and interesting stuff happening, including lots of activities for kids. Check it out!

Safe walking habits

The last couple of weeks, I've been getting involved with our Safe Routes to School trainings at elementary schools around the state. In these, we go to elementary schools, train parents, teachers and other volunteers in the skills we want them to teach the kids, and then we all take small groups of kids out walking around the school to practice those skills and begin developing safe walking habits.

One of the interesting observations I've made in this process is what bad habits the adults have -- myself included! It's less urgent that adults have good habits in looking out for our own safety, because we are generally more observant and aware of our surroundings than your average 2nd or 3rd grader, but it presents a challenge to our volunteers to model good walking habits when their own habits demonstrate their own lack of concern with regards to, for example, making sure that cars in all lanes of traffic have stopped before they enter the crosswalk.

I've also noticed that over the course of working with 3 or 5 classrooms in succession, the adults get much better, smoother, and more comfortable with the material and enacting the behaviors we hope to impress upon the children. This makes me think how important it is that children be regularly exposed to safe walking in practice and also in discussion. Kids often know the right answer, even as they enact bad habits.

For example, I might ask a couple of kids at a crosswalk, "What do you need to do to cross safely here?" And they certainly know the answer is, "Look both ways!" But very often, looking both ways simply involves turning their heads without actually paying attention to what they see.

This is all a reminder to me to take more care with my own walking habits, and not to assume that cars will do what I expect them to do at crosswalks, traffic lights and other places that I encounter them as a pedestrian. It also reminds me, though, to talk about safe walking when I'm out and about with kids, rather than simply leading the way and figuring they'll pick up the right thing to do by osmosis.

PARK(ing) Day

Once again, I'm missing the boat by posting about something late in the game. Bad blogger!

A couple of us just took a short jaunt out of the office to check out the PARK(ing) Day park put together by the Trust for Public Lands and staffed by, among others, folks from LivableStreets.

What's the story? They've taken over a parking spot downtown and converted it to a delightful little park where people were lounging, doing homework, eating lunch.

Next year, I want to see a whole series of these scattered across the city so WalkBoston can lead a walk to visit them!

Franklin Park walk: tonight! 5:30

It occurred to me last night that I have missed several grand opportunities to walk with my friends and readers by failing to announce a regular walk I do each week and that, while targeted to a particular program I'm working on, is certainly open to one and all:

The program is Walking Prescriptions for People and Neighborhoods, and its goal is to increase habitual walking among the community of a local health center. We're about to revamp our walk schedule, but I'm certain that we're going to keep our Thursday night walks in Franklin Park, because they're one of the walks with steady attendance, and, well, to be honest, it's one of my favorite parts of every week, and I refuse to give it up.

Join me and others for a walk around Franklin Park any Thursday, meeting at 5:30 (we usually set out about 5:45) at the benches in front of the "Zebra" entrance for Franklin Park Zoo (near the intersection of Blue Hill Ave and Columbia Rd.)

Drop me a note (rcarson @ walkboston.org) if you have any questions or if you want me to look out for you this week or any week!

Walking at night

Thinking about the details that influence my walking routes for the last post here, I also started thinking a lot about how different it is to walk during the day versus at night. A route that is pleasant to walk during the day thanks to its seclusion may feel unsafe at night for the same reason, for example. But more than personal safety changes with the time of day.

Some places that I walk, especially in many of the old neighborhoods that exist in and around Boston, have pretty challenging walking conditions, including sidewalks that are too narrow when they pass by old trees, or that have been pushed into tall, cracked hills by those trees' roots. Brick sidewalks, already somewhat tricky are especially hazardous where they interact with tree roots. And all of these obstacles are even more challenging at night, because those same trees then block the streetlights' illumination of the sidewalk in those areas. This means that when I'm walking at night, I try to choose routes that avoid poorly-lit sidewalks that I know to have obstacles where they interact with trees.

Are there other issues that change your walking habits daytime vs. nighttime?

Choosing a route

Walking to and from the nearest T station to my house involves a relatively straight shot from origin to destination, so I don't tend to put a lot of thought into selecting a route, especially because the most direct route is also the most pleasant, as it takes me on the community bike path near Davis Square. The Porter Square T stop is also a comfortable walk from my house, but it's a little further away, and the walk isn't as enjoyable, so I tend only to go that way when I need to stop at one of the stores in Porter Square on my way to wherever I'm going.

On the work end of my commute, however, I have many more choices. Park Street and Downtown Crossing are equidistant from my office, and neither involves a particularly more or less pleasant walk in comparison to the other. Further, there are a couple of routes from Park Street, equivalent in distance. So, how do I decide?

In general, I select the station that's in the right direction on the rail line for the direction I'm going. If I'm Davis-bound, I go to Park Street. Headed to Andrew? I go to Downtown Crossing.

On the other hand, the walk to Downtown Crossing is almost always much more crowded in the afternoon, and because I'm a relatively brisk walker, I often find crowded sidewalks annoying in the extreme.

One of the routes I can take from Park Street involves less in the way of crowds, typically, but more in the way of construction traffic, and it also takes me past an alley where two restaurants take their trash. Though I'm not particularly squeamish, walking past there can, at times, be stomach-turning, so despite my appreciation of the less crowded sidewalks, I've recently reverted to the other route.

What factors influence your choice of walking route?

RunBoston!

I'm just back from a wonderful vacation, during which I visited one of the least pedestrian-friendly cities I've ever seen (Las Vegas, NV) and one of the most pedestrian-friendly (Black Rock City, NV, aka the Burning Man arts festival). While I was away, lots of things happened here at WalkBoston, and today, I'm excited to announce one of them:

The Boston Athletic Association has chosen WalkBoston for one of its highly sought positions as an Official Boston Marathon Charity. As an official charity, we have been donated bib numbers to form RunBoston, a 2009 marathon team to help us raise much needed funds for our growing roster of programs and advocacy.

For those of you who don't keep track of the marathon circuit, this is a big deal because the Boston marathon is highly competitive. To run with a bib number, you have to either qualify by running another marathon in a qualifying time or you join a team like this one and raise money for a charity in the process of your training. For us here at WalkBoston, the fit between us and the marathon seemed obvious, and we're excited to link up with it!

For more information, check out the Boston Marathon's charity page.

Great things afoot

It's not new or unique to remark upon the social joy of getting about on foot, but that doesn't detract from the deep pleasure I get every time I encounter a friend or acquaintance when running errands or traveling across town. When I'm in a car, or even on a bike, things and people pass by so quickly -- in a car, I may not even recognize a friend in her car passing the other way, and on bikes, we give a quick wave, but on foot, we can easily stop and have a brief chat. Maybe we're going the same way and can use that time to catch up on each other's lives.

Last week alone, I had this experience five times over the course of the week, including running into a former boss, whom I hadn't seen in about five years! It's a miracle we even recognized each other. I also bumped into a friend and got to hear about her adventures in buying a new condo, and found out that another acquaintance is expecting a baby in February, thanks to strolling around my neighborhood on one of these infrequent dry summer evenings.

It's not a surprise to have such encounters, in general, but each one is always a surprise in itself in who I see and what we talk about when we do.

Disproportionate subsidization

Though vehicles and pedestrians can happily coexist in many settings -- I have my sidewalk and they have their streets -- it's hard for a pedestrian not to feel a little cranky from time to time as policy decisions continually prioritize the infrastructure and culture of private vehicles over all other forms of transportation.

I've long been annoyed by the complaints people throw out about subsidies for public transit without acknowledging the massive subsidization of private vehicles currently practiced in the US.

Thanks to Slate and Daniel Gross, though, I know I'm not alone: Highways Paved with Gold

WalkBoston in the Globe

Hey, check it out! WalkBoston's Executive Director, Wendy Landman, was featured in the Boston Globe in Feet give the best, cheapest mileage yesterday!

Help Pass House Bill 4635

Please take action to help pass House Bill 4635, An Act Relative to Speed Limits. This bill would lower the prevailing speed limit from 30 to 25 mph on local roads in urbanized areas across Massachusetts. The text of the bill is provided at the bottom of this email.

