Fund 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 night's transit nightmare as a result of the red line train derailment? Were you relying on the red line to get you home, or on one of the buses that got pulled off its regular route in order to scramble for the tens of thousands of people who normally get around on the red line? Did you, perhaps, miss your commuter rail train, which runs infrequently after prime hours, due to the delays all over the system? Or were you in a car, and found yourself mired in gridlock as people who normally commute by public transit fled to cabs and private vehicles?

However you feel about the MBTA, effective and reliable public transportation is essential to the daily functioning of the greater Boston metro area. You don't even have to use it for it to make your life better, because if the more than one million daily trips currently served by the MBTA switch to cars, you can believe your commute would not be improved. Our roads don't have the capacity to serve all those trips by car, and our land mass doesn't have the capacity to expand roads to serve them, even if we did want to become Los Angeles.

If public transit makes your life better, call your legislators and the Governor's office today to insist that they fund an effective and reliable public transit system. To find your legislators' information, click here and enter your information. You want to call or write to your Senate and Representative in General Court. Governor Patrick's contact information is at the bottom of this post.

When you call, say that you rely on public transit, and that you want better funding and/or debt relief for the MBTA.

Okay, now I'm going to get into some nitty gritty about the MBTA and its history and why, even if you think it's been mismanaged in the past, it needs more money going into the future:

Also, why do I care? How does this relate to pedestrian advocacy? A robust and reliable public transportation infrastructure supports and encourages the use of walking as a primary or secondary mode of transportation. As a dedicated walker who hopes never to have to own a car in order to function in my life, I'm deeply invested in seeing public transit work well for broad swaths of the population. In Boston and surrounding communities, as in many other cities across the country, this hope is threatened by significant disinvestment in public transit by state and local governments.

In general, the MBTA is pretty great. Oh, sure, I have some of the same complaints that many people do, including poor late night coverage, doubts about effective management, frustration at rising fares without improvements, and annoyance at poor communication with riders when things go wrong. Still, I'm able to use it as my primary mode of urban transportation for distances further than a couple of miles (which I typically walk.) The fact that I and others can rely on it that way often goes unremarked as we focus on our complaints, but it's worth remembering that part of the bad rap the MBTA gets is simply that we're all more likely to be vocal about complaints than compliments.

Why will more money make things better?

In the major transportation reorganization in the state this year, many of the issues people pointed to regarding mismanagement were addressed. Compensation rules are in line, now, with other state transportation departments, and upper management of the MBTA is being reorganized, as well, to improve the agency.

Since 2000, the MBTA has suffered increasing debts due to a change in funding structure. Prior to 2000, the state covered the difference between MBTA revenue and expenditures (and before you complain that public transit needs to pay its own way, I'd like you to show me any road in the state of Massachusetts that does the same -- and most of them are free!!). Starting in 2000, the MBTA started receiving money from sales taxes collected. Unfortunately, due to a slower economy than predicted and the increase in internet spending at that time, these revenues were lower than expected. Paired with Big Dig debt that was shifted to the MBTA, this made a bad situation worse.

Today, one third of every dollar the MBTA spends goes to debt service. This is an immense amount of money. Think what public transit could do with 30% more money! One long-term solution to the problem of funding the MBTA is to reduce their debt load so that money isn't going down the drain every day. But where will that money come from? Increased taxes, naturally. Governor Patrick tried this summer to increase the state gas tax, some of which revenues would have given the T an immense boost. He couldn't muster the political will to make that happen, however, so instead, tens of thousands of people yesterday paid with their time after a train derailment, just as people every day pay with their time when the green line is slow, or there's a switch problem at JFK or a bus doesn't come as scheduled.

I don't care about the MBTA as an agency, but I care a heck of a lot about public transit in the Boston area. It needs more money to work better now and to keep working in the future. Across the country, transportation infrastructure, including transit (like the MBTA), roads and bridges, is suffering deterioration and years of underfunding. Now is the time to change that pattern, and giving mass transit in Massachusetts a boost is part of the solution. Call your legislators and the governor today to encourage them to make forward thinking the bottom line.

Also, consider joining the T Rider's union to advocate for better public transit in the Boston metro area.

Boston, MA Massachusetts State House
Office of the Governor
Office of the Lt. Governor
Room 280
Boston, MA 02133

Phone: 617.725.4005
888.870.7770 (in state)
Fax: 617.727.9725
TTY: 617.727.3666

Santa 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 household instead of cookies and milk, he would only consume 50 calories at each house and would only be eating 4.6 billion calories. Because he is burning off 13 billion calories by walking, he would actually lose all of his weight and disappear. A combination of veggies at most households and cookies or skim milk every few households would keep him in energy balance.

Travel 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 have conditions where driving is difficult, expensive, even painful. We cannot continue to think we can add or create walking and bicycling infrastructure while maintaining mobility for drivers and hope to see anything more than a miniscule modal shift. Rare and expensive parking is part of the needed pain for drivers, but off-street parking should be reduced before on-street parking is threatened. We should be advocating for new traffic engineering rules such as “Never have more than two lanes of traffic in each direction.” “Never require a person to cross more than three travel lanes at once.”

Michael Ronkin

Active modes of transportation -- walking and biking (among other, less common forms like, say, rollerblading) -- are an important element of moving people from place to place in urban areas. Because urban space is so constrained, this is more true than in, for example, suburban or rural areas, though those spaces could also benefit from increased biking and walking, where possible. Of course, the density in urban areas also facilitates these choices: you have to have things worth walking or biking within a reasonable distance for that.

If you've been paying attention to this stuff, you're probably aware of the increasing focus on parking, and the way it spreads out human settlements while also making it easier for people to deal with their cars. Cheap or free parking has a lot to answer for in the eyes of new urbanists, smart growth proponents, and others who love the vitality of urban areas. Are cities for cars, or are they for people?

It 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 happy.

So what does that have to do with WalkBoston? Well, I just read one that made my day:

I was in my backyard doing yard work when I heard my neighbor’s two children playing loudly. I realized they were playing cops, but instead of robbers, the offender had run a stop sign, driven in the carpool lane by herself, and changed lanes without signaling.

This just warms the cockles of my traffic-geeky heart.

Texting 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 driving are incompatible activities, and, yet, many people combine them. I will admit that, although I very rarely drive, I have texted while driving.

I know it's unsafe, that it distracts me from the road, and that people like me are exactly the problem. I imagine that other people are in the same position. In the moment, I feel like, if I can just get the text sent, some important piece of information will have been exchanged and then I'll be back at my normal capacity for safe driving. It only takes a moment! This makes it feel more okay than drunk driving, even though studies indicate that it makes you a worse driver than someone who's slightly drunk. That, combined with the inevitable "but I'm a better driver than most people" belief leads to people texting while driving, even though they (we) know better.

