This weekend, I noticed again how much foot traffic passes in front of my house on Gay Street. Nearly every time I looked out the window, I saw people walking up the hill toward the Hanlon School, pushing strollers, riding bikes with their kids and kids riding bikes with their friends. As I went for a run, I ran into more people. It all all reinforces my impression that we already live in a fairly walkable town and, given some basic improvements in safety and convenience, we could encourage more walking and all the advantages that come from that:

• it promotes good health by giving residents the opportunity for simple exercise,
• it reduces traffic and saves gas by making it possible to avoid car trips for short errands,
• it increases public safety by putting more "eyes on the street," and
• it increases the opportunities for building community as we see our neighbors and have more opportunities for informal conversations.

Walkable communities are more liveable communities and lead to whole, happy, healthy lives for the people who live in them. In the rest of this article, I will describe my personal vision for a Walkable Westwood (please comment!) and link to a number of resources--local, regional, and national that I think can help us kick off a project to make walkability one of the things people cite as a reason they love to live here.

Vision - 5 - 10 years from now...

Westwood is a town where residents feel safe and comfortable walking or cycling between any part of town. Runners construct 5K loops around sections of Gay St and Clapboardtree St and run free of fear that they will be run off the road by cars. Families bike over to the Bubbling Brook or Cold Stone Creamery for an ice cream in the summer. Most kids walk to elementary school and many ride bikes to Thurston middle school or the high school.

When visitors drive through any part of town on a nice day, they see young and old walking and riding their bikes. The town installed more bike racks in the town centers because it has become common for people to run errands by biking down to Roche Brothers or over to 109 from Islington. Rather than hop on to 128 and deal with the uncertain and unpredictable traffic, locals ride bikes to Westwood Station to enjoy dinner and check out the vibrant pedestrian scene that has started to develop around the public spaces of Westwood Station. Kids ride their bikes to catch a movie at the movie complex in Legacy Place, or discover new indie flicks at the Dedham Community Theatre.

A trip to town hall or the library is either a short walk or bike ride from any part of town. Bikes are common at the Senior Center as a number of active older residents have started a weekly ride that meets at the Senior Center, then proceeds to a destination such as the new Islington Center, Westwood Station, or Dedham Square. Because walking and riding have become so common, traffic is slightly reduced and motorists are not even impeded or annoyed. The morning queue of cars from the light at Gay Street and Washington is now joined by bikers and walkers making their way to work in Islington or Dedham or to catch a train at the remodelled Isligton commuter rail station.

The impatient drivers who used to race down our cut-through streets have relaxed a bit or found other ways to get across town. Drivers see Westwood as a destination, not a speed bump on the way to 128. The morning drop-off traffic jam at Mothers Morning Out (MMO) in Islington has been supplanted by a steady stream of parents and toddlers, walking, strollering, or biking. Each morning, the sidewalks are filled with parents and kids walking to school.

Much of this already happens or is possible...but it is somewhat limited to the athletic and inspired. The ultimate vision is that walking and cycling becomes so common that it is a social activity--part of the way we intereact with our neighbors--not just a special event or out of pure necessity.

Resources

I painted the picture above to get people imagining how things might look--why this is worth doing. I'd welcome any comments here to add to that. And I encourge people to check out these resources on walking as we consider planning our first walkability audit with the Boston Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO):

• Dan Burden's Walkable Communities is a website with tons of articles about this topic. Walkability is not just for cities or small towns--and it is part of a whole sustainability movement. I could go on...but Dan does it better. :)
• Cambridge-based Livable Streets sends out a newsletter that compiles links to interesting articles on many transportation issues in the Boston area and nationally. They also hosts events such as this upcoming talk about how residents of Jamaica Plain and Roxbury fought back the big highway projects of the 60s to save their communities.
• walkBoston is not just about Boston; this resource hub is helping facilitate efforts in 58 communities across Massachusetts. walkBoston piloted the first Safe Routes to School program in 2000.

These are just a few resources to get people started thinking. Please forward and link to this blog post to anyone you think might be interested in helping create WalkableWestwood.