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!