The unlikely secret to a happy community? Sidewalks

Molly Bartone considered many factors when she moved into her new home near Buckmaster Pond in Westwood. Her kids were grown but she still liked the idea of a neighborhood with good schools. She wanted to be somewhat in between Boston and her family living in northern Connecticut. But most of all, she wanted to be able to go for her morning walk, a ritual she has stuck to for close to 20 years.

“I just can’t start my day without getting up early and pounding the pavement,” she said.

And by "pavement" she means the sidewalk that starts right at the end of her driveway and meanders all throughout the town.

Sidewalks are a priority in the state’s goal to make communities more bike and pedestrian friendly. They are a key factor in the Complete Streets program, a Massachusetts Department of Transportation initiative that launched in 2016 aimed at creating more efficient and inclusive transportation networks that meet the needs of residents. Approximately $33 million in construction funding has been awarded since then to more than 200 communities.

In late 2016, Westwood was one of the first communities to be awarded Complete Streets funding in the form of $400,000 to construct approximately 1,000 feet of new sidewalk on the west side of High Street. The goal was to better connect residential neighborhoods and the William E. Sheehan School.

The project was completed the following summer, and people such as Bartone walk the area regularly.

“I walk down that stretch of sidewalk at least once a week,” Bartone said. “Improvements like that can really be the difference in whether people move to a town or not.”

It's all about connectivity

Bartone said she tested a few different walking routes around Westwood before purchasing the home, and fell in love with the sidewalks in town. She noticed how wide they were, how well they were maintained, and most importantly, how they were all connected.

“Shops, public transportation, [places of] worship, or even quieter side streets that are just nice to walk down, it all starts with the sidewalks,” she said. “It’s not just enough to be able to walk from point A to point B. You need to be able to get everywhere. It’s more like getting from point A to point Z.”

Bartone moved to Westwood from Lincoln, a town she said lacked a connected system of sidewalks and paths. Lincoln residents raised similar concerns during Complete Streets public forums in 2016, which led the town to request — and ultimately be approved for — a grant to begin filling in gaps in the network.

As part of the 2017 round of Complete Streets funding, Lincoln was awarded $400,000 for a series of pedestrian and transportation projects. This included $13,000 for a sidewalk project near the Ryan Estates senior living development, where residents would commonly walk in the roadway to access nearby services.

“Residents have expressed safety concerns and several report limiting their walking trips due to this condition,” the town’s request reads. “Students also walk and bike along Lincoln Road to access the town’s public schools and Lincoln Station stores and restaurants. Completion of this sidewalk will improve safety for these students and our seniors.”

Connecting these “missing links” is one of the primary goals of the Complete Streets program.

A community that has applied for several Complete Streets grants is Norwell. Last year, the town was awarded $200,000 to install sidewalks on Main Street (Rte. 123) near Norwell Middle School and two new crosswalks at South Street and Cushing Hill Road.

This is part of a larger multiphase project currently underway that will ultimately connect the sidewalks in town from the Hanover line in the west, through the length of Rte. 123 and the center of town, leading to the Scituate town line in the east and connecting to the Greenbush commuter rail terminus.

Norwell Town Planner Ken Kirkland said there are three types of communities when it comes to sidewalks. Type one are those that have always had sidewalks due to their urban location, such as Brockton, Somerville and neighborhoods in Boston; the second type are those where sidewalks have become more of a priority as residents make a push for increased walkability; and the third are communities where sidewalks have yet to become a priority.

Norwell, like many other communities, falls into the middle category, Kirkland said.

“You can tell the age of a neighborhood by the age and condition of its sidewalks. Now, with all these subdivisions going in, you have these sidewalk islands that don’t really go anywhere,” he said. “A priority has become filling in these gaps, and connecting these sidewalk islands into a more comprehensive network that goes through the whole city.”

Kirkland said the idea of walkability is subjective based on the size and population of a town, but the concept is catching on in most places.

"What’s walkable to one community is different for another, but in the case of Norwell you have younger families moving in and understanding the importance of what walkability is," he said. "They see the potential in incorporating a network of sidewalks into a town’s future planning. It’s a concept that around 2000 or 2005 left the halls of MIT and started showing up in the South Shore, and we’re seeing it in a lot of communities.”

Having the resources

One of those larger “type one” communities Kirkland described is Medford, which worries not about having to create new sidewalks, but how to maintain their existing network.

Medford has approximately 115 miles of roadway, much of which has sidewalks on both sides. By comparison, a 2017 Complete Streets needs assessment study found that of the approximately 70 miles of roadway in Norwell, only 14.4 miles of sidewalk existed.

Medford Highway Foreman Stephen Tenaglia said several factors go into having the ability to maintain such an expansive sidewalk network. Like with most things, money is a key factor.

“When I first got into this business, a yard of concrete was about $55, and now it’s about $110,” he said. “Everything costs more these days. Including the cost of a sidewalk.”

The Complete Streets program helps ease this burden. Medford recently finished multiple Complete Streets projects in West Medford Square, the Brooks Elementary School, Medford Square at River Street and the Winthrop Street Rotary, and a project in Tufts Square has just begun.

But investments at the local level are crucial as well. The city just awarded a $500,000 contract to assist the Department of Public Works with sidewalk repair and restoration throughout the community.

Then there’s the issue of putting the money to good use.

“People ask me what I really need to get the work done, and the biggest thing is additional, qualified manpower,” Public Works Commissioner Brian Kerins said. “We don’t have time for on-the-job training. If we post a job for a heavy equipment operator, you come in ready to go and just need to know where to find the key to the machine before you get to work.”

Kerins said municipal agencies, whether state or local, are victims of the times.

“The economy is so good now, people can make more money elsewhere,” he said. “About seven or eight years ago, when the economy wasn’t as good, you’d have a line of people out the door looking for a job.”

An increasing need

In July, U.S. Sen. Ed Markey co-sponsored a national Complete Streets Act, using Massachusetts as a model for the legislation. The bill would require states to set aside a portion of their federal highway funding to create a grant program to fund projects that make transit routes safer and more accessible, with sidewalks being a focus.

“Sidewalks are far more than a means of transportation, they are a means of economic growth and community development, and we must make them safe and accessible for everyone,” Markey said in a statement. “When we have complete streets, we can have complete communities – comprehensive centers for employment, education, health care, civic life, and commerce. ”

In promoting the bill, Markey and co-sponsor Steve Cohen, a Tennessee congressman, noted that pedestrian fatalities have increased by 35 percent between 2008 and 2017. Calling it a “national safety crisis,” the bill seeks to undo decades of design decisions that prioritized the ability for cars to move more quickly and efficiently at the expense of pedestrian traffic.

Kirkland said Norwell’s increasing stock of sidewalks is a clear sign that residents and local governments are getting on the same page when it comes to safer and more accessible means of foot traffic. He said residents will continue to be more vocal about their desire to live in a walkable community, and municipalities must find a way to make funding “routine.”

It is all part of a push to go carbon neutral, a talking point that has creeped into people’s everyday lives. For Bartone, it’s something she’s been waiting to see for a long time.

“I have lived long stretches of my life without owning a car, and people a lot younger than me are going that route as well,” she said. “We need to be able to walk safely. Shopping local, getting more exercise, reducing your carbon footprint ... a lot of it all revolves around being able to walk where you need to go, and we need good, quality sidewalks to do that.”

To see a comprehensive map of all Complete Streets projects throughout the state, visit masscompletestreets.com/Map.