Somerville: Sign The Powder House Blvd Petition

From the email:

Hi Somerville neighbors,

We created a petition for protected bike lanes on Powder House Blvd so that we can show how many people support the option with protected bike lanes. We will present the petition to the city at the public meeting on May 22. Please sign and share widely!

When we attended the previous meeting, it made a big difference in showing the city that there are many more people in support of a protected bike lane on Powder House Blvd than who oppose. These meetings also provide an opportunity to weigh in and have your comments considered before these protected bike lanes are built.

When: May 22, 6pm-8pm

Where: West Somerville Neighborhood School, 177 Powder House Blvd

Back in February, the city held a public meeting for bike infrastructure on Broadway that was very well attended by advocates for protected bike lanes. Later this month the city will likely implement a design with improvements based on comments raised at the public meeting. It will be amazing to see one mile of bike infrastructure installed on a street which so badly needs it. When we show up to meetings and write emails, we make the city more comfortable with moving quickly on safe bike infrastructure.

The Somerville Bike Committee has put in countless hours of volunteer time to make these projects possible for the city to implement. We are excited to find out how many miles of bike infrastructure Somerville will build this year!

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Tell City Council You Want Protected Bike Lanes On Mass Ave And Mt Auburn

Tonight the city council will vote on a policy order on complete streets, including putting protected bike lanes on Mass Ave between Central and Harvard Squares. If successful, tonight’s vote would be the first step toward making this happen, so it’s important we tell our city councilors how much we would appreciate their vote in favor of this. While the order is potentially controversial, it doesn’t need to be, and we look forward to collaborating on a design that works well for everyone, especially businesses, seniors, pedestrians, transit users, and those who need to drive.The city is also starting a public process for protected bike lanes and other improvements on Mt Auburn between JFK St and Putnam Ave. Together these would provide crucial routes between Harvard and Central Squares.

Actions:

• Email [email protected], [email protected] and CC [email protected] and [email protected] and tell them that you are happy to see the council voting on protected bike lanes on Mass Ave.
  • Sample email:

Subject: Please support protected bike lanes on Mass Ave and Mt Auburn

Please vote Yes on Policy Order #2 tonight. Protected bike lanes on Mass Ave are very important for the safety of myself and the people I care about. I am also happy to see protected bike lanes being considered for Mt Auburn St and want to see them built as quickly as possible.

-your name and address

• Speak at the city council meeting tonight at 5:30 at Cambridge City Hall. You can sign up ahead of time, or raise your hand at the end of public comment.

When we rallied last week, we chose City Hall’s front lawn partially because it highlights one of the most prominent gaps in Cambridge’s protected bike lane network. Building protected bike lanes here and on Mt Auburn would complete a safe and equitable route for people who bike anywhere between the Charles River and Harvard Square. It is important that the city council vote yes so that city staff can start looking into this.

South Mass Ave survey

The city is asking for your input on the protected bike lanes put in between Memorial Drive and Sidney St. These surveys are tools the city uses to see if people liked the changes they made there and to see what tweaks could be done to improve the experience there. Please fill out the survey or comment on the wikimap.

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StreetLife: Boston Budget Hearings, Bus-Bike Workshop, And More!

From the email:

—————–

Image: MA Vision Zero Coalition

Last week, the Massachusetts Vision Zero Coalition released the third annual Vision Zero Progress Report for Boston. While fatal crashes on Boston streets have dropped by nearly half over the past three years, the number of crashes requiring EMS response has not gone down. The momentum to prioritize safe, healthy, and equitable mobility for all is growing, and we encourage you to get involved!

Attend the Transportation Department hearing for the FY20 budget in May, and testify in support of investments for safer, healthier, and more sustainable transportation, which will directly benefit Vision Zero.

Event Details:
Transportation Department Budget Hearing

Tuesday, May 7, 10:30 AM
@ Boston City Hall, 5th Floor, Iannella Chamber
1 City Hall Square, Boston, MA 02201

Join Us at a Bonus Advocacy Committee Session: Understanding the Boston Budget Book

Image: Boston Cyclists Union

Are you curious about how to read the Boston budget book? Do you want to be more informed as you advocate for more funding for street safety and transportation priorities this year?

Join us on on the evening of Monday, May 6th for a bonus session to do a deeper dive into the Boston budget.

Event Details:
Deep Dive into the Boston Budget
Monday, May 6, 6:30 – 7:30 pm
@ LivableStreets Office
100 Sidney Street, Cambridge

RSVP

Street Ambassadors Continue to Build Momentum for Bus Priority in Somerville and Allston

It’s only April, but we’ve already been hard at work expanding our Better Buses initiative this spring.

Our Street Ambassadors have been on the ground on Broadway in Somerville, helping us engage with community members and businesses to support Somerville’s spring implementation of a bus-bike lane along Broadway between Magoun Square and McGrath Highway. The City also has plans to pilot a bus-bike lane along sections of Holland Street between Clarendon Hill and Davis Square.

