2024 Walking Audit and Petition for Safer Streets

On October 17th, our “Active Transportation Committee”, (ATC), hosted a “Sidewalk Survey” to share some of FWC’s street projects as well as to collect new ideas for what can make our neighborhood more welcoming and safe for walking, biking and rolling.

The goal of our survey, or “walking audit”, was to engage and educate our community members–residents, business owners, elected officials and City staff–on how Woodfords Corner streets could be improved to make the whole Corner more inviting.

The highlight of the walk was a visit to the corner of Forest and Lincoln St, where the City is installing pedestrian crossing lights, sidewalk “bump-outs” that will shorten the crosswalk distance, and a storm drain filtration swale. FWC identified crossing Forest Ave there and at Coyle street as major safety hazards during an earlier walking audit in 2019 and has been working with the city on these improvements ever since. 

During the walking audit, we also visited two other crosswalks where we’d like to see similar improvements: Woodford Street just west of the Corner, (near the Woodfords Congregational Church), and at the northern end of Deering Ave. At each of these spots, traffic moves very fast–70-80% of cars speed past these crosswalks. Each spring, for the past 3 years, we’ve installed flexposts and pedestrian crossing signs at these crosswalks to demonstrate the difference a little bit of infrastructure can make. The flex posts and signs not only slow traffic to the speed limit, but also increase the number of cars that stop so that pedestrians can cross the street. We have collected over 400 signatures on a petition requesting that the City make these crosswalk improvements, and a third at Sammy Scoops on Ocean Ave,  permanent. 

If you are interested in ways to make Woodfords Corner more safe and  inviting for pedestrians, bicyclists, Metro passengers and others who don’t or can’t drive motor vehicles, you can help by reporting issues to the city on See-Click-Fix, or by volunteering for FWC or the FWC ATC.