As with so many choice is life, I think it's okay for people to make bad choices if the consequences land squarely on their own shoulders. Unfortunately, choices that make people less safe drivers frequently injure and kill people who are not involved in the decision-making process. Given that, I'm in support of policies that encourage people to make the right choice, and this is one of them. I hope the City council is right that this move will spur Massachusetts to finally adopt a similar policy state-wide.

Less texting while driving will make our roads safer for everyone, and that's better.

Six 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 bills could move forward as their own pieces, or get bundled into the broader re-authorization. If any or all of them are of interest to you, it's absolutely worth a call to your legislators. For help finding your senators' and representative's contact information, click here.

Livable Communities Act (S. 1619 / H.R. 3734) – Gives local governments the tools to integrate their transportation, housing, economic development, energy and environment needs by authorizing $400 million in competitive planning grants and $3.75 billion over three years for implementation of sustainable development projects. The bill also creates an inter-departmental council responsible for coordinating sustainable development policies at Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Department of Transportation, the Environmental Protection Agency and others.

Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act (S. 1733) – Allocates 2.4% of the proceeds from auctioned emissions permits to fund clean transportation projects that help reduce carbon emissions. The Senate’s climate bill more than doubles the amount for clean transportation in the House version and substantially incorporates language from a separate marker bill known as CLEAN-TEA (S.575 / H.R. 1329).

Federal Assistance for Transit Operations (H.R. 2746) – Allow public transit agencies representing cities larger than 200,000 people to flex part of their capital transit funds for operating expenses, creating greater flexibility for use of federal dollars in urban areas.

Complete Streets (S.584 / H.R. 1443) – Ensures that all users of the transportation system, including pedestrians, bicyclists, transit users, children, older individuals and individuals with disabilities are able to travel safely and conveniently on and across federally funded streets and highways.

Another goal included in the national transportation objectives bill is tripling transit use, cycling, and walking.

National Transportation Objectives (H.R. 2724) – Sets quantifiable national transportation objectives to ensure that federal transportation investments advance national purposes tied to health outcomes, improvements in the areas of energy efficiency, environmental protection, economic competitiveness, safety, safety, connectivity and equal access. This would be the first time the country has established a set of quantifiable national transportation objectives since the Eisenhower-era bill that appropriated money to build the interstate highway system. Some targets in the current version of the bill: reducing driving by 16% and reducing the average household’s combined housing and transportation costs by 25%, over a 20-year period.

Transportation Workforce Development Funding (H.R. 2444) – Requires that 0.5 percent of federal Surface Transportation Program and Highway Bridge funding go toward workforce development and job training. Dedicated funding for workforce development in transportation sector will greatly benefit communities that are currently left out of the labor force, especially low income communities and communities of color.

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 cars-and-highway message that has been so prevalent for the last several decades. If you don't, you may want to check them out.

One of the things you can do right off the bat there is send a note to friends and family to encourage them to support more comprehensive thinking in this year's reauthorization of the transportation bill.

Spread the word!

Jaywalking: use your brain so you don't lose it

It won't come as a surprise to anyone to hear that I'm a pretty brazen pedestrian. When I'm in a crosswalk, I don't always wait meekly on the curb for cars to stop as they ought to but often don't; many times, I'll step -- with care -- into the crosswalk and bully drivers into yielding to me as the rules of the road require. I have been known to knock on the windows of cars that have stopped in the middle of crosswalks to point out to the driver that he or she is blocking my way, and once or twice, I have used my newspaper to whack the windshield of a car that ignores the crosswalk in order to save a few seconds. I don't necessarily advocate for others doing the same, but it is important to me that users of all modes share the streets, and when I'm on foot, I consider crosswalks my domain.

Still, though, when I'm out and about in and around Boston, I see a lot of incredibly bad pedestrian behavior. Over the weekend, I was driving along the Riverway in Boston around 9PM, and a couple of young guys crossed in front of me. They were in a crosswalk, at a light ... but crossing against the light. In the dark. On a fast-moving street. After screeching (literally) to a halt on the wet pavement, it was all I could do not to jump out of my car and yell at them. No driver wants to hit a pedestrian, and that moment of a close call is terrifying.

One of my mantras about safety is that everyone is 100% responsible for being safe all the time. Stepping into a crosswalk without looking and attending to oncoming cars makes me 100% responsible for the accident, just as the driver who fails to pay attention and yield is also 100% responsible. In that case, the law is on my side, which would, no doubt, make my stay in the hospital exactly the same as if the law weren't on my side.

I also abhor bad pedestrian behavior because I think it makes other users less respectful of pedestrians in general. I'm not going to tell people not to jaywalk -- there are times when the design of a city or roadway makes it nearly impossible not to, and many more times when the design makes it extremely impractical. But do you really trust strangers to care as much about your life as you do? If you're going to jaywalk, do it with care -- for everyone's sake.

What factors lead to this accident?

Last Monday, my colleague Kate came to work with news from near where she lives in Revere of a pedestrian struck and killed. We haven't found the story in the Globe, yet, but here are a couple of small pieces about it:
WHDH
FOX

Obviously, these are pretty sketchy and preliminary, and there's more information to be had, but I have some questions:

Was the pedestrian in a crosswalk? How fast was the car going? What was the speed limit?

The WHDH article includes a quote from a witness:

"Between the car being black, the pedestrian being dressed in black, with the weather being what it is and the poor lighting...it was just a tragic accident," said Keith Donnelly, a witness.

While wearing black at night does reduce one's visibility to cars (at a week-long festival I attend, people who don't make themselves visible at night are called "darkwads"), there are other factors at work in this -- and other -- accidents, and which we often take for granted and forget to consider:

Design speed: We all know what a speed limit is, and we all know we break it at least some of the time. This is because the speed that a section of roadway is engineered to handle gives us cues that tell us we're safe at higher speeds. Studies have shown that drivers recognize and understand the subconscious clues of roadway engineering and limit themselves by design speed rather than posted speed at least some of the time. Is the design speed for this stretch of road appropriate for the pedestrian use it gets?

If the pedestrian was in a crosswalk, how well-signed and -lit is the crosswalk? Especially if this is a fast stretch of road where pedestrians are relatively infrequent, it's important to call attention to crosswalks and make them as visible and noticeable as possible.

If the pedestrian wasn't in a crosswalk, is it because pedestrian needs aren't served here? Where was the nearest crosswalk?

Yes, drivers are responsible for being attentive to other road users, and pedestrians are responsible for the same, but sometimes the deck is stacked against all users. Whenever I read about a pedestrian accident, I want to know if this was one of those times.

