My daily walks often take me to Coolidge Corner, where Brookline’s expanded spaces for pedestrians and bicycles are concentrated. The town has decided to relocate parking lanes about 10 feet away from the curbs to create a safe zone for physical distancing while walking and biking. This works particularly well, especially when enough cars are in place to provide a barrier between walkers and the moving vehicles in the narrowed traffic lanes. The additional paint and explanatory signs that are provided enhance my sense of safety and comfort. Apart from serving a functional purpose, the new lanes are even beautiful walking places when nearby street trees provide visual interest and shade the walkway.
It is a joy that my town has taken action to increase safe walking and biking during the pandemic, extending more places for people into former parking lanes on all four streets that come into Coolidge Corner. Outside Coolidge Corner, new pedestrian and bicycle lanes are a little harder to find or feel a little more precarious as a long-term improvement, as they are not protected by parked cars, and are marked off only by orange cones and a few paper signs. These sidewalks doubled in width provide an important example for places that have yet to adopt these measures, and a test of whether this kind of new space can be maintained as Covid-19 issues diminish as long term protections for walkers and other active transit.
The Editorial Board of the Boston Globe channels Shel Silverstein in 'Taking it to the Streets, COVID-style': "[S]ocial distancing doesn’t end where the sidewalk begins — in fact, it becomes ever more crucial. So this is the time for communities to get serious about creating more space in the great outdoors to accommodate walkers, runners, and bikers."
