Will Cabinet Level Efficiency be a Jumping-Off Place for Transportation Vision?

by Amanda Patterson, LivableStreets Staff Writer

The Boston Transportation Department is about to merge with the Department of Public Works, after years of working near -but not necessarily with- each other, according to Mike Galvin, the Chief of Basic City Services. The Denver Transportation Department’s Dennis Royer will fill the new mayoral cabinet position, Chief of Public Works and Transportation.

The lack of coordination up until now wasted time and resources, according to Galvin. One crew might change a street light on the corner of Tremont and Beacon in the morning, and a crew from the other department might show up in the afternoon to fix a traffic light. Under the new system, Galvin hopes, one crew can be dispatched to an area to take care of it all.

“Now there will be one chief,” Galvin said. “He’ll be responsible to make sure that the lines of communications are open.”

Galvin said he and others selected Royer because he has experience in both transportation and public works, and because Denver and Boston have many of the same issues, like snow removal and on-street parking among others.

“The other thing you have to look at is how a candidate will do with a seated mayor,” Galvin added. “Boston is unique because you are under a microscope and practically every street is an association of some kind. I wanted someone who knew that it was a high pressure job and had the stamina for that.”

Improving the coordination of city services is an important efficiency measure. But is making the system work enough to help Boston thrive in the 21st century?

Mayor Menino sees the merger as a way to bring Boston “into the 21st century” according to The Boston Globe. Boston area advocates have been envisioning the 21st century for a long time, and based on that quote it seemed that perhaps Mayor Menino was ready to lay out a long-term vision for dynamic and cutting-edge transportation in the city.

But that requires planning. And Mike Galvin, who will be handing over a lot of his responsibilities to the new Chief, is busy with the day-to-day. As he described his hopes for the potential of the merger, he mostly spoke of efficiency and communication improvements, but vision and planning for the long- range future aren’t really part of his job. The mayor’s office was asked to define their vision of the move to the 21st century, and they deferred to Galvin.

So whose job is it? The planning division of the Transportation Department is responsible for long-range planning. In 2000 Boston’s citywide transportation plan "Access Boston 2000 – 2010" was completed. Today, well over half of the recommendations have been implemented, requiring the cooperation of a number of divisions and agencies, according to Vineet Gupta, Director of Planning. But advocates are disappointed at the lack of attention given to recommendations that would change the way the use of streets are prioritized, such as the bicycle plan and the 1999 "Streetscape Guidelines for Boston Streets."

The new Chief of Public Works and Transportation will have a budget of $1.5 million and a staff of nearly twenty people. Neither the mayor’s office nor Galvin, offered reassurance that the new cabinet position will think about progressive transportation in the city as a key to Boston’s future.

This year there has been buzz about Boston’s competitiveness in the global economy. Massachusetts is the only state experiencing population loss, we have made a slow recovery from an economic slump and we have become aware that we are not guaranteed a permanent position as America’s preeminent academic and research city. The legislature, the business community and think tanks like the Boston Foundation have been analyzing the situation and its possible solutions. As Boston Foundation’s Charlotte Kahn said, “Transportation is a key sector. It’s really the back bone of sustainability.”

LivableStreets President Larry Slotnick would like the Mayor to take this opportunity to demonstrate greater leadership in planning for its transportation system, which affects quality of life issues in the city such as affordability, convenience, and public health.

Boston -and its newly re-elected Mayor- have the chance to become thought leaders in the field of urban transportation. Being a thought leader on a subject means becoming technically competent, and Slotnick asserts that officials need to look outside of their community to learn about systems, problems and solutions in other places.

“The Mayor should be expanding his universe of knowledge,” Slotnick said.

Dennis Royer very well may be a man with vision and interest beyond potholes and street lights, and he will certainly be handed a big plate of everyday problems. But LivableStreets Alliance hopes he can set aside resources and invest in planning for a vital, forward-looking future for Boston.

Click here for the July 28, 2006 Globe article, "New chief of agency hails from Denver."

This year, Cambridge, Massachusetts won the National Organization on Disability’s “Accessible America” contest. The well-deserved award brings with it $25,000 in cash. According to the contest criteria, the winner of the award must demonstrate exceptional commitment to offering people with disabilities full and equal opportunities to participate in the life of their community, including access to jobs, education, religious worship, voting, transportation, housing, and emergency preparedness planning.