Traffic accidents -- both lethal and non -- are a tragedy for us all.

Complete streets in the news

The concept of "complete streets" -- streets and roadways that are designed not primarily for cars and secondarily for everyone else, but designed right off the bat with all users in mind -- is gaining traction and attention throughout the fields of transportation and urban planning around the US and the world.

Yesterday, US Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood wrote on his blog a post titled "Report, petition call for safer roadway planning". In it, he cites Transportation for America's recent report, Dangerous by Design.

Bike and pedestrian advocates have been pushing this message for years, and it's pretty darn exciting to see the conversation really moving into the mainstream.

Does your neighborhood contain complete streets?

More on jaywalking

Continuing with the questions and answers that came up during my chat on the Boston Globe last month:

One of the participants in the chat (Kelly) commented:

Also I've noticed, there is no uniform pedestrian system in Boston. In cities like New York, the lights always cycle through pedestrian walk signs. At the intersection of Beacon St. and Park where dozens of pedestrians cross every cycle, you have to push the button, the walk sign will not appear unless you do. Many people aren't used to that-they expect the walk signal to cycle through because that happens automatically at many other intersections.

And another commenter (Michael) said:

Some how In Seattle, pedestrians and motorist obey the laws in a very civil manner which tells me that enforcement is the issue here in MA. People in Seattle will wait for the light to change before walking even if there are no cars in site.

These two comments go together very nicely, and here's why: Michael is arguing that enforcement would solve the problem of jaywalking in Boston, and Kelly is pointing out that other cities have uniform systems for pedestrians.

If you've spent much time walking around Boston, you've probably noticed what Kelly did: sometimes there's a button for you to push to get a WALK and sometimes there isn't. Sometimes when you push the button, it works, and sometimes it appears to do nothing. If there's no button, you really have no idea if you just didn't find the button or if you'll get a WALK or what.

All of this says to people on foot that their needs have not been strongly considered in the design and construction of the city. And if their needs aren't being met, why should they obey the law? I don't think jaywalkers are like bank robbers and going out of their way to break the law. They're just people trying to run errands and get things done over the course of the day.

So then if I'm a person who crosses when it says DON'T WALK but I'm walking with the green light, fine, that's jaywalking, even though it's probably pretty reasonable from a traffic flow and safety perspective in most cases (lots of intersections all over the state, country and world are set up with pedestrians getting the WALK along with the parallel green), but it's a small chip in the block of the habit of obeying laws that pertain to walkers.

So, where does that leave all of us? We want the streets to be safe for drivers, for cyclists, and for walkers. AND we want people in cars, on foot, and on bikes to be able to get their errands done. Does simply enforcing existing laws succeed in doing that?

Walk rather than T!

Getting around Boston by T and on foot? Check out these10 MBTA trips you should walk instead. Our own Wendy Landman helped identify these!

A defense of jaywalking

Monday, Slate published an article by Tom Vanderbilt (of Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do fame) titled A defense of jaywalking. In it, Vanderbilt addresses some of the complexities of data available about pedestrian behavior, the history of street-use paradigms, and biases in crash reporting.

This is a great article, and if you're interested in jaywalking, walking in urban areas, or mode-sharing paradigms, I think you'll find it worth reading. Check it out!

Why we need pedestrian advocacy ...

Do you walk around your neighborhood and think to yourself, "Hey, this isn't so bad. I can walk from my house to the store to the bus stop and it's really not so hard ..."? Or does your neighborhood look more like this:



(From There, I Fixed It.)

Jaywalking in Boston

As I posted earlier in the month, Boston pedestrians were featured in an article in the Boston Globe a couple of weekends ago. As a followup to that, the Globe asked me to participate in an online chat on the topic the week after the article came out. I did, and the result was a pretty interesting Q&A discussion between me and a variety of Globe readers. For the next few posts here, I'll be adapting some of the questions and answers from that session for us to read here.

First, a bit of introduction. What's the story with jaywalking, anyway?

Jaywalking is kind of a way of life around here. But there's more to it than people just disregarding laws and sometimes their own safety.

When you're in a car, you're pretty much limited to moving along a few limited paths -- streets. But when you're on foot, you have a lot more flexibility, and the way a city is built and designed can encourage you or discourage you from obeying laws that apply to you. And the infrastructure of the city can work well for cars, or for pedestrians, or both (and let's not forget bikes!). When a lot of people are breaking the law, that's a sign that the existing structures aren't working, not merely that people are profligate rule-breakers.

Why would I, as a pedestrian, wait to cross lawfully if it's going to take me 3-5 minutes to cross an intersection that I can see I can cross safely during a break in traffic? It doesn't make sense for me to do that, and it reflects an infrastructure that says in various subtle ways that my needs are not part of the equation, which encourages me to disregard them entirely.

On the other hand, in cities where pedestrians feel like they count, you'll see them waiting at a corner for the WALK light to come, even if there's no oncoming traffic. So, we know it can be done.

Somerville Community Path Sign ribbon cutting!

Pedestrians in Boston

The front page article on this week's Sunday Globe was Crossing to their own beat: Injuries up, but jaywalking abounds on Hub’s busy streets, which had a few quotes from yours truly. That article also has a link to a video about the traffic monitoring setup at City Hall.

I'm sorry that the article focuses so much on the question of fines and enforcement for jaywalking, when I think that, ultimately, that's just a piece in the puzzle of safe street management. There's talk of increasing fines for jaywalking in Massachusetts (currently a laughable $1), which may make sense as a part of a larger strategy for making better use of our streets for all users, but seems to me the wrong place to start. Fines don't improve the street experience for anyone, after all, and what we'd really like to see is a change in how we think about and use streets, rather than a reentrenchment of the same old, same old.

I want this cop's job

The video in this post makes me so happy. I've been watching it from time to time just to give myself a lift.

Next step: Get some Massachusetts municipalities to do the same. At up to $200 per crosswalk violation, it would more than pay for itself.

Walking can be a game!

Research has shown that wearing a pedometer can help people be more active (1, 2). This is great, but ... is it fun? Well, it can be, if your pedometer is also a play-along game like this one!

Hit by a bus

Yesterday, the daughter of a friend of mine was hit by a bus in Davis Square. She's okay, thankfully, but it makes me think about how vulnerable pedestrians are every day. Of course, this is one of the reasons that WalkBoston and other advocacy organizations are so important, even in areas like Davis Square that are reasonably pedestrian friendly.

