Congradulations to our June winners!  We're drawing near to the end of the challenge in late September, and participation numbers keep getting higher and higher, great job everyone! 

1-10 employees: A Better City TMA and Ibex tied for the win with 50% staff participation each

11-100 employees: ACIS Education Tours with 37% staff participation

101-1000 employees: Greater Boston Legal Services with 41% staff participation

Greetings from Green Streets!  Enjoy our June newsletter, and thanks for stopping by! 

Congratulations to our MBTA Poster Contest Winners and runners up!  

This was a difficult contest for the judges, as each entry was a great depiction of our mission at Green Streets.  In a perfect world, we'd love to hang up each entry on the MBTA trains and buses!  Without further ado, here are our winners:

Here at Green Streets, we have changed our approach to our monthly raffle prizes.  From now on, we will raffle off only one great prize to a lucky participant, as opposed to three different smaller prizes (one prize to a company in each category).  People from each of the organizations with the highest percentage of Walk/Ride Day participations will all be eligible to win one of our premier prizes from our benevolent retail partners (listed below). Individual winners will be selected by the Green Streets Initiative.

"Walking is good for you, and the earth."  Eaton Veiga, a 2nd grader submitted this quote along with his work for our MBTA Poster Art Contest.  We received many great perspectives on how public transportation and Green Street's Walk Ride Day effects the environment and communities from many of our 60 submissions. These quotes and perspectives are so vital to our work, and we really appreciate everyone's participation!

Wow!  Thank you all for participating in April’s Walk Ride Day, and spreading the word to your colleagues. Because of your generous support we had a 15% increase in participation from March to April with 1060 people logging their commute!

(Right: Lt. Governor Timothy Murray. See more pictures of the event here! Also, check back here in a couple of days, for a video clip of the event.)

Green Streets kicked off Walk/Ride Days in Boston and the greater Boston area with a festive morning event at South Station on the September 30 Walk/Ride Day. Lt. Governor Timothy Murray (right) and MBTA Acting General Manager Jonathan Davis, joined by the City of Boston's Jim Hunt and Nicole Freedman, celebrated and participatd in Walk/Ride Day themselves and thanked other green commuters for doing the same. Lt. Governor Murray and MBTA GM Davis commuted from Worcester to South Station by commuter rail, and Mr. Hunt walked, and Ms. Freedman bicycled to South Station. In their talks, each of the speakers noted the health, cost, community and environmental benefits of active transportation, and Walk/Ride Day's ability to have people give it a try. They are all regular users of sustainable, active transportation, and realize the privilege it is to be able to do so.

Among their quotes:

"This is important. We're going to do our part; you're clearly doing yours! We've got to get more people to experience this, even just for one day, because we know if they do, more days will follow… We ask you to send it out to your network - email, twitter, let your friends know - about how convenient and, ultimately, how smart it is" - Lt. Governor Timothy Murray

In addition to the speakers mentioned above, thanks go to Ted Furst of South Station's Biederman Development Corporation, Lydia Rivera of the MBTA, Lauren Jones, Justin Newton and Adam Freudberg of the Lt. Governor's office, and Hannah Clark of the City of Boston. Great appreciation also goes to our musicians Yani Batteau and the Stylists, to our videographer Tony Bennis, to MBTA photographer David Wood, and to Tufts Health Plan for refreshments, music and filming of the event.

Green Streets would like to thank the exhibitors:

• Bikes Not Bombs
• Boston Cyclists Union
• Hubway
• Livable Streets Alliance
• MassBike
• MBTA
• The Boston Harbor Alliance
• WalkBoston
• Zipcar

Residents, property owners and maintenance workers from twelve blocks in Cambridge were recognized at Cambridge City Hall during the Walk/Ride Day 5th Anniversary Reception. A great time was had by all, and the heroic jobs done to make walking in Cambridge safer during the 2010-11 winter were recognized. A few of the awardees, residents and those who work Cambridge and attended the event are pictured below.

 22 Suffolk Street

67 Pleasant Street

950 Massachusetts Avenue

Thorndike Street

51 Inman Street

The crowd

Left to right: Keith Spiro of Kendall Press, Kathy Lydon of the USPS, Sarah Fresco of Green Streets, and Cambridge Mayor David C. Maher

Green Streets is pleased to announce that we will be involved in two presentations at the first New England Bike Expo, to be held at the Somerville Armory on May 7th and 8th.  

Green Streets' presentation at 1 PM will highlight our successful Walk/Ride Day Program, and give attendees tools they need to bring Walk/Ride Days to their communties or organizations. The presentation will include nformation about applying for new funding to be in our new Walk/Ride Day Regionalization program.  Walk/Ride Day are a proven way to increase the numbers of people who choose to walk, bike or use the T at businesses, workplaces, and communities, in general.

At 3 PM the Green Streets Initiative has convened a panel of local residents and families who live car-free. They will share their stories and the benefits that a car free life has brought to them, their families and the community.

Tickets are still available to this celebration of bicycling, with music included! For more information and to buy tickets follow this link, and sign in here for a chance to win two free tickets to the festival!