Cambridge earned the 2006 award with its 27 year commitment to integrate disability issues into the everyday business of the City of Cambridge. In 1979, City Council adopted an ordinance stating that “Cambridge will continue to be a city that welcomes, values, and respects people of all abilities.” It wasn’t until 1990 that the Federal Government established the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), launching national accessibility standards and requirements.

The Commission for Persons with Disabilities leads the charge towards the 1979 goal, and the successes achieved to date are the result of the hard work of many people. Currently, Executive Director Michael Muehe, and Disability Project Coordinator Carolyn Thompson skillfully balance the urgent needs of residents with the essential and time-intensive process of collaborating with the many layers of city government.

...Click here for a case study detailing Acccessibility in Cambridge.

On behalf of Adaptive Environments, LivableStreets executive director Jeff Rosenblum wrote a case study of Accessibility in Cambridge published in July 2006.

by Amanda Patterson, LivableStreets Staff Writer

The Boston Foundation is taking the guess-work out of measuring Boston’s ability to grow and remain a “world class” city. In 2000, they began The Boston Indicators Project, through which they track data in ten sectors of the state’s public life. Transportation is one of the ten, and according to Charlotte Kahn of the Boston Foundation it is a critical and undervalued measure of an area’s viability because it is “the back bone of sustainability.”

In July, the Boston Foundation brought a cadre of local experts, including LivableStreets’ executive director and engineer, Jeff Rosenblum, to a roundtable discussion about transportation in Massachusetts at the Transportation Sector Convening. Representatives from business, transportation planning, and local think tanks sat at the table.

Participants included Michael Dukakis, the governor of the state during the heyday of transit investment, Vineet Gupta Boston’s transportation planner, Rick Dimino, the Director of A Better City representing the business community, long-time transportation advocacy guru, Stephanie Pollack, David Luberoff of the Rappaport Institute, Zipcar founder, Robin Chase, Michael Widmer of Mass Taxpayers Foundation, and Gene Benson, attorney for Alternatives for Community and Environment representing the underserved in Roxbury and Dorchester.

“The goal is to check in with experts and stake holders with in each of sectors,” Kahn said. “To elicit their knowledge about the sector where they work most of the time, the major accomplishments, and the remaining challenges.

There are two components to the report, data gathered from outside sources and the Highlights section, which, according to Kahn, is a qualitative assessment based on the information gathered at the Transportation Convening.

The Boston Foundation aims to democratize access to information, according to Kahn, to promote informed public discourse. In addition to data collection, they maintain a civic agenda, a short list of important measures the region needs to take to drive change.

“Most people come to transportation through their own portal, some people are bike enthusiasts, others are public transit advocates. We try have people see the sector as a whole to make a better case for their part of it, and to see their part as a piece of a mosaic. We try to encourage people to think about the complexity of the sector.”

Charlotte Kahn is the project manager for the Transportation Sector, and while she could not prioritize one finding over another, she recommends viewing the findings through the sustainable development crosscut filter option.

For the complete report visit the Boston Foundation website at:
http://www.tbf.org/indicators


EXAMPLES OF TRENDS AND FINDINGS

Car ownership grew rapidly with the economic growth of the 1990s, especially in the City of Boston. Between 1996 and 2002, the number of cars registered rose by 42% in the City of Boston and by 26% in Metro Boston.

While public transit use remains high, ridership has declined or remained flat in recent years.

The Big Dig continues to influence Massachusetts' spending on highways, roads and bridges. The Artery will continue to limit Massachusetts' ability to make transportation investment decisions for years to come.

The MBTA is in financial trouble. The MBTA currently spends 29% of its budget on debt service.

Brookline attempts to Connect Emerald Necklace

By Pete Stidman
Jamaica Plain Gazette, 15 August 2006

The Town of Brookline’s planning department is seeking to mend a few gaps in the bike path that runs along the Muddy River section of the Emerald Necklace. The path, leaving Olmsted Park at the northwest corner of Jamaica Plain, is a critical link to Longwood, Boston University, Cambridge and beyond for hundreds of JP cyclists and pedestrians who travel it every day.

One of the largest gaps in the path is the absence of any crosswalk or signal where the path crosses Route 9 coming out of JP. The situation has brought the ire of bicycle activists since the early ’90s and seems to be a perennial local story.