I don't know the details of what happened beyond what's reported here in the Somerville Journal. And to some degree, I don't need to know the details, because all the issues are the same with pedestrians, vehicles, and crosswalks. And here's what they are:

Pedestrians, we have the right of way in crosswalks in Massachusetts. But, because we're walking around in our vulnerable skins, we should always remember that it doesn't matter whose right of way it was if we get hit -- the hospital visit is the same no matter what. Use care, don't assume cars see us or are prepared to stop for us if they do see us.

Drivers, I know that you're sometimes in a hurry, and driving is stressful, and frequently what you most want is to finish whatever it is that has you in your car so you can stop dealing with traffic and the frustrations that go with it. Still, it's your job to stop for pedestrians in crosswalks, even if you had to stop five times already and are running late. But you really don't want to be the driver who hit a pedestrian, right? Right.

It's easy to be wrapped up in what we're doing, and in our agendas and the hurry and bustle of our days. Each of us needs to be responsible for our own safety, while also taking care of the people we're sharing our space with.

Lunchtime Walk and Street Talk

I have two great events to announce! First, last week's "Little Lanes" walk was a huge hit, with 73 people joining, so we're doing it again tomorrow:

On Thursday, July 16 join WalkBoston for a half-hour walking tour of the "Little Lanes of Boston." This walk takes you through the charming pedestrian passageways of Old Boston, still very much in use as modern shortcuts. During this walk, you will see numerous 18th century lanes between Downtown Crossing and Faneuil Hall.

Join us at 12:15pm at the Information Kiosk on the corner of Washington and Summer Streets.

(Look for other lunchtime walks on Thursdays throughout the summer!)

And next week:

Event: StreetTalk: Mode shift: moving from driving to transit, biking, and walking
"free and open to the public, sponsored by Harpoon Brewery"
What: Lecture
Host: LivableStreets Alliance
Start Time: Wednesday, July 22 at 7:00pm
End Time: Wednesday, July 22 at 9:00pm
Where: Livable Streets Alliance Office, Central Square

To see more details and RSVP, follow the link below:
http://www.facebook.com/n/?event.php&eid=102706713699&mid=c82d78G27b0218bG2ee529dG7

Boston Downtown Lunchtime walk: Thursday, July 9

On Thursday, July 9 WalkBoston join us for a half-hour walking tour of the "Little Lanes of Boston." This walk takes you through the charming pedestrian passageways of Old Boston, still very much in use as modern shortcuts. During this walk, you will see numerous 18th century lanes between Downtown Crossing and Faneuil Hall.

Join us at 12:15pm at the Information Kiosk on the corner of Washington and Summer Streets.

Livable Streets Alliance: What we can learn from Spain

LivableStreets Alliance StreetTalk

What we can learn from Spain: urban mobility planning in Barcelona

by Marius Navazo, Urban Planner, Barcelona, Spain

Thursday, June 25, 7:00 - 9:00 pm

@ LivableStreets office space, 100 Sidney Street, Cambridge (directions: www.livablestreets.info/node/530)

This event is free and open to the public, donations suggested, beer/sodas provided compliments of Harpoon Brewery and delivered thanks to Metro Pedal Power!

What are the results of implementing better transit networks, traffic calming zones, and a bike sharing program? Are these measures always environmentally-friendly? Are they enough to create better places to live and enjoy? Learn about the development of urban mobility plans in Greater Barcelona and Catalonia, Spain. See what the Catalan Government is encouraging municipalities to do.

Marius Navazo is a geographer who has been working for the last 10 years in town and regional planning, focused on transportation and its impacts to improve cities from a social and environmental perspective. He has been working at the Catalan Government for the last 4 years, and now he is a freelancer working for different municipalities in the Barcelona area.

(Photograph: a typical day on Les Rambles, Barcelona)

For more information, go to www.livablestreets.info/node/2154

The evils of externalized costs and what it means for transportation in Massachusetts

Okay, this isn't WalkBoston specific but it is related to transportation in general, and I keep ranting the ears off anyone who will listen to me and I woke up in the middle of the night last night to fret about this, so I'm just going to get it off my chest.

This spring, Governor Patrick proposed a significant transportation reform for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, which involved a lot of absolutely essential elements like road and bridge repair. Like much of the rest of the country, Massachusetts' transportation infrastructure is aging and ailing, and we need to take care of it. This, of course, costs money, which no one has these days.

So, Governor Patrick proposed that we pay for these improvements by raising the gas tax 19 cents a gallon. This would have been the first gas tax increase in Massachusetts since 1991. Why a gas tax to pay for transportation improvements, though? No one wants to pay more for gas, after all!

I talk about this in terms of internalized and externalized costs. Internalized costs are costs that are reflected in the price we pay for things. So, for example, if we know that one out of every 200 oil tankers is likely to leak and cause environmental damage, and some smart economists figure out that $0.01/gallon would fully fund a program to clean up that damage, and we therefore tax gas at that rate, then the price of gas "internalizes" that environmental cost of gas. If, on the other hand, we decide that we're not going to clean up those spills, or we're going to let an environmental nonprofit do that, then we're "externalizing" that cost, either to the future or to the nonprofit and its donors.

When we drive, we cause wear and tear on roads. We create a need for traffic enforcement by state and local agencies. Our use of roads and other transportation infrastructure creates the need to spend money. Streets and roads are not free, even though they look free because so few of them are toll roads. The more we drive, the more wear and tear we create, and a gas tax is a fair way to figure someone's contribution to this. If I don't want to spend more money on gas, I can get smarter about how much I drive -- as many people have done in the last year when gas prices skyrocketed to more than $4/gallon. Because a gas tax internalizes the cost of roads, drivers can make smarter choices about how much it's worth to them to drive somewhere.

It additionally makes sense to use this money for things like public transit, because public transit is less costly per user in the long run, and a full bus is much less damaging on the infrastructure per capita than each person or family in their own car.

BUT. Public transit isn't popular, and paying for things we use isn't popular, so the citizens of Massachusetts made a big stink, and therefore the legislature dug in their heels, and someone came up with the brilliant idea of making these costs invisible again: sales tax. Now, there's no incentive for people to be calculated about their impact on the built environment, because we all pay sales tax (although it can be easy to dodge that through things like internet shopping) on things unrelated to transportation. Way to go, guys.

Now, of course, we'll raise less money for necessary improvements, it'll be more variable, and people will have no incentive to understand that their choices have consequences. If there's one great evil in our current system, it's externalized costs that create falsely deflated prices for goods and services with high costs. I'd hoped Governor Patrick could lead Massachusetts out of that system for transportation spending, but, instead, we're all going to pay higher taxes on cheap plastic trinkets while people who ride the T have to pay up to 25% more because some short-sighted jerk wants his roads to look like they're free.

