Hey, there! Log in / Register

Disabled artist gets down on knees and crawls across Mattapan Square to highlight the difficulties the disabled face at many Boston intersections

By adamg on Fri, 08/18/2023 - 8:49am

The Dorchester Reporter profiles Ellice Patterson, an artist in residence at the Boston Transportation Department whose crawl was "aimed at opening eyes about the challenges within the ongoing Mattapan Square Transportation Action Plan." It took her 45 minutes to almost circumnavigate the complex intersection.

Neighborhoods: 
Mattapan
Topics: 
Driving
Free tagging: 
Mattapan Square
Blue Hill Avenue
Cummins Highway
pedestrians


Ad:


Like the job UHub is doing? Consider a contribution. Thanks!

Comments

By Lee on Fri, 08/18/2023 - 9:03am.

Just imagining this had a huge impact on me.

She’s doing us all good. Anyone can become permanently or temporarily disabled mobility-wise at any time in our lives. And we need our disabled people to be able to get around and do good things like artist, Ellice Patterson, does.

Her bruised knees!

up
Voting closed 0

By Lee on Fri, 08/18/2023 - 11:26am.

… would crawl across a Boston street and risk becoming roadkill.

up
Voting closed 0

By Handmaid99 on Fri, 08/18/2023 - 11:44am.

I'm glad she did this, I hope it attracts the attention that its due. It reminded me immediately of this. https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/capitol-crawl-for-ADA/

up
Voting closed 2

By Lee on Fri, 08/18/2023 - 12:03pm.

Folks are still crawling for fair treatment and equal representation.

The Italians say, “Qui va piano, va lontano*” but this snail’s pace is ridiculous.

*Slow and steady wins the course

up
Voting closed 0

By Kaz on Fri, 08/18/2023 - 12:53pm.

This is what that shithole of an "intersection" looks like:
https://goo.gl/maps/hAzcTGH1gEZjTjZ76

up
Voting closed 0

By Camberville on Fri, 08/18/2023 - 1:31pm.

So it looks like. if you're on the southwest corner of that intersection, and want to go to the T stop across the street, you've gotta cross 6 streets. I wonder why there's no crosswalk there.

up
Voting closed 0

By Lee on Fri, 08/18/2023 - 1:57pm.

… everywhere in Boston streets. Something some drivers and cyclists like to forget.
Crosswalks, even those with traffic lights, are no guarantee of safety. In fact they are often in the most dangerous part of the street for crossing as more pedestrians are injured or killed while in a crosswalk than in any other part of the street.
Any street savvy dog, if there are any free range dogs still operating, can tell you jay walking in the middle of a block is safest place to cross as opposed to at intersections.

I don’t know if this applies to crawling across the street though.

up
Voting closed 1

By Camberville on Sat, 08/19/2023 - 2:03am.

I'm not trying to ban pedestrians from crossing there, I'm lamenting the fact that the safest, marked way across the intersection is designed to force such a circuitous route

up
Voting closed 1

By BostonDog on Fri, 08/18/2023 - 4:19pm.

Hold my beer

This area has no shortage of intersections in which the designers could not comprehend the concept of a person attempt to cross on foot (or knee).

up
Voting closed 2

By mg on Fri, 08/18/2023 - 3:24pm.

Definitely worth reading the article.

She couldn’t make a full circle because there is no crosswalk at the southern end of Blue Hill Avenue.

“If there’s one thing I hope to see at the end it would be the ability to actually make a complete circle here safely,” said the 29-year-old Patterson during an interview in Mattapan Square. “It seems small, but it does have a big impact because when I got to the far side (of River Street) I couldn’t just cross four lanes of Blue Hill Avenue. I had to come back and cross countless lanes and that takes a long time and has a big impact on my ability to get to whatever I have to do on this side of the street.”

up
Voting closed 0