By: Maryam Kechaou
Editor’s note: This submission was part of an activity during WestfordCAT’s News Academy week. On the first day, participants (then all rising sophomores) were asked to take 30 minutes to create a paragraph or two on the topic of their choice. The following commentary is not only impressive, it influenced WestfordCAT’s decision to check out the town’s Pedestrian Safety Commission, reported on by Emily Collins in August.
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Car/automobile dependency, a pattern in urban planning that favors the use of various types of automobiles over other methods of transportation, such as walking, cycling or using the public transportation system. In Westford, like many other suburban towns across Massachusetts and the USA, the overreliance on automobiles proves to be a major issue experienced by a grand majority of the town’s residents.
Even though Westford has a bike trail that runs through multiple towns and bus stops as the only form of public transportation, both tend to be inconvenient for most people to use instead of driving a car.
Not only that, the amount of sidewalks in this town are insufficient for people to comfortably use to walk from place to place. Most sidewalks inside of Westford are located near privately owned buildings, offices, and shopping centers.
There are very few sidewalks located on most residential roads and streets throughout town. Even if a building located on a primarily residential road has a proper sidewalk to walk on, the sidewalk itself abruptly stops right on the borders of the building’s property line, leaving the rest of the road without any form of properly built sidewalks.
Even though solutions may take numerous years to implement, previous Westford town meetings voted for a budget to be allocated for building sidewalks on both Carlile Road and Plain Road.
Recently, with the new Pay-As-You-Throw Solid Waste Collection System program that passed in Westford’s Government, the effort to reduce the total amount of pollution in town has been recognized more than ever before. This can make way for new discussions about the amount of carbon emissions that are being released by cars driven in or from Westford.
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The Pedestrian Safety Committee
In the article from August 4, Tom Hinkle, chair of the Town’s Pedestrian Safety Committee was quoted as saying, “This Spring, we celebrate the completion of the Plain Rd. Sidewalk project,” Hinkle said, “In the time I’ve been on the committee, I’ve seen us complete a sidewalk which now connects all the way from Oak Hill and Route 40 to East Boston Camps. That’s a major achievement, and it is one of the most used sidewalk networks in town.”
According to Hinkle, one of the committee’s biggest challenges is balancing strong public demand for pedestrian improvements with the lengthy and costly process required to complete projects.
“Many people understandably assume that adding a sidewalk to a road or striping a new crosswalk would be relatively straightforward,” Hinkle said. “But the steps involved, like obtaining design funding, reviewing designs, securing construction funds, and ultimately completing construction, are more involved than most people realize.”
Read the full article here.