Soon, we’ll be recruiting Street Ambassadors to lead a thank you campaign for the Brighton Ave bus-bike lane in Allston, which the City plans to pilot in June!

If you’re interested in volunteering as a Street Ambassador, please contact [email protected].

Join Us for a Bus-Bike Workshop

Image: Liana Genito

A shared bus-bike lane is coming to Brighton Avenue this June. In this workshop, we’ll help prepare you to feel confident and comfortable biking in your new 12-foot lane!

Join us for a bus-bike workshop on Saturday, May 18th and learn more about sharing the road with MBTA buses. Participants will have the opportunity to sit in a bus driver’s seat to identify blind spots, and ask questions of Boston Transportation Department and MBTA staff.

Event Details:
Bike-Bus Workshop
Saturday, May 18, 1:00-3:00 pm
@ Jackson Mann Community Center
500 Cambridge St, Boston

Light refreshments will be provided. We hope to see you there! Check out other Bike Month events happening in May here.

Opportunities

• Director of Transit Priority, MBTA: This position will lead engagement with our municipal partners to plan, design, and support the development of bus transit priority infrastructure (bus lanes, queue jumps, signal priority, etc.). The posting closes on April 29, 2019. Click here to learn more.
• Planners and Engineers, City of Boston: The City of Boston is expanding their team of passionate, dedicated, and experienced people working to realize Go Boston 2030’s goals of expanding access, improving safety, and ensuring reliability. To see all available positions, click here.
• Transit Advisory Committee Member, City of Cambridge:  The City of Cambridge is seeking members for Bicycle, Pedestrian, and Transit Advisory Committees. The application deadline is April 26, 2019. To learn more, click here.
• Program Manager, WalkBoston: WalkBoston is seeking a Program Manager to oversee their statewide technical assistance programs that work to improve the safety and quality of the pedestrian environment. Applications are due by April 26, 2019. Click here to learn more.

Thank you!

Check out the following resources to learn more about what we’ve been up to lately!

• Press: Read local and national press featuring LivableStreets and our work.
• StreetFilms: Watch videos highlighting our advocacy and events.
• The Public Way: Transportation, Health, and Livable Communities Blog: Join Steve Miller, one of our founding board members, as he explores how our transportation system and built environment can be better structured to improve our lives, health, and the planet.

Donate

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Lets Talk About Your Commute

Gather round folks, its time to harp on traffic…yes again.

Have you noticed anything about the commute in this town?  If you ride your bike every day you might not have, but if you take the bus, or ride the T or drive you probably have noticed that its getting worse, a lot worse.  A new poll shows that its getting so bad a significant number of people have considered moving to escape the fresh hell of a Boston commute.

Commuters with longest commutes are being pushed to the brink. Among full-time workers who commute more than 45 minutes every morning, 71% report having been late for work recently. About half (51%) of those same workers have considered changing jobs to improve their commutes and 30% have considered leaving their area altogether.

“These impact numbers, especially among those with the longest commutes, should be a red flag for the business community in Massachusetts,” says Steve Koczela, President of The MassINC Polling Group, who conducted the poll. “The levels of frustration we are seeing in this poll suggest a significant portion of workers are reaching a breaking point when it comes to their commutes.”

People in cars…are pissed…all the time. They honk, they drive aggressively, they do dangerous and foolish things.   In fact if you read the poll above, folks are so fed up they are even willing to raise taxes!

• Voters also support specific polices to raise money, reduce congestion, and fight climate change, including:
• The Transportation Climate Initiative: 68% support Massachusetts joining with other states in a plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from transportation by charging a fee to gasoline importers.
• Regional ballots: 55% support letting cities and regions hold votes to raise local taxes to fund transportation projects.
• Regional rail: 80% support increasing the frequency of commuter rail trains running to and from Boston to every 15 to 30 minutes throughout the day, at night and on weekends.
• Off-peak toll discounts: 82% support giving drivers a discount if they drive outside of rush hour, to reduce congestion.

The studies done on this find that even taking just a few cars off the road can really improve things.  Want to know a really good way to take a couple cars off the road.  Ride your bike. For those that can, you will find that its much less stressful, healthy for you, healthy for the planet, and you will save a lot of money.  You will also be increasing the general well being of everyone else who uses the road with you.  But that is only a very small part of the solution.

The problem of commuting is not just about how many cars are on the road.

Its also a problem of equity.  The folks with the longest commutes are the most miserable so you have to ask yourself, why do they put up with it?  Why do they live so far from their job?  Why can’t they afford to live closer to their job?  Why are there no good jobs where they live?  Why is there no affordable housing close to the good jobs?  Why is there not enough public transit?  Why is there no bike infrastructure on which to feel safe riding a bike?  Why don’t they get paid enough to live close to where they work?

