In the News
June 22, 2023
Forget charts and bar graphs. Turn data into a play, ‘make them more human’
Working as the Data Theatre Project, this Northeastern collective explores ways to combine quantitative data and storytelling from a wide range of academic and artistic backgrounds. The materials came, in large part, from LivableStreets Alliance, a Cambridge-based advocacy organization for improving public spaces and expanding transit access.
July 26, 2022
MEMORIAL DRIVE CHANGES ARE OFF TO A GOOD START, BUT GROUPS STILL SHARE FIVE SIGNIFICANT CONCERNS
Representatives of the Memorial Drive Alliance, a collective of Cambridge and Boston environmentalists, cyclists, pedestrians, runners, city officials and members of prominent local community organizations, are committed to an improved Memorial Drive Parkway and share the Department of Conservation and Recreation’s mission to protect and enhance state natural resources for all to enjoy.
February 1, 2022
THE STATE IS GOING TO REMAKE MEMORIAL DRIVE. PUBLIC COMMENT WILL HELP DECIDE HOW IT’S DONE.
Among the 26 groups signing the Memorial Drive Alliance’s comments were Green Cambridge, the Livable Streets Alliance, A Better Cambridge, the Harvard Square Neighborhood Association, Cambridge Residents Alliance and Mothers Out Front.
January 11, 2022
BIKE LANE BACKLASH PUSHES CAMBRIDGE TO CONSULT WITH SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS
Nonprofit Livable Streets’ executive director Stacy Thompson said on Boston Public Radio last week that bike- and bus-focused projects typically boost business.
“The data shows that two-thirds or more of people going to these businesses live in that community, walk, take bikes there or take transit,” Thompson said. “Where we’ve put down bus priority projects and bike projects, business has gone up for a lot of folks, because you have more people who can get to that business.
December 2, 2021
MASSDOT LAUNCHES BICYCLE-SAFETY PILOT
This pilot is the result of a strong partnership with the Department of Conservation and Recreation, the City of Cambridge, the City of Boston, and various advocacy groups, including Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP), LivableStreets Alliance, TransitMatters, MassBike, Cambridge Bike Safety, and WalkBoston, according to MassDOT.
June 11, 2021
SEEKING TO IMPROVE ACCESSIBILITY AND SAFETY, DCR UNVEILS PLAN FOR PARKWAYS
Stacy Thompson, executive director of LivableStreets Alliance, said the group had not heard from the DCR in at least three years. Thompson said she hopes the plan will focus on making parkways multi-use and de-emphasize motor vehicles. “It’s just about a lot more than just managing their parkways and roadways. This is about recognizing that centering and prioritizing walking, biking, and climate resilience is how we will conserve our natural resources for future generations,” Thompson said.
June 8, 2021
THESE BOSTON-AREA ROADWAY PROJECTS COULD SEE A WINDFALL OF FEDERAL MONEY
Stacy Thompson, the executive director of the LivableStreets Alliance, said the designation of funds in the House bill means “we are one step closer to implementing desperately needed transportation projects in Boston and Somerville.” “These projects aren’t about paving roads — they are about the freedom to move,” Thompson said.
November 20, 2020
CAMBRIDGE NONPROFIT AIMS TO CONNECT BOSTON NEIGHBORHOODS THROUGH BIKE PATHS
Ambar Johnson, program director for LivableStreets, said although green spaces are scattered throughout Boston, residents currently lack safe, non-motorized routes that connect them to these spaces.
Johnson said transportation inequalities become especially important to address during a public health crisis.
“As we’ve seen during the age of [COVID-19], people having access to green space is imperative for their mental health, their physical health,” Johnson said. “Making sure that every person who lives within this area has equal and equitable access to green space is incredibly important.”
September 3rd, 2020
Livable Streets releases survey for American Legion
[LivableStreets Community Engagement Coordinator Shavel'le Olivier] said residents are responding to the survey in a positive way. She said in the first three weeks, they have already garnered 412 responses online. She said the end goal is to uplift the issue in the eyes of Boston City Hall so residents can see some aid to the crashes and unsafe nature of how the road is currently used.
January 7, 2020
EXPERT OPINION: A transportation vision for the 2020s
The classic New England village was built around walking, and communities across Massachusetts would benefit from doubling down on that strength in the 2020s. In Greater Boston, this includes borrowing from Olmsted’s Emerald Necklace to create an Emerald Network of shared-use walking and biking paths that connect the region’s diverse neighborhoods and job centers. Across the state, this means investing in economically vibrant, livable city and town centers that are safe and comfortable for everyone because they are oriented more to humans and less to automobiles.
