Workshop Success and Next Steps

A cross section of residents, along with representatives from the planning and conservation commissions, town engineering/DPW and police department spent Saturday morning walking around the Islington area evaluating ways to improve walkability. The walking audit identified some new issues and gave us an opportunity to talk directly with some of the town people responsible for public safety and infrastructure. The next step will be to ask the Board of Selectmen to appoint a Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Commission comprised of residents from all parts of town as well as departments and commissions.

The workshop began with introductions and some discussion of participants' interests. While the walk only covered the Islington area, several attendees described their concerns about other parts of town including:

• the current complete absence of walkability near University Ave and the Westwood Station project
• a desire to create a walking/running/bicycle path along Gay Street and connect High Street to Washington Street safely. Steve Olanoff from the Planning Board noted that an initial step in this direction will be the construction of a stone dust path from the Fox Hill development behind the stone wall on Gay St to Thatcher.
• The intersection of Nahatan and High Streets—the whole area across from the middle school
• Several locations around Martha Jones and Sheehan Schools—and a desire in those neighborhoods to make walking to school a safe and desirable option for children

Following introductions, Cathy Buckley-Lewis of the Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization illustrated what other communities have done to improve walkability and showed pictures of examples of improvements that can be made. Then, the group set out to walk.

Immediately in front of the Hanlon School, the group examined the long crosswalk at the entrance and questioned the need for such a long gap. The parking area that follows was also noted as potentially difficult because cars can pull directly into spaces—a contrast to the design on East Street at the playing fields where a median strip separates parking from a couple of defined entrances.

At Pine Lane and Gay St, the group noted how the signboards (including one for this workshop!) blocked the view of cars turning left and added to the distractions that make this intersection dangerous for walkers attempting to cross in the blind curve. We moved some of the signs back and discussed the history of the crossing--which has been here since the time the school was moved from its former location on School Street in the 1950s. At that time, students apparently picked up their desks and carried them down Pine Lane to the new school building. There were no obvious "fixes" for this intersection—there was some talk about whether the turning lanes could be extended and the median areas reconfigured—but there was consensus that this was a prime intersection for professional study and recommendations.

Along Pine Lane we encountered more points of interests...a "crosswalk to nowhere" at Forest, and the huge open area at Fairview which invites cars to accelerate and "whip around" on their way up Pine towards Gay.

At the School Street playground, the group felt the existing crosswalks were inadequate to deal with a never ending-stream of cars, 90% of them turning left to continue their cut-through path towards and from Gay Street. The occasional car not making the turn makes crossing somewhat dicey—perhaps the rationale for an additional crosswalk further down School St—but the consensus was that children’s access to the playground could be made much safer with some work in this area.

Islington Center was recently built up with pedestrian improvements such as the curb extensions that shorten the main crosswalk over Washington St. Here, we questioned the value of the yellow crosswalk sign as the intersection is already signalized and walkers should be following the lights, not relying on the sign which implies pedestrians always have the right of way. We also noted only one small "ribbon style" bike rack that appeared to be placed so close to a wall as to be minimally useful for more than one bike. (A cyclist was in the process of changing his tire at the bench located in front of the Cold Stone Creamery—illustrating that the center does see a fair amount of bike use.)

Our group of a dozen or more walkers, accompanied by uniformed police Sergeant Paul Sicard, no doubt slowed the traffic along Pine Lane somewhat. However we still found ourselves in occasionally scary situations, especially as we navigated the East Street bridge area. The East Street bridge occupied some time as the challenges here are numerous:

