Pounding the pavement for sidewalks

New roads are built for cars when a new subdivision is created, but now a group of residents is urging Bolton to also require sidewalks to make the town more friendly to pedestrians. (GLOBE PHOTO/FILE 2001)

Like any number of rural towns, Bolton has winding, idyllic country roads. In many areas, says resident Daniel Senie, they also can be treacherous for pedestrians.

Senie has lived in the Berkshires and Manhattan - very different landscapes. But, he said, the two locations have at least one thing in common: They are both better places for walking than Bolton is.

"Around here, if you walk down the street, cars are whizzing past you by an inch" in many spots, he said. "Bolton is probably the least walkable place I've lived in."

Senie is among a group of residents serving on a local board, the Public Ways Safety Committee, whose main mission is to make the town a better place for walkers. They hope to install sidewalks along heavily traveled areas across town.

Next week, the committee expects to receive advice on their campaign from the Boston Metropolitan Planning Organization, which is promoting efforts to make the area's cities and towns more pedestrian friendly.

On Wednesday, town officials and representatives from the regional planning group will hold a "walking audit" to examine areas that need improvement. A workshop, from 2 to 4:30 p.m. at Bolton Town Hall, will culminate in a brainstorming session with residents on ways to make the town more attractive to walkers and baby strollers.

Senie is looking forward to the event as a way his committee can gain insight about the town's pedestrian problems through the eyes of people with experience.

He added that the effort to create a network of sidewalks is not only about safety and building pleasant recreational spaces. It's also about community. Not having a pedestrian-friendly town detracts from the social fabric, he said.

"When your only source of transportation is your car, you lose that sense of community by not being able to walk down your street," said Senie.

The regional planning agency has recently sponsored more than 20 workshops, including events in Framingham, Hudson, Maynard, and Wellesley, in an attempt to swell interest in making cities and towns better for pedestrians, said Catherine Buckley Lewis, its chief transportation planner.

The motivation for encouraging walking stems from a number of environmental, health, and safety concerns, said Lewis.

"If you can walk to the convenience store, that's a small contribution" to the environment, she said.

"We're also not doing well physically at the end of our lives."

A major obstacle is funding. Sidewalks cost about $30 per linear foot, so they often fall off the map for communities facing cutbacks or tax increases, said Jody Kablack, Sudbury's town planner.

"When you are talking about cutting teachers, walkways get pretty low on the priority list," she said.

Despite the economic pressures, support remains strong in Sudbury for its sidewalk construction program, said Kablack.

Fortunately, the town has set up a local Community Preservation Act program, which provides matching grants for communities that approve a property-tax surcharge to pay for affordable housing and historical or environmental preservation efforts.

"It's always been hard to get funds," said Kablack.

"It's been very piecemeal. Now it's not as difficult," with the additional funds available.

In Bolton, voters have rejected attempts to adopt the Community Preservation Act, said Senie. But his committee hopes to avoid the need to seek a tax increase by forcing developers to install sidewalks as part of their projects.

Developers sometimes object, saying sidewalks built in a haphazard fashion around town make little sense.

But Senie said the walkways can eventually be linked up, as more projects are completed.

The hope of the Bolton committee is to create a network of sidewalks in key locations. But they want to have them set apart from the road slightly, with a strip of grass between the walkways and the roads in order to harmonize with the town's rural atmosphere, he said.

"It makes it look urban," Senie said, "if you have sidewalks just lining the side of the street."