July 31, 2019
STATE PARKS AGENCY STONEWALLING ON BIKE SAFETY, ADVOCATES SAY
Safe streets groups say it's no coincidence that many of the roads lining the area's parks and green spaces are also among the region's most dangerous roadways.
"A lot of this infrastructure was built in the 1950s and '60s and '70s, when there was a clear cultural interest in motor vehicles and a perception that that was our future," said Stacy Thompson, Executive Director of LivableStreets Alliance.
Read the PDF here and listen to the radio segment here.
July 24, 2019
LANE FOR BUSES AND BIKES OPENS IN ALLSTON
"If you do one of these projects, it helps 20,000 people on that corridor, but if you do a dozen of these projects you can really transform that gridlock and congestion in the city and that's why this project is so exciting." - Stacy Thompson
June 12, 2019
Allston Gets a New Bike/Bus Lane
Kristiana Lachiusa, a Community Engagement Coordinator for LivableStreets, has been collaborating with Brighton Avenue’s small businesses and community organizations like Allston Village Main Streets and the Allston Brighton Health Collaborative since 2017 to advocate for the new lane.
“Allston is seeing lots of new development. There are thousands of new housing units being proposed, and without better transit service, that’s potentially thousands of new car trips in the neighborhood,” says Lachiusa. “A number of community members wanted something to be done to make it easier to bike or take the bus, so thinking about how to make the buses move more quickly was a big focus.”
May 8, 2019
It’s Time to Move on Morrissey Rehab, Says Walsh; DCR's Timeline Remains Unclear
Tony Lechuga, the Emerald Network program manager with the LivableStreets Alliance, said that at an April 11 meeting with the DCR commissioner transit advocates were told that the agency was looking at additional protections based on new thinking around climate issues.
DCR had no comment on those statements.
“They’ve been very unclear about when we can see new designs,” Lechuga said, noting the project website still says the redesign will be at 75 percent in 2018. “DCR has often been a closed book to us and for me personally it has been extremely frustrating because we have made a good-faith effort to say this is a project that we fully support.”
Feb 16, 2019
'SHE WAS A FIRECRACKER': COLLEAGUES REMEMBER LIBRARIAN KILLED WHILE RIDING BIKE
The intersection where the crash took place has been a dangerous spot according to neighborhood groups who have been pushing for change to make it safer. “We would recommend an overhaul of the intersection to include protected bike lanes, safer crossings for pedestrians, which includes new and different signals” says Stacy Thompson of LivableStreets Alliance.
February 15, 2019
Friends mourn Brookline librarian killed in bike crash, call for greater cyclist protections
“I feel horribly for this family,” said Stacy Thompson, Executive Director of LivableStreets. “I also feel deeply frustrated. This is an area of the city that the city and activists have known for a while is unsafe and needs improvements. It’s not moving fast enough.”
January 28, 2019
Experience Design Graduate Studio Partners with LivableStreets Alliance & Community to Develop Design Proposals for Boston’s Columbia Road
“For us, this was about building momentum. There has been an abundance of talk without action all along the corridor, so the community definitely feels some skepticism and fatigue around promises,” Lechuga explained. “Therefore, the goal of collaborating with Northeastern was to begin a discussion about what the community wants the corridor to look and feel like. I imagined that ideally, over the semester, the students would begin having conversations with the community that would help with our gathering of perspectives and that they would possibly help identify particular areas of community concern.”
January 23, 2019
Proponents Outline Next Steps for Greenway Over Tunnel Cap
Advocates for a “Dot Greenway” on top of the Red Line tunnel cap between Park and Ashmont Streets announced a new fiscal partnership with LivableStreets and reviewed the potential timeline for this $5-7 million project at a meeting on Tuesday night.
December 20, 2018
Back in the Harness: Planning to Upgrade Columbia Road
In an interview with the Reporter, Tony Lechuga, the Emerald Network program manager at LivableStreets, said he hopes the organization’s new online survey will jump start the planning process. “Our thinking with the survey,” he said, “was that we want it to be a community-driven process. So, to start, what are the concerns and the values that people all along the corridor share? Where is there common ground?”
June 29, 2018
Dockless Bike-Share Launches In Arlington
"The expansion complements the Emerald Network, a growing system of off-road bike paths connecting communities, and allows stress-free travel throughout the region. The Arlington and Watertown paths will soon be joined through the Watertown-Cambridge Greenway– a critical piece of the broader network."