Maybe there is a lack of controls on the price of rent.  Maybe they are out of shape because they live in a food desert and can’t get healthy food.  Maybe they don’t have enough public places for leisure and activity?  Maybe we have allowed the super rich to treat properties like investment portfolio instead of a place to live.  Maybe they are working two jobs and don’t have time to learn to bike to work.  Maybe we allow unregulated taxi services like Lyft and Uber to crowd our streets while abusing the people who work for them.  Maybe they have bad health insurance and are worried about getting hurt. Maybe they have kids and have no way to safely bike with them.  Maybe the level of crime in their area makes them reluctant to walk or ride a bike to work.

If we want to solve any of these problems we will have to solve all of these problems.  Living wages, environmental justice, ending the war on drugs, getting racist cops out of the police force, medicare for all, raising taxes on the rich, ending subsides for giant profitable corporations, investing in our infrastructure, building affordable housing, all of these are required to solve the traffic problem.  As a bonus doing all of this will also solve a lot of other problems as well.

With the specter of catastrophic climate change looming closer and closer, and with the waters around Boston rising higher and higher, its far past the time when small measures will solve our problems.   We need bold and intersectional answers to our problems.

So if someone asks you why traffic is so bad, don’t just say “because people are not riding their bike” 

Tell them its because we give tax breaks to Amazon instead of building affordable housing.  Tell them its because we subsidize oil and natural gas instead of bicycles and public transit.  Tell them its because we don’t have a living minimum wage.  Tell them we don’t tax the rich enough.  Tell them its because we don’t support unions enough.  Tell them that we allow racism to infect our justice system.  Tell them its because we value everything based on how much money it can make, and not on how much it contributes to human thriving.

When they ask you how they can fix such huge problems, ask them if hey know their state rep, did they vote, have they called their senator, have they considered running for office, do they want to ride their bike to work with you.  Tell them that individual actions are great, but collective actions change society.

Because at the end of the day no one person or politician is going to save us.  Only a political movement based on human thriving, equity, and justice (FOR EVERYONE), is going to solve our problems.  That movement starts with us, getting involved, demanding change, and holding our leaders to account for their failure if they don’t do what we demand.

Let me get you started:

Contact info for all the legislators in MA

Contact information for the governor

Contact information for the mayor of Boston

Contact information for the city council

Give them a call, mention some of the issues in this article, tell them you want bold coordinated plans that deal with ALL of them at once.  Tell them you wont vote for them unless the solutions match the scope of our problems.  Then when it comes time to vote, remember who did a good job addressing your issues, and vote out everyone else.

It might seem like a lot of work, but just imagine how nice life will be when your morning commute is a great part of your day, instead of the worst.

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Read The 2018 Vision Zero Boston Progress Report

From Livable Streets:

The Massachusetts Vision Zero Coalition released its third annual Vision Zero Progress Report for the City of Boston.

Here’s What You Need to Know:

1. In 2018, Mayor Walsh committed to an additional $5 million for transportation staffing and projects for FY19. How is Boston doing with implementing this funding? Read the Letter from the Coalition. 
2. Vision Zero Fundamentals are the core elements required to support systemic change on our streets. How did Boston score on data, accountability, and transparency in 2018? Learn more.
3. Vision Zero Actions are the tangible changes we can see on our streets. How did Boston score on reducing speeds, building safer streets, engaging Bostonians, and equitable enforcement in 2018? Learn more.
4. Fatal crashes are down, while the total number of crashes requiring EMS response has increased since 2016. Learn more. 

Explore the Full Report. 

What You Can Do

The momentum to prioritize safe, healthy, and equitable mobility for all is growing, and we encourage you to get involved by taking any of the actions below:

• Share the progress report on social media and with your neighbors and elected officials. #VisionZero
• Contact your city councilorsand ask them to ensure transportation and Vision Zero funding are a priority in the FY20 budget process this spring.
• Forward this email to one friend and invite them to join the Coalition’s mailing list.

What’s Next

Attend the Transportation Department hearing for the FY20 budget this spring, and testify in support of investments for safer, healthier, and more sustainable transportation, which will directly benefit Vision Zero.

Transportation Department Budget Hearing
Tuesday, May 7, 10:30 AM
Boston City Hall, 5th Floor, Iannella Chamber
1 City Hall Square, Boston, MA 02201

The Coalition is committed to reviewing the City’s performance to ensure public accountability in reaching its goals. This year’s assessment was made in adherence with the guidelines published by the national Vision Zero Network and LivableStreets Alliance in “Vision Zero: Planning an Effective Road Map For Action.”

Together we can eliminate fatal and serious injury crashes on our streets by 2030.

Thank you for your continued support,

LivableStreets Alliance
http://www.livablestreets.info

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