MetroFuture: From Plan to Action

Join the Metropolitan Area Planning Council and people from across the region for an evening of discussion, information and collaboration on how we can turn our vision of a Greater Boston into reality.

Tuesday, June 9, 2009 at 6 p.m. at The Colonnade Hotel, 120 Huntington Ave., Boston, MA 02116

Complimentary dinner and registration at 5 p.m.

Free and open to all

MetroFuture is a roadmap for shared prosperity and sustainable development in Greater Boston, crafted with input from thousands of area residents. There is a clear strategy for achieving the plan's goals, and a corps of supporters who are committed to putting them into action.

Now, we turn our focus to the action campaigns key to meeting MetroFuture's goals. Participants will have the opportunity to discuss one of four topics:

• Transportation Finance Reform
• Green Energy and Job Creation
• Local Smart Growth Planning
• Advocacy Tools and Techniques

To learn more, visit www.metrofuture.org, call 617-451-2770 x2057 or e-mail metrofuture@mapc.org.

Don't miss this exciting, interactive event!

WalkBoston named Finalist in International Competition!

WE NEED YOUR HELP! WalkBoston has been named one of ten finalists in the "Global Competition for Innovative Health Nudges" which looks for small, innovative pushes that help people make better health choices for themselves and others.

WalkBoston's "Timed Walking Map" project is one of ten finalists among 281 entries from around the world. Now, we need your participation in the vote so that WalkBoston can become one of three winners who will receive $5,000 toward our work. This is a one-vote-per-person system, not one where people vote every day for a month, so it should just take a few minutes to register and vote for three of the ten finalists. To vote, go to http://www.changemakers.net/designingforbetterhealth before 6PM on Friday, May 28. Click on Vote Now, and then register and vote.

WalkBoston became a finalist because our low-cost, easy-to-read maps help people see their neighborhoods, towns and cities on a walking scale, which encourages them to choose walking over driving some of the time. Our inclusion among the finalists is a great honor and an opportunity to spread the word about our walking maps and our advocacy that makes walking easier, safer and more fun.

We hope that you will share this information with your friends and coworkers to spread the word, encourage everyone to vote, and learn more about all of the creative and effective health nudges among the ten finalists. Winners will be announced June 1, and we'll let you know how we do!

Thank you for your support of these innovative maps (and other pioneering projects we work on)! Now - please vote, and then go outside and take a walk!

(Click on map below to download a pdf of a timed walking map from our web page.)

Crosswalk confusion

I was walking down Clarendon Street in Boston earlier this week with a friend. It was rush hour, and we were looking forward to having drinks at a new-to-us restaurant near Back Bay Station. Because there was heavy traffic, we did not pull the classic Boston jaywalking maneuver of just crossing when there's a break in traffic, but instead walked up to the crosswalk in front of what used to be the Hard Rock Cafe.

This crosswalk is faded, but clearly visible, but when we stepped into it, the car that was approaching did not slow, initially, and when he finally did, it was in a big huff with a lot of arm waving. My companion and I gave in to the temptation to yell, "It's a crosswalk!" to which the driver stuck his head out the window and said, "That's not a crosswalk!"

Now, I'm not writing this up to say I'm right and he's wrong (even though I'm right and he's wrong), but to point out one of the problems of faded crosswalks and other unclear traffic signs and signals: confusion is bad. When there's a conflict between cars and pedestrians, especially, the pedestrian always loses, no matter what the law says. The driver of this vehicle thought that the faded crosswalk indicated that it was no longer in effect, or at least thought that was a good argument to yell at a couple of pedestrians as they crossed in front of his car. If he was right about that, then we, as pedestrians, have been put at risk due to misleading infrastructure. That's bad for everyone.

So what do you do in a situation like this? Go to WalkBoston's advocacy page and download the "Reporting Form" (or download it directly by clicking here). Fill it out (which will probably involve a call to the relevant city hall to identify the person you should contact, or, if you prefer, a call to WalkBoston where one of us will find out for you) with as much detail as possible, and send it to the city. We'd also love for you to send a copy to us so we can help with followup and tracking.

Let's make walking better!

WalkBoston/RunBoston fundraising event!

(I apologize for the incompatible oranges for those of you looking at this post on the WalkBoston blog page.)

The Built Environment, Activity, and Walking

This weekend's incredibly gorgeous weather forecast has me eagerly anticipating a lot of time in the sunshine, and thinking about what a huge impact the built environment can have on people in innumerable ways.

Today, a friend sent me a link to Not Just Child’s Play, an article in BU Today about a study that has found that renovated playgrounds appear to improve the MCAS math scores of kids who attend those schools. It may be that a nice playground makes kids feel more invested in school, or more valued, or it may mean they're more likely to run around and be active over the course of the day. Who knows, but whatever the cause, there seems to be a connection between the built environment around schools and kids' ability to learn.

Similarly, another friend send me a link to Brain Gains, a feature focusing on the huge benefit to learning that physical activity provides. Many of us live in environments that don't encourage, or actively discourage physical activity and movement over the course of the day, and an increasing body of research suggests that this is bad for our physical health, mental health, learning, productivity and mood.

Is your physical environment encouraging you to be active? Do you have sidewalks or trails where you can walk? Can you easily cross streets and do you enjoy greenery and clean streets in your neighborhood? Are there places to walk to, if you want to run errands on foot?

Increasingly, it appears that the answers to these questions have implications not merely for how much you walk but also for how you feel, how friendly and welcoming your neighborhood is, how much crime takes place there, and the price of homes there. We at WalkBoston often wrestle with the perception of walking as a "pedestrian" activity that people take for granted, but pedestrian advocacy is important because it connects to almost every element of our lives.

Boston: #2 for walkability

Every year, a variety of magazines and organizations make a list of the most walkable cities in the US, and Boston is consistently in the top ten, usually the top five. This is partially simply a lucky break due to the fact that Boston's winding streets and dense population is what we have to work with around here, so we've never had a chance to spread out the way a lot of western-US cities have done. Still, we often beat out Philadelphia and Washington, DC, so it's not exclusively an artifact of timing.

Prevention magazine just came out with the top 25 walking cities for the year and has listed Boston as #2, behind San Francisco. Now, I'm not sure I agree with listing Boston before New York, but never mind that: go, Boston! Though I have to laugh that the picture they use is of Cambridge, not Boston. Okay, never mind that, either.

So, the reason they give for our high rank this year? "Improvements such as longer WALK signals and bright, patterned intersections encourage more people to walk."

And this is the part of the post where I get to be all excited and wave my hands around with glee, because the reason for those improvements? WalkBoston, and especially the work on signal timing that WalkBoston cofounder Dorothea Hass has been doing for years. Ironically, of course, we at WalkBoston continue to be frustrated at all the work still to be done to improve signal timing for pedestrians in Boston, but it's a delight to see that Boston's getting some shout-outs on the basis of what we've done so far.

