Most Egregious Impediments to/Gaps in Walking around Boston?

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Tombstoner

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Can't find better wording for the title of this thread, but I wanted to hear what others think are relatively annoying-yet-easily-addressed structural gaps that get in the way of care-free walking around Boston. For instance:

1) Getting from the Fens to Commonwealth Ave./the Esplanade along Charlesgate (100 yard gap that is ugly, hazardous and unnecessary)
2) Crazy gap that doesn't let you get off the Longfellow Bridge on the Cambridge side onto the riverfront path (a staircase down from a mooring puts you on this grassy plot encircled by guardrailing--no way to get to the walking path with risking your life).

There are others I can think of, but these stand out as relatively easy fixes that one would think the parks system or Emerald Necklace Conservancy would have figured out. If it weren't for these gaps, you could pretty easily avoid traffic for miles and miles.
 
#1 can be solved by demolishing Charlesgate, it really deadens the streetscape between Kenmore and Back Bay
 
1) Lack of connection between the BU Bridge and the Esplanade bike path.

2) Walking from the Broadway Bridge into the South End is very much not fun.

3) Lack of connection over the Mystic River from Assembly Square in Somerville to the Gateway area of Everett. Expensive to fix (requires major modification to the Amelia Earhart dam, or building a new pedestrian bridge, or hanging a pedestrian bridge off the existing railroad bridge)
 
1. the paradigm of pedestrians needing to push a button to gain access to most intersections

2. Stuart Street between Dartmouth and Huntington

3. where route 9 severs the bike/pedestrian way of the emerald necklace parks (this may be brookline technically)

4. the entire Seaport



my pipe dream answer is that the tobin, or the harbor tunnels should have some type of bike/pedestrian capability.
 
1) In front of Massachusetts' State House, across the street - ridiculously narrow sidewalk has to deal with business people, tourists, and those using MBTA buses. Plus, the stairs up from the Common are pretty steep. Try doing that with a cow!

2) The disappearing sidewalk in front of Neiman Marcus going up St James Street in the Back Bay. Doesn't stop people from walking it, however; they just walk in the street to go from corner of Dartmouth up toward Marriott Hotel. (See Pierce, above, he/she beat me to it.)
 
Impossible to cross over to East Boston without taking the T or a car.
 
Adding to what hasn't been said yet:

- Kenmore to Audobon Circle
- Anywhere in South Allston to anywhere in North Allston (eastbound Cambridge Street after Linden Street; the footbridge to Franklin Street, the Everett street bridge, etc)
- Allston to Cambridgeport over the rail yards
- Beacon Hill to North End (New Chardon, New Sudbury streets)
- Government Center!
 
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What's the problem between Kenmore and Audubon Circle? I don't recall any missing sidewalks there. There's even a stairway up to Beacon from Blandford St.
 
It's true there's nothing lacking in terms of walking infrastructure, but I somewhat broadened the question in my head to include "stretches which, when I walk them, make me wish I were driving." Someone earlier mentioned the Broadway Bridge into the South End, and I think that's similar - in fact, most of what's been mentioned (with some exceptions) are technically connected, but not in a walkers' paradise way).
 
OK, but I was referring not to the Broadway Bridge as such, but rather the awful passage under I-93 into the South End at the bridge's west end.
 
Lack of access from the western part of BU (Student Village, etc) to the Charles River directly behind. The Mass Pike, Storrow Drive, and the Boston & Albany railroad line all block the way. Very hard to fix since the Pike is elevated but the other two obstacles are at ground level.
 
Sullivan Square Station to Somerville. Actually, to Charlestown, too.....

Silver Line Way to Dry Dock Ave/Design Center (you could walk faster than taking the bus, but they have 10 foot fences surrounding some national guard vehicle storage, pfft).

The entire Cambridge St/Longfellow Bridge/Storrow Drive/Charles MGH Station area. Ideally, the Storrow and most of it's ramps should be underground. Well, that goes for the entire Storrow, but this section especially. Along with the Charlesgate area.

The main Esplanade walkway between Exeter and Fairfield Streets. It's just way too narrow, at least for 4th of July and New Years anyways, when people are idiots and try to sit on the edge, it just doesn't work with nothing but a little narrow sidewalk. I want to boot them in the face and knock them into the water.

The South End to the Fort Point Channel. They're so close, this could be really nice once FP is developed and South Station has a new eastern face and everything. I don't know what to suggest for improvements.

Charlestown to ANYWHERE. And vice-versa.

Anything where you have to cross the Atlantic Ave Highway.

North Station to Northpoint. I'd like to see a ped bridge tacked along the west side of the Charles River Bridge (commuter rail bridge). There's already a walkway all the way out to where the bridge rises. Just need to put a walkway on that and on the other side. It could link up with the ped bridge that's going to cross over the tracks and into Charlestown, too.

North Station to Lovejoy Wharf and the Charles River Dam (which has a walkway over the Charles, I think).
 
There isn't a walking gap between North Station and Lovejoy Wharf -- you walk through the tiny Portal Park in between. From Lovejoy Walk you can indeed walk over the Charles River Dam to Paul Revere Park in Charlestown (and from there, to City Square or the Navy Yard).
 
Ron Newman said:
There isn't a walking gap between North Station and Lovejoy Wharf -- you walk through the tiny Portal Park in between. From Lovejoy Walk you can indeed walk over the Charles River Dam to Paul Revere Park in Charlestown (and from there, to City Square or the Navy Yard).
Click to expand...

I meant more so from the commuter platforms. I suppose there's no walk-around when dealing with the subway station, but with the platforms you have to walk all way to the doors at the front corner, out to the street, through the park, then down that little street.

You should be able to walk right out some doors into that employee parking area or whatever it is, go right under 93, and bam, you're there.
 
Hard to see a good way to fix that, since you'd have to walk across the rest of the commuter rail tracks from any of the platforms (even the rightmost one).

When you exit the station to the east you actually can turn left and walk through the parking area and under I-93 to Lovejoy Wharf and the Dam. But it's a long roundabout walk.
 
Charlestown to Chelsea -- was once possible before the old low-level drawbridge was replaced by the Tobin. They should have kept the drawbridge after the Tobin opened.
 
^ Huh? Wouldn't that be like keeping the artery up after the Big Dig?


I may have mentioned this somewhere else, but I think a new Charles River pedestrian/bike bridge from Kendall to Back Bay (Wadworth to Clarendon) would be an extremely useful and well-travelled connection.
 
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