With the escalation of gasoline prices and the emphasis on walking for good health more and more pedestrians are using their feet for transportation. When pedestrians, especially children and older people, are walking along the sidewalk or along the edge of the road when no sidewalk is available, the speed of passing traffic is important for maintaining safety. The difference of 5mph in the speed of passing cars is often the difference between a fatality or serious injury and a narrow escape.

The Massachusetts Highway Department, state legislators, local transportation officials, and community activists worked together to develop this legislation and have indicated their support for the changes in Chapter 90. We are hopeful that after many years of effort, 2008 will be the year that this important pedestrian safety measure becomes law.

Please call or write to your Representative and ask them to urge Representative Robert DeLeo, the Chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, to act favorably on this bill. To look up your local representative, go to http://www.wheredoivotema.com/bal/myelectioninfo.php.

Summer walking in Boston

Because the WalkBoston office is right downtown, I've had a great opportunity to start exploring parts of Boston that I've been saying for years that I should check out.

Last night, a friend and I met up after work and meandered down to the water by way of Quincy Market, where we didn't manage to pass ourselves off as tourists ("You live here, are local?" a vendor asked us before offering to sell us overpriced dresses with a "locals' discount".) We walked down to the Harbor and then along the water up to the North End and back. I hadn't spent time in that area since the Big Dig got closed up and the Rose Kennedy Greenway was landscaped. For all the great fiasco that's been, I have to say, I'm sold on the change it's made to downtown Boston, connecting the city and the water.

There's also a great fountain you should be sure to check out, near the Aquarium, especially on a hot day if you're strolling with kids. I'm tempted to skip out of work early today and go get my feet wet, in fact.

10,000 steps a day

How many steps do you take each day? Most people don't know the answer to this question, of course, because few of us take the time to count our steps on a daily basis. But this is a great reason to pick up a pedometer and find out.

I've been wearing a pedometer for about a week, now, and I'm surprised to find how, without even meaning to, I'm competing with myself to walk more than I would otherwise: If, toward the end of the day, I'm close to a big round number -- say I have 8,500 steps -- I'm motivated to try to round it out to 9,000 by walking around the house more in the evening, or even to get to 10,000 by going out for a little walk in my neighborhood.

The recommended number of steps a person should get per day is 10,000. Because I live in the city and don't have a car, I walk a lot, so I find that in the course of my average day, walking from my house to the T, the T to my office, around my office during the day and then back home, I get around 4,000 steps. By taking a short midmorning and midafternoon break to walk around my neighborhood for about 10 minutes each time, I push it up to 6,500. A single long walk at some point in the day then gets me over 10,000.

But I'm lucky, because my baseline amount of walking is pretty high. What if you don't walk so much? Get yourself a pedometer and find out how much you do walk during the day. It may be more or less than you think. Then, set yourself a goal of increasing it by a certain amount each day. Say you walk an average of 3,000 steps a day when you're gathering your baseline data. The next week, you can aim to walk 4,000 a day, and then 5,000 each day the week after that.

Little increases in walking really do add up. We've all heard the suggestion that we park farther from the entrance to stores. Try also going to the coffee shop that's slightly further from your office, or instead of going to the nearest restroom in your office, find one that's on another floor or takes a bit longer to walk to. Walk around while you sip your afternoon coffee, pace while you talk on the phone...

What are some of your favorite ways to slip a few more steps into your day?

WalkBoston Blogs!

As the new program coordinator here at WalkBoston, I'm thinking a lot about ways to get the word out about us and our programs. Before I saw the job listing for this position, I hadn't heard of WalkBoston, which is crazy, because I'm just the type of person who should know about us: I don't own a car; I care about environmental issues and energy use; I live in the city and am passionate about urban communities; I have a background and interest in public health. Walking relates to all of these issues, and, in fact, is one of the things that ties them all together.

I'll be using this blog to talk about issues related to walking, announce and discuss events hosted by WalkBoston and other walking groups in and around Boston, link to other walking-related topics and research, and generally to remind us all to take a few minutes out of every work day to step out of our offices for a turn around the neighborhood.