By Adam Swift
Work is underway in the city on a new plan to help improve ways residents can walk, bike, and roll through Revere.
City officials are working with the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC) on the Revere Walk, Bike, and Roll Plan.
Last week, representatives from the city and the MAPC held a virtual community conversation to help kick off the process and to get feedback from residents about how they would like to see Revere improve its accessibility for pedestrians and bicyclists.
“In a place such as Revere, we have such wonderful assets as Revere Beach and other wonderful assets, amenities, and jobs throughout the city,” said Tom Skwierawski, the city’s director of planning and community development. “But it is either not practical, possible, or safe to walk, bike, or roll to many of these places. That’s ultimately why we are here tonight, to develop a plan to change that.”
Skwierawski said the city is undertaking the plan to help increase mobility options for everyone, especially those who can’t drive, as well as to increase safety on the streets and decrease emissions from traffic, and to increase access to key areas in the city.
“The impetus for this plan was really our Revere master plan, Next Stop Revere, which came out in 2020,” he said. “One of its key goals was to develop a pedestrian master plan to document existing local infrastructure, determine gaps in the pedestrian and cycling network, and prioritize future infrastructure decisions.”
Skwierawski said there are three main components of the work, including a final written plan that will serve as a roadmap for strategies and guidelines for the pedestrian and bicycling plans. The city will also work with an engineering firm to create designs and cost estimates for some of the projects that the community finds most critical to meet its walk, bike, and rolling needs in the city.
The third component of the effort is the working group, which will spend the next year helping to put the final plan together, said Skwierawski.
“This is both a plan and an effort to make sure we are building a consensus and we are building a voice in the city that prioritizes walking, biking, and rolling,” he said. “The working group is an important part of the plan, but it is also an end in and of itself, because we all have to come together on this plan to work for a safer Revere.”
The timeline for the plan includes several more public meetings and hearings through this summer, with a draft plan in place by the winter followed by a public meeting on the draft in the spring of 2025. If all goes according to schedule, Skwierawski said the final plan would be released next summer.
During the initial community conversation, MAPC project manager Marah Holland highlighted some of the demographics in the city, as well as its existing pedestrian and bicycling assets. She also highlighted the areas where the city sees the most motor vehicle crashes and the most bicycle and pedestrian accidents, noting that many are near state roadways and schools.
“As we are moving forward with this, one of our goals is to develop a responsive plan, and what that means is that we want to make sure we are incorporating as much both existing conditions data as well as your feedback and your concerns that you are seeing on a regular basis,” Holland told those taking part in the conversation.
More information on the process and the plan itself, as well as opportunities for feedback, questions, and dates for upcoming events and meetings will be at the project website at mapc.ma/revere-walk-bike-roll.
