Tuesday, September 30, 2008
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!
Thursday, September 25, 2008
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.
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.
Friday, September 19, 2008
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!
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!
Thursday, September 18, 2008
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!
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!
Monday, September 15, 2008
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?
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?
Friday, September 12, 2008
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?
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?
Thursday, September 4, 2008
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.
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