Now Brookline’s planners are hoping to procure the aid of the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) in solving the riddles of the complicated intersection as part of a larger redesign of the streets in Brookline Village. Federal money is already earmarked for work in the area, according to Jeff Levine, director of Brookline’s planning department, but the location, lying on the border between Boston and Brookline with the state-controlled Riverway and a historic park running through it, presents a complicated design challenge. “There’s a lot of interest in making a better connection there,” said Levine. “We’ve talked about a striped crosswalk, but we feel there is some more analysis to be done. And, since Boston’s so integrally involved, we really feel it needs to be a regional design.”...

... Click here for the entire Gazette article.


Brookline's nod to a bygone era:
Town hopes to re-create Village Square's bustling urban atmosphere

By Ron DePasquale
Boston Globe , August 26, 2006

As it heads out of Brookline Village, Washington Street morphs into a sterile stretch of Route 9 that bears little resemblance to the rest of the historic neighborhood, once a bustling urban crossroads known as Village Square.

But now Brookline is pushing to re-create some of the area's urban atmosphere obliterated during 1960s urban renewal. Town Meeting in May approved changes that would beautify the square and make it more walkable.

The plan is to add crosswalks, trees, old-fashioned streetlights, a bike path and wider sidewalks outlined with bricks. A footbridge over the road, now closed, will be torn down. Now known as Gateway East, the plan recommends that the drive-through-sounding name be dropped in favor of the more evocative "Village Square."

Yet this particular strip of Washington Street is also a wide roadway heavily used by suburban commuters, and lined by taller, colorless buildings. Town officials acknowledge it won't be easy to make such a forbidding crossing attractive to pedestrians.

"It's very harsh on the eyes, and it just needs something visually," said Rob Daves , a member of Town Meeting and the Gateway East citizen's advisory committee. "But it's a major thoroughfare, and it will be a huge challenge for a road that sees 35,000 cars day."

Even so, Brookline can still try to make this part of Washington Street look more like Beacon Street, another busy, wide road in town that manages to attract heavy foot traffic, and less like a dull suburban highway, said planning director Jeff Levine.

The Brookline Village MBTA station, which is hard to see from the street, will soon be redesigned, and new signs would better link it with Harvard Street and the Emerald Necklace, he said.

"This won't be 'Ye Olde Village Square,' because it will never be like it was," he said. "It will be contemporary and urban. We'll encourage building close to the street, walking along the street, cafes and anything that livens the street front."

The focus isn't just on walkers and bicyclists. Reconfiguring streets would make traffic flow more smoothly, and new or better crosswalks would mean drivers wouldn't have to dodge pedestrians crossing illegally, said Gretchen Von Grossmann , an urban designer who helped draft the plan...

... Click here for the entire Globe article.

Altwheels
September 22-24, 2006
This year at Boston City Hall Plaza!
Click here for more information...




Hub On Wheels
October 1, 2006
Second annual bike ride and festival includes riding on Storrow Drive!
Click here for more information...

Click here to hear a WBUR news story about the "Tour de Farms" (August 21, 2006).

Click here to hear a recent WBUR news story on biking in Boston (August 25, 2006).

Click here for a recent op-ed piece on biking in Boston in the Globe by Bicycling Magazine editor Steve Madden (August 29, 2006).

Save money, breathe easier, and get more mileage out of life!

"Despite what $20 billion of automobile advertising every year would have us all believe, buying or leasing a car, truck, or SUV is the worst financial move most people make in their lifetime. And they make this mistake again and again, at a cost of literally hundreds of thousands of dollars. High gas prices, car payments, insurance, depreciation, parking, repairs, maintenance, and nearly one hundred other expenses add up so quickly and silently that most car owners don't even notice -- they just see how little money they have left at the end of the month and wonder why."

page 152: "Livable car-free means sometimes you have to plan! I know Americans want 24/7 access to everything, and that the concept of planning ahead is outrageous. But what people don't seem to understand is that not planning actually required them to spend so much more time, energy, and money on things hat actually make them less free in other ways. So a big challenge is to personally come to terms with planning ahead, being flexible, and occasionally being inconvenienced-- in order to access the big picture of overall more life freeedom" - - Jeffrey Rosenblum, LivableStreets Alliance

Click here for more information about the book, and to read chapters 1 & 2 online.