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We have got to start prioritizing people and not cars in "America's Walking City". From letting a few loud bad actors cancel a needed street diet in West Rox after a pedestrian fatality to non-fatal crashes trending up, the @CityOfBoston has a lot of work to do. 1/19 https://twitter.com/streetsblogmass/status/1296530587147210754
They've done a lot (Thanks @BostonBTD!), but since we're talking about life and death- I can't temper my calls to go faster. As I mentioned Thursday, parking plays a major role. A factor in whether people choose to drive or even purchase a car is the ease of parking. 2/19
Parking equals more traffic. More traffic equals longer bus rides, especially for black and brown riders. And more traffic, especially with the slow progress of Safe Streets changes means more collisions and fatalities. Parking is a huge problem. 3/19
Ultimately @marty_walsh & @BostonPlans have to be the ones to set parking maximums but @BOSCityCouncil members, I'm begging for your help. The bus riders, the folks on affordable housing wait lists, the cyclists, the small businesses are all asking for your help. How much 4/19
longer will we continue to slow down buses & bleed ridership? As @StreetsBoston pointed out black riders spend 64 more hrs on the bus than white riders. All because of the parking enduced traffic and because we can't imagine using the parking spaces to actually move people. 5/19
This refusal to remove parking to serve disproportionately lower income riders to accommodate higher income car owners is circular- slower bus trips equals lower ridership which equals more traffic. It's all connected. 6/19 https://www.livablestreets.info/64_hours_report
We've decided that parking is more important than housing. Some hide behind the fact that the housing is market rate, but as the Pine St Inn debacle shows, this is a red herring. 23 fewer homeless Bostonians will be able to have a home because we fear density & love parking! 7/19
As @MAPCMetroBoston pointed out last year, on average 30% of residential parking went unused overnight. This means often residents without cars are not only subsidizing neighbors with cars, but also the 30% of parking spaces that go empty. This empty parking takes up room 8/19
that could have housed people. One of reasons you see so many 9 unit dev.s is not only the requirements for IZ, but also parking ratios. We are in a severe (and in the case of COVID, life threatening) housing crisis, but you wouldn't know it from our approach to parking 9/19
I'm happy to see @KenzieBok & @MattOMalley's hearing order for zoning relief for low-income housing & was thrilled by @wutrain's proposal for parking permits last year, but we need more. We need Councilors to help ppl better understand that we can have ample parking or we 10/19
can have safe streets, clean air, faster bus commutes, and more affordable housing, but we can't have both! We have to stop responding to n'hood concerns by automatically cutting units or adding parking. Let's educate, use data, institute resident parking, or designate 
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11/19
The consequences of not having safe cycling or walking Infrastructure can be deadly as we know from Back Bay to Cummings Hwy. The consequence of less parking or less street parking is a few extra minutes or dollars. Street space allocation tells you a city's values 12/19
Complaints from local businesses have been reshaped by the pandemic. Imagine how much more profitable small restaurants could be with inside and outside dining post-COVID. And 
spend more money on Main Streets than 
. 13/19 https://www.treehugger.com/study-shows-people-who-walk-and-bike-to-main-streets-spend-more-4855935
spend more money on Main Streets than . 13/19 https://www.treehugger.com/study-shows-people-who-walk-and-bike-to-main-streets-spend-more-4855935
Yet so much is done to cater to drivers, even at the expense of small businesses. Any study will tell you free street parking is terrible for biz districts as it decreases turnover & makes it easy for folks to take spaces all day. We have to make it easier to 
& 
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& 14/19
Finally, we have a climate crisis in Boston-just look at the urban heat island, most noticable in Dot & Rox. Planting trees to combat this won't be useful if we continue to build big parking lots, let residents pave their yards, and incentivize cars! 15/19 https://www.discovermagazine.com/environment/wicked-hot-boston-urban-heat-island-uhi-mapping
Emissions from transportation make up 40% of our ghg haul! Chinatown is most polluted census tract in the Commonwealth because of cars (diesel buses and trains don't help either). Cars and parking are the problem!!! 16/19 https://www.baystatebanner.com/2019/07/04/report-reveals-chinatowns-dangerous-air-pollution/
And no, your Tesla doesn't fix the problem. With electric cars we just outsource our carbon footprint to poorer countries and still produce lots of particulate from tires and brakes 17/ 19 https://www.autoblog.com/2020/03/12/some-emissions-from-tires-and-brakes-can-be-much-worse-than-exhaust/
I humbly submit to @marty_walsh, @Kim_Janey, @BostonBTD, & @BostonPlans that while reforming AND REDUCING parking won't solve all of our transpo, housing, and climate challenges, it sure will go a long way towards making a more equitable Boston. I know it will face strong 18/19
opposition, but you can't tell me the City that built the Seaport, America's first public school, fought back the Atlantic to build more land is afraid of making this city better by putting its people first. The city was here long before cars. It's time we act like it. 19/19
