ABHC’s Transportation and Mobility Committee (TMC) is a group of community members and local organizations who work to improve how we all safely, reliably and affordably walk, roll, bike, drive, and ride around Allston-Brighton. Since 2016, we have worked together with the City and the Commonwealth to improve safe, reliable and affordable transportation and mobility.
Grounding Principle and Definitions:
Transportation is something that we all need every day when we ride a bus, hop on a bike, take a walk, roll in a wheelchair or on a skateboard, or get in a car. Transportation is essential to our education, livelihoods, access to services, and quality of life. Safe, reliable, and affordable transportation ensures that we can all live healthy lives in a healthy community.
Mobility is our ability to freely move and to access our needs and wants. This ability may differ person to person based on many factors. For our community and society to function well, we all should be able to get around as we need, thus mobility emphasizes equity and access, not just the means of transport.
All of us use more than one form of transportation – we walk to the bus, we bring our wheelchair in the car, we bike to the train. A Transportation System is how all of these methods of transportation connect to each other, and includes the roads, sidewalks, paths, curbs and parking that we need to make these connections.
ABHC recognizes that by improving programs and policies that center community members who are most marginalized, under-resourced, and adversely impacted, we improve outcomes for everyone. Therefore this committee prioritizes the transportation accessibility experiences and needs of our most vulnerable and marginalized community members. In Allston-Brighton, this means that we center the needs of people with low incomes, who do not rely on a private vehicle, who have disabilities, and people who do not speak English as their primary language. (More information is available about our priority areas and data sources.) Our advocacy focuses on increasing safety, reliability, and affordability for these community members with the knowledge that the community benefits as a whole.
Values and Priorities:
The Committee values:
- Community-Driven Decision Making: Elevating underrepresented community voices and experiences to provide a neighborhood voice and influence on neighborhood transportation growth and change.
- Transparency & Coordination: Providing transparency into the city development process and facilitating coordination between community, developers, and city and state government.
- Accountability: Seeking accountability from city and state government, developers, and community leaders in the impacts of their priorities and decisions.
The Committee works to help build a transportation system that prioritizes:
- Affordability
- Accessibility
- Connectivity
- Equity
- Public Accountability
- Safety
- Sustainability and Climate Resiliency
- Health & Livability
Committee Activities
- Meet monthly to discuss neighborhood changes and needs, and our advocacy strategies. Meetings often include presentations from City of Boston staff and planners looking for our feedback and advice. Elected officials join to listen and get feedback from us.
- Conduct mobility audits by working closely with the City of Boston to identify areas in the neighborhood that need accessibility improvements including safer sidewalks and crossings, protected bike lanes, and more.
- Partner with fellow advocacy groups to ensure safe access to walk and roll throughout the neighborhood, including to the river.
- Represent Allston-Brighton’s interests and concerns in lots of groups, including the MBTA’s Fare Transformation Policy Working Group, Bus Network Redesign External Task Force, and the MA Vision Zero Coalition.
- Advise housing and commercial developers in the neighborhood by serving on Impact Advisory Groups (IAGs) and participating in neighborhood development meetings. Our role in these groups is to ensure that each project includes important mobility needs, including bicycle parking, MBTA access, safe sidewalks, connectivity and more.
- Outreach to various community groups to spread the word and build a collaborative relationship.
- Educate ourselves and others on transportation and mobility issues around the neighborhood and best practices for improving our built environment.
Who We Are: Member Roles and Responsibilities
- Committee Members: These are community members and staff from local nonprofit organizations who attend monthly meetings, receive email updates, can vote on committee priority areas and comment on development projects on behalf of the committee. Members are unpaid and can access the resource toolkit through the information portal.
- Mobility Advocates: Advocates are also Committee Members who earn a yearly stipend and commit additional hours to advocate and represent the committee in additional groups.
- City and State staff: Includes elected officials and their staff, transportation and planning department staff. Staff can attend monthly meetings, receive email updates, can access resource toolkit through information portal but cannot access contact lists.
- ABHC Director: A committee member who also coordinates monthly meetings, sends email updates, can vote on committee priority areas and comment on development projects on behalf of the committee. Manages resource toolkit.
Engage
Transportation and mobility impact our community’s health everyday. What do you want to work on? No experience necessary – if you live here, you’re an expert!
General Committee Meeting: Second Thursday of the month, 6pm-7:30pm (Virtually or in person).
Join to learn and discuss neighborhood changes and needs, and our advocacy strategies. Meetings often include presentations from City of Boston staff and planners looking for our feedback and advice. Elected officials join to listen and get feedback from us.
How to join:
Join to learn and discuss neighborhood changes and needs, and our advocacy strategies. Meetings often include presentations from City of Boston staff and planners looking for our feedback and advice. Elected officials join to listen and get feedback from us.
- Attend a meeting and listen: Meetings are publicly posted on the Community Calendar. Anyone is welcome to join the meeting via Zoom and listen.
- Join the ABHC Network and become a Committee Member.
Why you should join:
“What impressed me from the very beginning, and why I keep coming back, is that people who actually CAN make decisions are at our meetings with community leaders and residents like me, together having constructive conversations from different points of view. I got to know folks in my community and now I’m part of this connected network.”
“ABHC provides not only clear-eyed, articulate, well-researched and grounded advocacy for healthier, more climate friendly transportation choices, it also provides a unique forum for questions and respectful community debate. The result is quite unique in Boston neighborhoods–a community based forum making space for direct, open, respectful dialogue between the City and community members. At a time when polarization on public policy issues is commonplace, it is refreshing and inspiring to be able to turn to a community organization that represents such a wide cross section of the community and is able to lead respectful, constructive conversations on pressing and often controversial issues. ABHC’s role in Allston Brighton is not only invaluable, it has become indispensable.”