walkable

An agreement between the developer of Fox Meadow Estates and the Westwood Planning Board will create the first-of-its-kind walking trail in Westwood. When complete, the trail will provide access between Lowell Woods and Gay Street up to the intersection of Thatcher. (For more information on Lowell Woods and other trails in Westwood, download the Take a Hike brochure from the Westwood Land Trust.)

The stonedust path was negotiated by the Planning Board as part of the Fox Meadow (formerly Captain's Crossing) Subdivision. The path will be a five foot wide section of compacted stonedust within the ten foot wide easement behind an existing stone wall. It will run along Gay Street from Thatcher to Fox Hill, and then along Fox Hill from Gay Street to Fox Meadow.

The portion of the trail along Fox Hill Street already has stonedust in place. A small parking area for 3 vehicles has been set aside on Fox Meadow Drive--where visitors will be able to take a short hike down to the old carriage road (completely overgrown with brush as of today) and enter the Lowell woods.

This portion of the trail is small, but the potential to connect the town is huge. Ben Pincus, a Westwood Boy Scout, has undertaken as his Eagle Scout project a plan to make additional connections by coordinating and cooperating with abutting residents and the Conservation Commission between Islington and Route 109. The Sheehan 5th graders in the First LEGO League won an award for their research project on potential bike and walking trails in Westwood and recently led a walk-through tour of a potential path from the Starbucks on High Street, behind the High School, through to Thatcher Street.

If these trails can be connected, we have the potential for residents to walk or bike safely between High Street and Washington Street. As anyone who has walked in Lowell Woods knows, parts of these trails are not very bike-friendly and the route is more circuitous than would be desirable for a commuter, but recreationally, they will open up miles of healthy exploration to all residents of Westwood.

About a year ago, Westwood resident Anne Marie McIntyre sent me an email about her idea for "emotionally-intelligent" or "empathetic" signs and I posted this article. She was motivated to do something about more effectively reminding drivers of the importance of respecting the speed limits and was inspired by a book, A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink. She observed what Needham had done already, then set out to make this happen in Westwood.

She wrote and received a WEF grant for the Westwood Empathetic Signs Thurston Initiative (W.E.S.T.I). Through this generous grant funding, 8th grade art students at Thurston Middle School (in collaboration with Ms. Maribeth Amber, Thurston art teacher) designed empathetic street signs that are now installed in the Hanlon school zone. Mrs. McIntyre coordinated with Principal Allison Borchers of Thurston Middle School, Sergeant Paul Sicard, Town Administrator Mike Jaillet and the Westwood Educational Foundation to have her vision come to fruition. Additionally, she worked with the Westwood Department of Public Works who provided the sign posts and installed them this past week.

She plans to work with Thurston Middle School again to expand the sign project with other schools and anyone else who may have an interest. (Editor's note: thanks to Hanlon Principal Beth Herlihy who wrote up an announcement about this in the Hanlon newsletter that I am am using here.)

The Pedestrian and Bike Safety Committee, which meets the 4th Thursday of every month at the Carby Street town offices, has been reviewing many suggestions from residents and discussing ways to improve safety in town. Yesterday, I attended a meeting in Boston to apply for a grant program designed to promote clean air by encouraging alternatives to driving.

The video below describes one set of problems in town and an opportunity to better connect neighborhoods by improving the effectiveness of two crosswalks:

What we would like to see is a set of improvements including pushbutton-activated beacons, curb extensions/bump-outs, and distinctive painting of the crosswalks. The video below illustrates one company's product.

This is a preliminary application and the goal is to obtain federal funding so the only work required by the town would be to draw up the designs. At the meeting yesterday, we learned the Federal requirements of the program complicate things a bit, but hopefully, even if the grant is not approved, we will learn from this process how best to proceed on other creative ways to improve pedestrian and bike safety in town. More materials related to this are on the town website under the Pedestrian and Bike Safety Committee publications page.

So far in 2010, I'm aware of only one accident under the East Street bridge, but it's only a matter of time before there are more. The Pedestrian and Bike Safety Committee has been researching the history of efforts to address safety concerns about this low, narrow passageway. Over the years, there have been many accidents like the one in the video below--from just this past December. watch past the annoying 10-second lead-in

We have heard a number of suggestions and a number of cautions about the difficulties in obtaining consensus on a solution. Apparently, in 1995, the MBTA presented recommendations to a community meeting at the Hanlon (Pine Hill) school but there was significant opposition to proposals to raise the height of the bridge because of the fear it would open East Street up to large truck traffic from Route 128. In the past 2 years, over a dozen vehicle accidents have occurred, including 4 with significant injuries--mostly from trucks traveling west; others from vehicles hitting the curb or side of the passage. The approaches to the bridge are now thoroughly signed with low clearance, no trucks, narrow bridge, etc., but the accidents continue. There have been no pedestrian injuries we are aware of but perhaps that is more a testament to the common sense of Westwood residents than luck.