Category Archives: ROAD DESIGN AND MODE CHANGE

ROAD DESIGN AND MODE CHANGE

QUESTIONING COMPLETE STREETS: An Open Letter to the Cambridge City Council

Posted on May 14, 2015 by Steve Miller

Having a vision of the kind of city you want is an essential foundation for purposeful and effective governance.  Some cities do a coherent overall process, such as Somerville’s SomerVision or Boston’s forthcoming Imagine Boston 2030.  Cambridge has constructed its vision together piecemeal, through policies around a variety of quantitative and qualitative issues.  In either […] Continue reading →

Posted in news, Road Design, ROAD DESIGN AND MODE CHANGE, safety, Walking | Comments Off on QUESTIONING COMPLETE STREETS: An Open Letter to the Cambridge City Council

QUESTIONING COMPLETE STREETS: An Open Letter to the Cambridge City Council

Posted on May 14, 2015 by Steve Miller

Having a vision of the kind of city you want is an essential foundation for purposeful and effective governance.  Some cities do a coherent overall process, such as Somerville’s SomerVision or Boston’s forthcoming Imagine Boston 2030.  Cambridge has constructed its vision together piecemeal, through policies around a variety of quantitative and qualitative issues.  In either […] Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary & Analysis, Road Design, ROAD DESIGN AND MODE CHANGE, safety, Walking | Comments Off on QUESTIONING COMPLETE STREETS: An Open Letter to the Cambridge City Council

JUMP STARTING COMPLETE STREETS: Focusing on Kids (and others) When Progress Slows

Posted on May 4, 2015 by Steve Miller

Every street should be safe for walking and bicycling.  This is an essential component of the Complete Streets design philosophy that has emerged in recent years as the “new normal” for roads – although the gap between policy and practice often remains wide.   Because the core issue is mobility, Advocates compliment this “everywhere for everyone” […] Continue reading →

Posted in news, Road Design, ROAD DESIGN AND MODE CHANGE, safety | Comments Off on JUMP STARTING COMPLETE STREETS: Focusing on Kids (and others) When Progress Slows

JUMP STARTING COMPLETE STREETS: Focusing on Kids (and others) When Progress Slows

Posted on May 4, 2015 by Steve Miller

Every street should be safe for walking and bicycling.  This is an essential component of the Complete Streets design philosophy that has emerged in recent years as the “new normal” for roads – although the gap between policy and practice often remains wide.   Because the core issue is mobility, Advocates compliment this “everywhere for everyone” […] Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary & Analysis, Road Design, ROAD DESIGN AND MODE CHANGE, safety | Comments Off on JUMP STARTING COMPLETE STREETS: Focusing on Kids (and others) When Progress Slows

PARKWAYS MOVING FORWARD: DCR is Not The Highway Department

Posted on January 20, 2015 by Steve Miller

It’s a pleasure to be able to praise a government agency: civil servants who try to live up to their public service mission are over-worked and underpaid relative to private sector peers – and always under appreciated! It’s particularly a pleasure to praise the Department of Conservation and Recreation’s (DCR), a woefully underfunded agency whose […] Continue reading →

Posted in advocacy, Government Reform, news, Road Design, ROAD DESIGN AND MODE CHANGE | Comments Off on PARKWAYS MOVING FORWARD: DCR is Not The Highway Department

PARKWAYS MOVING FORWARD: DCR is Not The Highway Department

Posted on January 20, 2015 by Steve Miller

It’s a pleasure to be able to praise a government agency: civil servants who try to live up to their public service mission are over-worked and underpaid relative to private sector peers – and always under appreciated! It’s particularly a pleasure to praise the Department of Conservation and Recreation’s (DCR), a woefully underfunded agency whose […] Continue reading →

Posted in advocacy, Commentary & Analysis, Government Reform, Road Design, ROAD DESIGN AND MODE CHANGE | Comments Off on PARKWAYS MOVING FORWARD: DCR is Not The Highway Department

COMMONWEALTH AVENUE: Grand Boulevard, Dangerous Street

Posted on January 7, 2015 by Steve Miller

Stretching from the Public Garden out to Weston, Commonwealth Avenue meanders past sculptured medians, historic parks, heartbreaking hills, ponds and rivers, and an enormous number of residences and businesses. Although various crossings are frustratingly congested, in general the number of cars has been steadily dropping while the number of trolley passengers, bicyclists, pedestrians, and runners […] Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary & Analysis, Road Design, ROAD DESIGN AND MODE CHANGE, safety | Comments Off on COMMONWEALTH AVENUE: Grand Boulevard, Dangerous Street

COMMONWEALTH AVENUE: Grand Boulevard, Dangerous Street

Posted on January 7, 2015 by Steve Miller

Stretching from the Public Garden out to Weston, Commonwealth Avenue meanders past sculptured medians, historic parks, heartbreaking hills, ponds and rivers, and an enormous number of residences and businesses. Although various crossings are frustratingly congested, in general the number of cars has been steadily dropping while the number of trolley passengers, bicyclists, pedestrians, and runners […] Continue reading →

Posted in news, Road Design, ROAD DESIGN AND MODE CHANGE, safety | Comments Off on COMMONWEALTH AVENUE: Grand Boulevard, Dangerous Street

WALSH ADMINISTRATION NEEDS A TRANSPORTATION MAP: Which Way On Comm. Ave. Design?

Posted on December 15, 2014 by Steve Miller

Mayor Marty Walsh visibly cares about helping underserved communities. And he is aggressively promoting the continuing building boom and accompanying (construction) jobs, as expressed in his statement to the Chamber of Commerce that “we hit the ground running…in development, education, housing, public health, and infrastructure.”  Unfortunately, it appears that the Mayor currently includes transportation as […] Continue reading →

Posted in Boston Transportation, news, Road Design, ROAD DESIGN AND MODE CHANGE, safety, TRANSPORTATION HEALTH and SAFETY | Comments Off on WALSH ADMINISTRATION NEEDS A TRANSPORTATION MAP: Which Way On Comm. Ave. Design?

ROADS ARE NOT THE DESTINATION: Celebration and Concern on the MassPike (Allston-I-90) Project

Posted on November 11, 2014 by Steve Miller

As our nation has painfully learned over the past fifty years from the destructive practices of the Interstate’s old scorched-earth invasion, focusing a transportation planning process on the need to satisfy car traffic trends is dangerous. (Full disclosure: I live in a house that was supposed to be ripped down for construction of the stopped-at-the-last-minute […] Continue reading →

Posted in MassDOT Transformation, news, Road Design, ROAD DESIGN AND MODE CHANGE, STREET LIFE & LAND USE | Comments Off on ROADS ARE NOT THE DESTINATION: Celebration and Concern on the MassPike (Allston-I-90) Project