So, hey, nice going, Dorothea! And Boston!

Give my sidewalks dignity

Last Friday, I was at the Congress for New Urbanism's New England chapter for their Sustainable Urbanism Summit in Portsmouth, NH. There was an excellent series of speakers who offered a number of insights, thoughts, and perspectives on the future of urbanism and sustainability in coming years. Check out the links if you're interested in learning more!

A lot of what was discussed captured my thoughts, but in particular, I've been mulling over Jason Schrieber's comments on what makes people take public transportation. As an avid walker, I am also an proponent of public transit, so I care a lot about this issue, but I also found part of what he said to be directly relevant to walking planning and infrastructure, too.

We all know that people are more likely to take public transit if it provides gains in time, cost, goes where people want to go; that's all pretty intuitive, right? But Jason talked about a fourth factor that's often overlooked: dignity. That is, even if I were going to save time and money and be delivered more or less door-to-door by public transit, I might still choose to take a private vehicle if the transit option is unpleasant, or makes me feel lousy, undervalued, or unimportant.

How many of us have decided to take transit somewhere only to find the bus stop poorly marked, wait forever for a bus that never showed up, have transit employees be unhelpful or unfriendly, poorly maintained and cleaned facilities, broken escalators, and delays that are never explained. If you take public transit even occasionally, you've probably had one or more such experience. Folks who take it every day run into this kind of thing a lot, and, of course, some systems are worse than others. For people who have a choice in how to travel, this kind of thing discourages use of public transit. For people who are obligated by economic or other constraints to rely on public transit as their primary or only means of travel, this sort of thing can reinforce the cultural idea that they don't "deserve" better service. That's bad for all of us, I think, but that's a longer, larger discussion.

This point about dignity is an important one, however, and it extends beyond public transit. Pedestrians are often subjected to incredibly lousy walking conditions, but because we don't think of sidewalks as services in the same way that we do public transit, we may overlook this. But it's one of the primary areas that we at WalkBoston focus our attention. When sidewalks are in poor repair, are too narrow, are dirty, feel (or are) unsafe, we are discouraged from walking, and those who do walk, either by choice or by necessity, are cast as second class citizens. When these conditions exist alongside expensive and well-maintained roads, we demonstrate our greater interest in cars than in people.

Many of us take the walking infrastructure as-it-exists for granted. It's just what is, and that's that. But sidewalks, pathways, and other public areas don't spring up out of nowhere. They are the result of intentional or unintentional decisions on the part of policy-makers, funders, communities and individuals. As walkers, we can request and even demand a walking environment that is not only functional but also dignified.

Where do you think you're going?

We've all heard of the infamous bridge to nowhere (I bet it's been a while since you thought about that, huh?). How's this for the crosswalk to nowhere:

Street Talk: Russ Lopez on Urban Health

LivableStreets Alliance to host Street Talk by Russ Lopez on Urban Health: How shaping our built environment shapes ourselves.
When: Thursday, April 2, 7 - 9 pm
Where: 100 Sidney Street, Central Square, Cambridge

This event is free and open to the public. Donation suggested. Beer/sodas provided compliments of Harpoon Brewery!

"If there’s a supermarket in your zip code, for example, you’re 10% less likely to be obese. If there are a lot of intersections in your neighborhood - a sign of street connectivity and continuity - you’re less likely to be obese. And, not surprisingly, the more time people spend in their cars, the more likely they are to be obese” says Lopez. Come hear Russ Lopez speak about how our built environment – from playgrounds to fast food chains – shapes ourselves.

Russ Lopez, a native of California, is an Assistant Professor at the Boston University School of Public Health. Past employment includes working on urban and environmental issues for then Lt. Governor John Kerry. He also worked for ten years in various positions in for the City of Boston on housing, community development and environmental concerns. Dr. Lopez was the first Executive Director of the Environmental Diversity Forum, a coalition of environmentalists and community activists advocating for environmental justice issues throughout New England.

This event is sponsored by LivableStreets Alliance.

For more information, click here.

Snow Legislation: what happened?

Back in January, I asked you to call Governor Patrick's office in support of a house bill in support of making changes to snow clearing legislation. This would have made a variety of changes to how municipalities could handle snow and snow clearing, including by increasing the possible fines, adding teeth to enforcing those fines, and removing liability from residents who do clear snow from their walkways. Unfortunately, Governor Patrick vetoed this legislation, much to the great disappointment of many. Thank you all for your calls, and I'll be keeping you updated on next steps relating to the possibility of this legislation being refiled and/or other things WalkBoston will be doing to improve the state of snow clearance on pedestrian ways in Massachusetts.

Support Governor Patrick's Transportation Legislation!

Please call and/or write your State Representative and Senator today — Governor Deval Patrick’s Transportation Reform and Finance Legislation needs your support! (Click here to find out who your elected officials are and how to contact them.)

Express your support for the big ideas included in the transportation bill filed by Governor Patrick on February 24th by endorsing the bills commitment to pedestrian travel across the state.

The proposal balances reform with raising revenues to bring our transportation system into the 21st century. WalkBoston supports the increase in the gas tax as the best option to raise revenues. The proposed legislation also proposes smart revenue mechanisms to encourage energy-efficient vehicles and road-use based tax mechanisms.

The package includes significantly increased attention to pedestrians in a Healthy Transportation Compact to:

* Construct “complete streets” to enable pedestrians, bicyclists and bus riders to move safely on roadways in urban and suburban areas.
* Increase bicycle and pedestrian travel throughout the Commonwealth
* Expand Safe Routes to School

The reforms will increase safety, encourage physical activity, and help to make our communities more livable for young and old, those able-bodied or living with disabilities, and all citizens who walk by choice or because they are without a car.

The entire bill can be downloaded in PDF form at:
http://www.mass.gov/Agov3/docs/Legislation/090224TranspoReformLegislation.pdf

Please also consider speaking up for the bill at one of the Joint Committee on Transportation hearings:

When: Wednesday, March 4, 2009 at 4:00 p.m.
Where: Springfield Technical Community College

When: Thursday, March 5, 2009 [Time – TBD]
Where: [TBD – South Shore]

When: Tuesday, March 10, 2009 at 5:00 p.m.
Where: Methuen City Hall, Great Hall, 41 Pleasant Street, Methuen, MA 01844

When: Wednesday, March 11, 2009 at 1:00 PM
Where: State House, Room A-1

Thank you!
Wendy Landman, Executive Director
Liz Levin, Board President

Guess who's coming to WalkBoston?

