With the support of a grant from The Boston Foundation, WalkBoston has been working closely with the City of Boston to re-formulate the City’s signal timing policy to make it walker friendly. In September 2004, the Boston Transportation Department issued a new timing policy for automatic, concurrent lights with maximum time showing in Walk for pedestrians. There will be some exceptions for intersections with special crossing needs, for instance where there are many elderly walkers.

The first intersections to change will be new projects; newly upgraded or repaired signals (six in the Back Bay, several in the Longwood area and in Uphams Corner). WalkBoston will also propose some locations. For the City and WalkBoston, the first priority is intersections along the Rose Kennedy Greenway where the signals are not yet well timed.