May 14, 2018
Bikers don’t get everything they want on Longfellow
Stacy Thompson, executive director of the advocacy group Livable Streets, said bicyclists are worried that safety problems could develop on the uphill portion of the bridge heading into Boston as faster cyclists bunch up behind slower cyclists. She said a wider bike lane is justified because 30 percent of the vehicles currently using the bridge’s roadway are bicycles.
May 3, 2018
Massachusetts Highlights Alternative Transportation Achievements
According to Professor Robert L. Ryan, FASLA, Chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and UMTC Affiliate Researcher, “Boston has long been a leader in alternative transportation through its commitment to the historic Emerald Necklace of parks and trails. Recent efforts to complete this historic vision are the exciting new Emerald Network project.”
December 13, 2017
BSA Foundation Breakfast 2017
Designing cities and making them a success is a very complicated process. More and more cross-pollination; more and more on the ground action is key. - Nidhi Gulati, Emerald Network Program Manager
November 17, 2017
Boston builds first protected bike lanes on BU’s campus
Andrew McFarland, community engagement manager for LivableStreets Alliance — an organization that advocates for safe and affordable transportation in Boston — said he believes these new bike lanes will encourage more Boston residents to bike.
“This is one of the highest bike ridership corridors in the city,” McFarland said. “When you build safe infrastructure, it encourages more people to bike.”
November 2, 2017
Protected bike lanes are coming to Comm. Ave
"Comm. Ave. is a great start, but the level of [its] success will depend on how committed the city is to building out a full network of protected bike infrastructure," said Stacy Thompson, with the LivableStreets Alliance. "The success of these lanes will also be more effective because they are part of a larger project that includes signal priority for the Green Line and 57 bus, protected intersections for pedestrians and easier parking for drivers."
July 26, 2017
Morrissey mailbag: Tweak the lanes, speeds, and signals
Some, like Dorchester resident Lynn Holmgren with the Livable Streets Alliance, wanted an even lower speed limit. “At a minimum, the speed limit on Morrissey Blvd should be reduced from 40 to 30 mph,” she wrote. “The road must also be designed in a way that will help to self-enforce the speed limit and restrict large trucks. Removing concrete medians, narrowing travel lane widths, and rethinking curb offsets are several ways to achieve this.”
July 19, 2017
Bike Talk: Episode 31
Listen to the episode here.
April 18, 2017
Boston Planners See a Greenway Where There's a High-Traffic Road
Nidhi Gulati, program manager at LivableStreets Alliance, says that the focus should be on slowing traffic, making walking and biking more pleasant, and building an amenity for the people living along Columbia Road... “The bigger challenge is how do we tie the mini-neighborhoods together?” says Gulati. She says that planners will also need to address concerns about displacement and gentrification in Dorchester, where housing prices have climbed.
December 8, 2016
Walkers Traverse Columbia Rd., Talking Green Space, Economics
"Nidhi Gulati, the Emerald Network Program Manager, said that she hopes to see 70 new miles of greenway over the next 15 years, noting that building such a system offers flexibility, with a number of ways to connect them. “What we can do is build safe connections so that you can hop from green to green."
October 12, 2016
Plans to Expand Watertown Bike Paths Move Forward
"Watertown's Senior Planner Gideon Schriber said work would extend an existing spur of the Watertown-Cambridge Greenway from where it empties onto Arsenal Street, next to the Watertown Mall Best Buy location, through Arsenal Park to the North Beacon Street Bridge.
The LivableStreets Alliance is helping the Town of Watertown Bicycle and Pedestrian Committee design the path over the next year."
October 12, 2016
Plans to Expand Watertown Bike Paths Move Forward
"Watertown's Senior Planner Gideon Schriber said work would extend an existing spur of the Watertown-Cambridge Greenway from where it empties onto Arsenal Street, next to the Watertown Mall Best Buy location, through Arsenal Park to the North Beacon Street Bridge.
The LivableStreets Alliance is helping the Town of Watertown Bicycle and Pedestrian Committee design the path over the next year."
October 6, 2016
"Watertown Moves" Celebrates Renovated Charles River Path
Local organizations Live Well Watertown, LiveableStreets, the Watertown Bike and Pedestrian Committee, and others celebrated the Charles River pathway and riverfront park’s renovation that was completed in recent months.
Fall 2016
The View From the Street
"So the real challenge we face is creating networks, especially low-stress bicycle networks and bus-priority networks...Coordination can also be initiated by a nonprofit (LivableStreets Alliance’s “Emerald Network” connecting Metro Boston’s greenways)."