Here at the WalkBoston offices, we're busy with a flurry of preparation for our annual celebration, coming up on Thursday, March 19. One of the most exciting things about it this year is that Governor Deval Patrick will be joining us for the pre-celebration walk and making remarks at the celebration itself. Would you like to join us? Please do!

Walking fail

Thanks to footloose reader Ben for pointing out this walking fail, from failblog:

George Bailey

I'm sad to be linking to the obituary of George Bailey, longtime WalkBoston supporter, Golden Shoe Award winner and pedestrian advocate. It mentions how George, as a member of the Sharon Planning Board, pressed to require developers to install sidewalks in their projects. "Today, Sharon is a very walkable community," said his wife, Lucile.

Our condolences to his friends and family, and we'll take a walk in his honor this weekend.

Enrique Peñalosa on Urban Happiness

Last Thursday, I attended a lecture by Enrique Peñalosa, former mayor of Bogotá, who was visiting Boston through Livable Streets, and Institute for Transportation and Development Policy last week. He also visited the WalkBoston offices for a couple of lively lunchtime conversations.

What I found most engaging about Peñalosa was not any particular design suggestion he made for cities. Most of us who are interested in urbanism are familiar with ideas like creating more open space, making bigger sidewalks, bike lanes, and the like, and most of us who are working in the field in Boston know better the streets that would most benefit from an overhaul. What Peñalosa offers, however, is a way of thinking that represents a true paradigm shift in how we approach the politics of urban design.

In essence, what he proposes is that the city be considered habitat for humans, and that people should be the primary focus for urban design. We have Environmental Impact Reviews, he pointed out, but not Human Impact Reviews. Cities planned for cars are cities that institutionalize class-based inequality, as they prioritize the transportation of people who can afford cars over the safety, enjoyment, and transportation of people who can't, or who choose not to. Therefore, reorienting the city towards pedestrians is a move toward equality.

To this end, we should see sidewalks not as relatives of streets, whose job is to get people from here to there, but instead as relatives of parks, which are all about people's pleasure of place. At intersections, the sidewalk should remain at a level, making cars come into pedestrians' space rather than make pedestrians step into the car zone to get across the street. Sidewalks should come first, then room for public transportation, which is a public good, and only if there's room should there be street space for private vehicles in the public way.

What would our cities look like if they put people first?

If you care about how transit dollars are spent ... Call your Senators today!

There is movement in the Senate to strip funding from transit and redirect it to highway construction.

Please call these Senators to express your alarm about the out-of control highway proposals. Say no to highway expansion, and yes to transit and walkable communities.

Urge Senators to vote NO on the Bond Amendments and the Inhofe-Boxer Amendment!

Kit Bond (R-MO) Amendment #1: Strips $2 billion set aside for high-speed rail and redirects it to highway funding.

Kit Bond (R-MO) Amendment #2: Takes $5.5 billion in competitive transportation grants and gives it to highways.

Inhofe(R-OK) and Boxer (D-CA) Amendment: Creates $50 billion transportation slush fund with no criteria for fix-it-first or transit. Read: highway expansion.

Votes could be taken at anytime, so please call these Senators today!

Senator John Kerry
TEL: 202-224-2742
FAX: 202-224-8525

Senator Ted Kennedy
TEL: 202-224-4543
FAX: 202-224-2417

Senator Barbara Boxer
TEL: 202-224-3553
FAX: 202-224-0454

Majority Leader Harry Reid
TEL: 202-224-3542
FAX: 202-224-7327

[Edited to add: As of 11:45 this morning, I've only be able to get through to Senator Kennedy's office. It would seem the Senate phones are receiving a lot of calls. Keep trying!]

Break ice while the weather's nice!

Today, it's supposed to be over 40 degrees here in the Boston area. This is a great chance for those folks who've fallen behind on sidewalk clearing to get ahead of tomorrow's snow! There's nothing so treacherous as pitted ice under a camoflaging layer of new snow, so you'll be doing your neighbors and neighborhood a good deed if you have a chance to get out there and clear old ice this afternoon.

I know it's hard to stay on top of the snow this year, but it makes a big, big difference to both individuals and communities for everyone who's able to do their part.

Who are we accomodating: people or cars?

As I walked to the T this morning, I observed several snowplows getting a jump on clearing the streets as the first couple of inches of snow (4-6 predicted for Somerville, where I live) had fallen. Somerville does a great job of keeping the streets well-cleared.

Similarly, some of my neighbors had gotten a jump on the snow by clearing the first couple of inches off their sidewalks before heading to work. As in many cities and towns in Massachusetts, Somerville residents are required to clear their sidewalks of snow within a reasonable time after a storm stops or face fines (and cranky neighbors).

As anyone who's been walking around the urban and semi-urban areas around Boston this month has no doubt noticed, however, sidewalk-clearing policies still result in spotty walking conditions. In my neighborhood, where there's a high volume of foot traffic, I see a lot of people (myself included!) giving up on sidewalks and simply walking in the street.

Every time I see this, I think about how much we need to change the prevailing approach. Why does the city clear streets but not sidewalks? (Some cities do plow sidewalks with small plows, either throughout the city [Brookline] or in commercial areas [Belmont].) In more rural areas where few people move about by foot, this may be a sensible distribution of resources on the basis of people's use of sidewalks, but in areas with high numbers of foot traffic, it simply doesn't make sense.

People should be the beneficiaries of municipal policies, and in densely populated areas well-served by public transit, that includes people on foot as well as in cars. It's past time to realign our narrow, car-centric thinking to a more inclusive approach.

Urban Happiness with Enrique Peñalosa!

[Note: This is an event not to be missed!]

Urban Happiness with Enrique Peñalosa! Hosted by LivableStreets Alliance
What happens when you give street space back to people?
Thursday, February 5, 6:30 pm
@ Boston Public Library, Copley Square, Rabb Lecture Hall

This event is free and open to the public. Enrique Peñalosa is a special guest speaker in the StreetTalk lecture series hosted by LivableStreets Alliance.

An accomplished public official, economist and administrator, Enrique Peñalosa completed his three-year term as Mayor of Bogotá, Colombia on December 31, 2000. While mayor, Peñalosa was responsible for numerous radical improvements to the city and its citizens. He promoted a city model giving priority to children and public spaces and restricting private car use, building hundreds of kilometers of sidewalks, bicycle paths, pedestrian streets, greenways, and parks. He received the Stockholm Challenge Award for organizing a Car-Free Day in 2000 and a referendum vote then endorsed it annually. As part of the pico y plata license plate restriction program, he removed 40% of cars during peak hours. Peñalosa also led efforts to improve Bogotá's marginal neighborhoods through citizen involvement; planted more than 100,000 trees; created a new, highly successful bus-based transit system; and turned a deteriorated downtown avenue into a dynamic pedestrian public space. He helped transform the city's attitude from one of negative hopelessness to one of pride and hope, developing a model for urban improvement based on the equal rights of all people to transportation, education, and public spaces.

