Mayor Walsh Wants to Know What You See in Boston’s Future Transportation
This winter, Bostonians have hardly been timid in voicing their frustrations about transportation woes. These complaints may produce something more than a new tumblr or meme, however, thanks to a collaborative initiative between May Walsh and the Boston Transportation Department called Go Boston 2030.
The aim of the initiative is to aggregate input from Bostonians and envision the future of the city’s transportation network, from walking to driving to public transportation.
The first phase of Go Boston 2030 began in full-force this January with the Question Campaign, which gathered more than 4,500 questions and comments. Bostonians were invited to participate via online submission. A “What’s Your Question’’ truck also stopped in 15 neighborhoods between January 29 and February 7 of this year.
Vineet Gupta, Director of Planning with the Transportation Department, called the campaign a success.
“We believe that through these questions not only have we engaged a large percentage of people, but if you look at the quality of questions we have learned a lot as well,’’ said Gupta.
The questions have been posted on the Go Boston 2030 website for public perusal and engagement. Its interactive features give users the ability to read and “like’’ questions, and those who participated in the Question Campaign can track the progress of their query.
The website is also equal parts informative and punny. The ‘About’ page reads, “The 18-month process is being driven by data and steered through an unprecedented and inclusive public engagement process’’ (get it?).
Another feature of the site enables anyone to manipulate the questions to sort by zip code. This was done in an effort to ensure even sampling.
The questions topics vary.
Many are exceedingly general, “Can we have a more efficient public transport system?’’ while others may have a hidden fact-gathering agenda, such as, “What were the businesses that saw increases in sales with bike lanes along them?’’
Some Bostonians seem to expect a degree of clairvoyance from Mayor Walsh, asking “Will there be any self-driving cars in the city in 15 years?’’ and still others may spark a socioeconomic debate (“Is lack of access to public transportation keeping our poorest neighborhoods in poverty?’’).
Go Boston 2030 is currently organizing the questions by topic. On April 10 and 11, they will host a public forum enabling people to both see a summary of the questions asked and to participate in making recommendations for future visions.
“It’s too soon to tell; we’ve got questions about a host of things,’’ said Gupta of trends at this point. “Many of them have to do with reliability, affordability, and the environment.’’
While the formal question campaign concluded in February, Gupta reiterated the hope that more people will come forward to participate in the initiative.
“The whole process is driven by public participation and by the question campaign,’’ said Gupta. “There will be many more opportunities for our residents to take part in fashioning and envisioning the future of Boston transportation.’’
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