• Getting from the playing field across the street is a dangerous adventure as walkers must confront a steady stream of traffic and 3 lanes. Turning cars do not expect walkers and there is a great potential for “blind-siding” pedestrians if a car allows a walker into the road.
• The playing field parking lot can be a convenient way for MBTA riders to avoid paying $2 ($4 starting next week) to park in the MBTA lot. Then, after using the spaces intended for recreation, they can jaywalk across to a dirt path and trespass along the MBTA tracks to get to the train station.
• The space under the tracks is wide enough for small-framed people to tightrope walk their way, hoping no vehicle with mirrors passes under the bridge. In the past, there was talk of widening this gap, but some felt keeping it narrow and with a low clearance would help keep trucks off East Street as a sort of ad-hoc traffic calming measure.
• At Carroll Ave, there is a crosswalk but it as at the bottom of a blind hill and not accessible from children coming down East Street to make their way to the Downey School. A resident here wanted to put a sidewalk in her yard and there was some discussion of how residents could donate/self-improve and coordinate with the town. Carroll St is somewhat like a dead end because although it connects directly to Route 1, cars are not allowed to turn onto it from Route 1. However, it does provide an outlet for Meditech workers who can more easily make three rights here than left on East to get to the rotary.

The Islington train station is a hidden resource for commuters. Many were unaware of the parking on the gravel side of the platform. But the station is unlit at night with small bike racks that are not suitable for adult bicycles.

The walk up Grafton street is not typically busy, but pedestrians do compete with drivers for the road as there is no sidewalk and no real encouragement for anyone to find, let alone use, the train station.

Along Washington Street, we considered how although there are 3 crosswalks—at Dean, St. Denis, and Croft Regis, the road is essentially unimpeded for its entire length. In the past, Washington Street had angle parking and the current design reflects a good practice of creating a large 8-foot or more buffer zone between the solid white line and the sidewalk to shield pedestrians. But traffic quickly accelerates and pedestrians risk being hit by cars passing left-turners on the right. Something that could be done to increase pedestrian safety and calm traffic would be to build "bump outs" at the crosswalks. These would extend the sidewalk area out to the white line giving pedestrians a shorter unprotected crossing distance, but would have to be designed so as not to cause bikes to be funneled back into the full travel lane.

At the Gay Street stoplight we considered how the relatively new design of the intersection could be improved. Some issues:

• Pedestrian travel down Washington encounters the choke point of Dedham traffic going from two lanes to one as the buffer zone on the shoulder disappears. Cars and busses line up at the light then race up the hill straight towards pedestrians.
• The crosswalk over Washington is angled, making it longer than is typically comfortable to cross. Walkers must also contend with right turners from Gay St who will have the green light when Washington traffic is stopped.
• The crosswalk over Gay St is long and inconvenient for residents of Gay St. As our group was distracted by looking at the intersection we committed two errors of our own in attempting to make our way back to Hanlon. First, we started to follow the "desire line"--what I do probably 50% of the time as I walk home...avoiding the crosswalk and crossing farther up where the street is narrower. Sometimes, I just continue up the shoulder where I wish I had a sidewalk to my house. But, we caught ourselves on this and went back down to the crosswalk where we waited for the light to turn red for Gay Street, then crossed against the walk light that was still telling us not to walk. I have to confess I was not thinking and led the charge while others waited to legally cross.

Back at the school, we wrapped up by marking up some maps and identifying key intersections of concern. We decided the best way to move forward was to ask the Board of Selectmen to appoint a commission to solicit more input from the community and identify problem areas. Key principles for moving forward:

• We should create a simple way for people to report problem areas in a consistent manner. This blog is a starting point, but a more standardized template/survey type form would help ensure the information is not lost in the narrative descriptions.
• We should ensure this is a town-wide commission—not just Islington.
• We should include a representative to advocate on behalf of trails. Our walk was on sidewalks--but walking in Westwood is also about connecting the incredible open space resources such as Lowell Woods and the Neponset River Watershed to their neighborhoods. It should be unnecessary to drive from Thatcher Street to Sandy Valley Road to access Lowell Woods...and many residents are probably unaware of the vast hiking resources that will be available from Westwood Station’s connections into the Blue Hills.

Thank you

I want to thank the people who spent over 3 hours of their Saturday walking around Islington. The workshop would not have been possible without Town Planner Nora Loughnane’s publicity and advocacy efforts in town that gave us a chance to walk and talk with members of the Conservation Commission, Planning Board, Engineering Department and Police Department. And of course, thank you to Cathy Buckley from the MPO for conducting the workshop so all the rest of us had to do was show up!