This event is part of a 4-day series of events hosted by LivableStreets Alliance and sponsored by the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy, in collaboration with WalkBoston, Institute for Human Centered Design, Bikes Not Bombs, Charles River Conservancy, and MassBike.

For more information, check out www.livablestreets.info or contact Jackie Douglas at (617) 621-1746, jackie@livablestreets.info.


For a flyer about the event, check out http://www.livablestreets.info/files/Penalosa_5feb09_BPL.pdf

The Ultra Pedestrians

Once you've mastered walking, you can try the next level: The Ultra Pedestrians!

(Link leads to a video.)

Thanks to foot-friendly reader Dan!

Boston Bikes Update Report

For those of you who use or have interest in using bikes to get around, check out this event, hosted by the LivableStreets Alliance:

First Annual "Boston Bikes Update Report"

LivableStreets Alliance will host the 1st annual "Boston Bikes Report" by the city's Director of Bicycle Programs, Nicole Freedman.

When: Thursday, January 29, 7 pm
Where: Boston Public Library, main branch at Copley, Rabb Lecture Hall.

*This event is free and open to the public* The focus of the meeting will be on future steps needed to create the "world class bicycling city" that Mayor Menino has promised. There will be additional discussion about what could be done to significantly expand the cycling population -- and its political influence -- by attracting "traffic intolerant" bicyclists, read more.

Marathon Sports event!

Tomorrow evening, at 7:15, join the RunBoston marathon team for a special event at Marathon Sports in Copley Square. This is your opportunity to meet our marathon team and also to hear Marathon Sports shoe specialists explain the factors that go into their unique shoe-fitting process. All attendees will receive a coupon for 20% off a future purchase.

Before this, join me and other walkers as we walk the last mile of the marathon route, ending up at Marathon Sports in time for this event. Meet in front of the BU bookstore at 6:30!

Bundle up for the cold!

The talk of the town this week is how bitterly cold it is. I'm always amazed at the variety of bundling that people do -- at all times of year, really, but especially when I'm piling on as many layers as I can manage. I was pretty comfortable on my walk this morning, other than my face, because I've never figured out the trick of getting my scarf to stay up over my cheeks.

I'm shocked when I see people exposing bare skin at neck, wrist, or ankle (our intern this morning reported seeing people out and about without socks!). In fact, Somerville, where I live, has just announced a cold weather alert, and is providing warming centers open to the public during this cold spell.

Most of us (and certainly those of us reading this post) won't need to visit a special warming center, and will conduct our lives normally, if with a bit of extra shivering, in the next few days, but this brings up the important point for all of us of dressing appropriately. In the winter, the difference between a cold and shivery walk and a pleasant one is my clothing.

It seems obvious to those people who are accustomed to cold weather, but wearing the proper cold-weather attire makes all the difference, and when it's bitterly cold, the right amount may be more than you think. For the folks I work with who are from tropical climates, the idea of being warm in the out-of-doors during winter is itself inconceivable until I explain just how many layers I'm talking about.

It is possible to walk outside in the winter and stay warm, but you have to plan for it. If the option is to bundle up or not set foot outside the house from December through March, I pick the down parka and three layers of socks!

Unshoveled sidewalk? Make the call

With winter in full swing, I'm thinking about snowy and icy sidewalks on a daily basis. Over the weekend, I saw a number of problem spots in Cambridge and Somerville. Of course, there's the typical sidewalk that didn't get cleared after snow, and has been packed down by pedestrians into an uneven, pitted layer of slick ice. These are a pain both for people walking by and for the homeowner who suddenly realizes that it's now or never to clear that ice before the next storm, and I saw (and thanked) a lot of people who were out chipping ice during the day on Saturday.

I also saw a number of crosswalk push-buttons buried behind a big pile of snow, meaning that in order to reach the button to get a walk phase at that intersection, I had to climb up on an icy pile of snow. In most cases, this was due to the city's snow plowing, and Cambridge should know better!

However, the thing that jumped out at me most was businesses that hadn't cleared their sidewalks. This stood out to me because I have an easy action item coming out of it: when I see an uncleared or poorly cleared sidewalk in front of a business, I can either pop in and tell them that I'm concerned about the state of their sidewalk, or call them later to complain.

I've started doing this with the business at the end of the street where I live, which rarely clears their sidewalk on my street, and I was delighted to see that this morning, for the first time this winter, they'd shoveled along my street! Now, I'm going to call them to say thanks.

Call Governor Patrick TODAY!

Please call the Governor's office TODAY (617-725-4005) to ask Governor Deval Patrick to sign House Bill #4883-08.

This bill would allow municipalities to increase fines for people who do not clear their sidewalks and also establishes that an owner's good faith effort to remove snow or ice will not make that person liable for injuries due to a fall (full text is shown below).

Your friendly reminder phone call need take no more than 30 seconds.

Section 5. A municipality may by ordinances and by-laws provide for the removal of snow and ice from sidewalks within such portions of the municipality as they consider expedient by the owner of land abutting upon such sidewalks. Such ordinances and by-laws shall determine the time and manner of removal and shall affix penalties, not exceeding $200 for each violation thereof. Such ordinances and by-laws shall be specific as to the width of the area to be cleared and the standards for clearance.
An owner, lessor, occupant or other person in charge of real property or an agent thereof who, in good faith, removes or attempts to remove snow or ice from a sidewalk abutting his property shall not be liable for personal injuries allegedly caused by the snowy or icy condition of the sidewalk resulting from his act or omission unless the alleged act or omission constitutes gross negligence.

Winter in Boston: not for sissies

Wow, this sure has been an unpleasant week for walking, and, really, leaving the house in general here in eastern Massachusetts. Yuck!

Monday, we were treated to a thin sheen of ice on just about everything. Several of my friends slipped on their front steps or sidewalks. I continued my campaign to shame the architecture firm that lives at the end of my street and never clears their sidewalk by calling them and pointing out that walking by their building is extremely treacherous.

Tuesday wasn't bad, but yesterday blew chunks, rather literally! I felt like I was walking on small, icy marbles suspended in water for maximum slipping and slopping. Happily, by the end of the day, it was just rain, but when temperatures dropped last night, that was transformed into a thick sheet of ice almost everywhere.

Take care out and about today, and this winter! I know it's no better to be on a bike or car today, either.