Tour de Streets 2020 Campaign

(that's Acadia in the photo above!)

It's been 15 years since I co-founded LivableStreets, and we've been celebrating with an extra special Tour de Streets. Our 15 day Tour Your Streets Campaign is almost over.

We have accomplished so much, it's sometimes hard to remember that only 15 years ago, there was only 1/4 of a mile of bike lane in Boston, design guides prohibited building separated Dutch-style bike lanes, pedestrian fatalities weren't even tracked, the idea of bus only lanes were laughed, transit advocates had little voice in the process, and street design public meetings were held after all the important conceptual design decisions were made. So much change has happened!

Looking ahead, LivableStreets is adding to our portfolio the important connections between transportation and housing, acknowledging the housing and displacement crisis we are facing. We are building coalitions with new organizations and advocates outside the traditional "transportation bubble" to hold government accountable for the commitments we have obtained for our advocacy work.  

The thing I am most proud of with LivableStreets is how we do our work-- with integrity. We listen, we learn, we collaborate. We are nimble and adaptable. We love what we do. 

Thanks for supporting an organization that I believe is doing really meaningful work to make cities better places. 

Current programs:

Some recent press:

8/2020 Boston Globe: Housing will test white support for Black lives (“People with privilege are comfortable signing a statement, are comfortable calling someone else racist, but that’s different than the long hard work of transforming a policy,” said [Stacy] Thompson.

8/2020 Boston Globe: With low ridership, MBTA could face $400 mllion budget shortfall next year (...Stacy Thompson, director of the pro-transit Livable Streets Alliance, worried the MBTA may seek to cut costs from programs that are less noticeable to riders but will be important in the future, such as overhauling the bus system. “What happens to all these things that were really necessary that we fought for?” she asked.)

7/2020 Dorchester Reporter: Advocates, councilors push senators on transit justice (Stacy Thompson, executive director of LivableStreets Alliance, said, “It is our moral obligation to make sure that people have safe, affordable, and reliable access to transportation. My key message today is when you hear things like ‘clean buses’ and ‘better service’ that’s not crazy or insurmountable. These are reasonable, achievable solutions that both the Legislature and the MBTA have the ability to act on right now.”)

5/2020 StreetsBlog: A summit on open streets with Lynda Lopez, Naomi Doerner, and Ayanna Pressley (On Wednesday, the... Massachusetts-based LivableStreets Alliance in partnership with WGBH Boston hosted an online forum about this very question. The second in a four-part series, “Virtual StreetTalks: Walk This Way” was billed as a discussion about the pros and cons of various street interventions, with Massachusetts Congressional representative Ayanna Pressley, a member of the influential bloc The Squad; Lynda Lopez, advocacy manager for Active Trans, and a former Streetsblog Chicago reporter; and Oakland-based Naomi Doerner, principal and director of equity, diversity and inclusion for mobility consulting group Nelson/Nygaard.)

1/2020 Wall Street Journal: Cities offer free buses in bid to boost flagging ridership. (LivableStreets Alliance, a transit advocacy group in the Boston area, estimates all Massachusetts transit agencies could make bus service free for $60 million a year, including Boston’s. That translates to a 2-cent increase in the state gasoline tax, the advocacy group said.)

12/2019 WBUR Studio: If everyone agrees local transportation needs improvement, why do so many problems remain? (Following his interview with Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack last week, Jim Braude was joined by Christopher Dempsey, director of Transportation For Massachusetts, and Stacy Thompson, executive director of LivableStreets.)

Legacy:

LivableStreets Board Photo from 2014. Stephanie Pollack (center) moved on from our board to become Secretary of Transportation for Massachusetts; Jackie Douglas (2nd row, far right) went from our Executive Director to Director of Sustainable Mobility for MassDOT; Chris Hart (2nd row far left) is now Deputy Director of Inclusive Design and Engineering at MBTA and serves on the US Access Board; Julia Wallerce (bottom row, second from right) now directs the Boston office for the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy.