WalkBoston

CONTACT:

45 School Street
Boston, MA 02108
617.367.9255
www.walkboston.org

Wendy Landman, Executive Director

DESCRIPTION:

One of the features we enjoy most about the oldest sections of most European cities is that they are so people-friendly — having been laid out in an age when almost everyone traveled by self-propulsion. Today, if we are not careful, cities are reconfigured or designed for friendliness to technology, focusing on increasing the speed and volume of vehicular traffic. WalkBoston was founded in 1990 to keep Boston walkable, which will be a major advantage to tourism as well as to the quality of life of its denizens. WB is especially effective because some of its members are professional urban planners. It has had decisive influence in Harvard and Central Squares of Cambridge, on Beacon Street in Brookline, on Congress Street in Boston, and on the surface roadways over the Big Dig in the new Seaport District. Its current focus is the new Rose Kennedy Greenway. WalkBoston was the first charity in the nation to give pedestrians a voice in transportation and urban planning, and pretty much everyone now agrees that this is a good thing. It advocates "traffic-calming" street and sidewalk designs which permit pedestrians, bicycles, and cars to share the same space with mutual ease and safety. It is a highly successful model that is spreading to other cities nationwide. A great niche, and kudos to them and to philanthropy!

(1999: HUMAN SERVICES: Well-Being)