June 20, 2016
MassDOT Green Lights $20.4M Comm Ave. Reconstruction
"Jackie DeWolfe, executive director of Boston's Liveable Streets urban design advocacy organization, cheered the project in a statement Thursday.
“We are excited about the project, not only because of the improvements it will bring for the 100,000 people who use Commonwealth Avenue today, but because the new design will make it more comfortable for even more people to walk, bike and take the bus,” she said. “Innovative design details like parking protected bike lanes, enhanced bus stops and protected intersections, will be a great demonstration of multi-modal transportation."
March 16, 2016
Arboretum Gateway picking up steam
“One thing we were looking at with the survey was to get a sense of where people are traveling to and from and looking at helping with mobility for both commuting and recreation,” said Amber Christopherson of Livable Streets. “It’s designed for a duel function.”
March 8, 2016
Groups propose an Arboretum gateway in Roslindale Square and new path to Forest Hills
WalkUP Roslindale, Livable Streets and Tufts University are proposing a new bicycle and pedestrian path that would let people get from the Roslindale Village T stop to Forest Hills without having to step foot on Washington Street.
February 28, 2016
New curbed bike lanes to improve safety on Commonwealth Avenue
"LivableStreets Executive Director Jackie DeWolfe wrote in an email that bikers in the city are excited for the upcoming construction, calling it a big victory for the 100,000 people who travel on Commonwealth Avenue."
November 3, 2016
A new plan would connect the Boston area’s biggest bike and walking paths Initiative seeks to connect greenway paths in Greater Boston area
“Safe, accessible, off-road paths and their low-traffic stress connections are simply a better way to get around the city" - Jackie Douglas, Executive Director of LivableStreets
September 16, 2016
Initiative seeks to connect greenway paths in Greater Boston area
“Boston has a historic legacy of greenways and linear parks, which we appreciate, but our current systems could be better connected to continue work that has been done for 100 years.” - Amber Christofferson, Program Manager, Emerald Network Initiative
September 14, 2016
LivableStreets grant coming to American Legion
"Beatman said that the American Legion corridor study grant was one of six projects selected. The MHMC membership agreed that the grant will be a great help to getting the improvements that they have been pushing for over many years."
September 10, 2016
LivableStreets Launches Emerald Network
“This is the future,” exclaimed LivableStreets Executive Director Jackie Douglas, “greenway paths that are linked together so that
you can move continuously from one path to another. Safe, accessible, off-road paths and their low-traffic stress connections
are simply a better way to get around the city.”
March 8, 2016
Groups Propose an Arboretum Gateway in Roslindale Square and new path to Forest Hills
WalkUP Roslindale, Livable Streets and Tufts University are proposing a new bicycle and pedestrian path that would let people get from the Roslindale Village T stop to Forest Hills without having to step foot on Washington Street.
September 13, 2015
Group has a goal: A regional path network
Universal Hub links to WBUR's article "Cambridge Nonprofit Seeks to Connect 200 Miles of Paths" from September 12.
September 12, 2015
VISIONARY NEW INITIATIVE TO CONNECT 200 MILES OF METRO BOSTON GREENWAYS DEBUTED BY LIVABLESTREETS ALLIANCE
“ 'With the power of the network, this will knit our growing city together without adding more cars to our roads,” said land use attorney Matthew J. Kiefer, co-founder of the Emerald Network."
“ 'The Emerald Network vision grows out of our region's fabulous heritage of multi-use parks, building on our existing portfolio of over 100 miles of parkland paths to create a 200 mile web of connection,' stated Steven E. Miller, Emerald Network co-founder."
September 12, 2015
Plan Seeks to Link 200 miles of Local Pathways
“We’re excited by Livable Street’s Emerald Network initiative...It’s a perfect pairing with Boston’s Green Links project — a plan to provide walking and biking connections for all residents to Boston’s largest parks. The Emerald Network takes Boston’s local plan to scale in the region. It sets a vision for connecting our communities, improving mobility and increasing access to this region’s parks. We look forward to continuing our work with them on this effort.” - Chris Osgood, Boston Chief of Streets
September 12, 2015
Cambridge Nonprofit Seeks To Connect 200 Miles Of Paths
"Our streets should be focused on people, and be public spaces where people can get to where they want to go safely, efficiently, affordably and enjoyably," LivableStreets' deputy director Stacy Thompson said.
Thompson says she wants people to start thinking of the city's streets as "living, breathing transportation ecosystems."
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