Site of Walk Friendly Communities

A recent story by NPR highlighted changes in design, planning and implementation of pedestrian facilities and the direct relevant benefits for an aging but active population of Baby Boomers.   No suprise that safety concerns are often listed as one reason these aging Boomers don’t walk more.  Statistics from a 2008 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) amplify the magnitude of the problem:

• 4,378 pedestrians, and 716 pedalcyclists were killed in traffic crashes
• 69,000 pedestrians and 52,000 pedalcyclists were injured in traffic crashes
• On average, a pedestrian is killed almost every 2 hours and injured every 8 minutes
• 12 percent of all pedalcyclists killed were between 5 and 15 years old.

A 2009 study noted that16% of pedestrian traffic fatalities were people aged 65 and older.   Also notable from the Insurance Institutes for Highway Safety study is where pedestrian fatalities occur.  The top four states for pedestrian fatalities are California, Florida, Texas, and New York. These four states make up 41 percent of pedestrian fatalities nationwide while only accounting for 5 percent of the total traffic fatalities across the country.

New movements to improve pedestrian safety as well as address childhood obesity have driven the development of high quality pedestrian environments. These communities have sought to create welcoming neighborhoods that encourage walking for all ages. From policy makers adopting complete streets ordinances to community volunteers that tend and maintain neighborhood traffic calming devices to planners and engineers that are creating flexible design standards to make viable and inviting pedestrian connections, possible success can be measured in reductions in pedestrian accidents. With substantial competition for scarce resources to fund pedestrian facilities it is important to use quantifiable datat and qualitative information to assess benefits.  Livability and walkability indices take into account a variety of criteria for comparing and “scoring” the pedestrian environment. 

A new metric, walk friendly,  seeks to acknowledge and take into account criteria including the quality and “friendliness” toward pedestrians.  Eight critiera assessed in this new metric include:

• Community Profile
• Status of walking,
• Planning,
• Education and Encouragement,
• Engineering,
• Enforcement and
• Additonal Questions. 

The first assessment of friendly walking communities put Seattle, WA in the Platinum level.  This walker has to agree!

With the recent record high gas prices, there’s lots of popular discussion about what makes people shift out of their cars. Is it building more transit, bike lanes, and sidewalks? Is it higher taxes for roads, cars and gas? What motivates you to take one mode of transportation over another?

The City of Edmonton recently approved a new Transportation Master Plan, The Way We Move. Developed concurrently with The Way We Grow, the City’s Municipal Development Plan, The Way We Move focuses on building complete communities around major transit infrastructure to encourage mode shift and more compact urban environment. Part of the increased focus on mode shift and transit oriented development was as a response to census findings that Edmonton has one of the highest car dependence rates in Canada and citizens were spending more and more time and money to travel in their cars.

Car manufacturers are some of the top spenders in marketing overall, with billions of dollars spent each year on a new vehicle lineup. Marketing gurus have long realized that children are an important segment for all kinds of consumer products, including cars. Sharon Beder’s work on Marketing to Children found that auto manufacturers have had a number of outreach activities for children since the 1990′s: Nissan sponsored a traveling geography exhibit, Chrysler distributed cardboard pop-up promotional books, and many car dealerships have installed play areas for children.

Part of the implementation strategy of The Way We Move recognizes that mode shift involves changing long held patterns of behavior and not just simply building more infrastructure. Several outreach projects were planned with the goal of promoting transit and active modes as a viable alternative to the single occupancy vehicle; one of these was The Way We Move LEGO exhibit. City staff volunteered their time to build the LEGO city, complete with a downtown, mature neighborhoods and a functioning LRT system. The display was set up over the holiday season at the TELUS World of Science and citizens were invited to submit their own LEGO entries. It was a great chance to engage the imagination of children, parents, and teachers as to how transit and active modes can be further integrated into their communities.

Check out the Transforming Edmonton blog for more on how the City of Edmonton is making it easier to choose sustainable transportation options.

Complete Streets image

From the foilks at National Complete Streets Coalition – In Washington State HB 1071, which would establish but not fund a grant program for communities adopting Complete Streets ordinances, has passed out of both the House and Senate and now awaits signature from Governor Christine Gregoire.  This is great news and if grant funding appears it would provide a source for local agencies to implement missing links and improvements for peds, bikes and transit modes.

Portland’s Bike Boulevards Become Neighborhood Greenways from Streetfilms on Vimeo.

However, this switch to a more wholistic approach to the street, hasn’t been met with a groundswell of support. Mainly the controversy has surrounded the “greenway” naming convention, specifically as it relates to the State bill that has been proposed to allow city’s to change the speed of these neighborhood streets from 25 mph to 20 mph (without approval from the Department of Transportation). It will be interesting to see how citizens and politicians react as more “boulevards” are converted into “greenways.”

Read more at Neighborhood Notes.

What other clever ways would you get people, especially kids, to take the stairs for more oxygen and exercise?

Downtown Red Deer Alberta

The opportunity to travel to Red Deer, Alberta in October should have you wanting to submit your abstracts for the Alberta Professional Planners Institute Conference (APPI) conference October 16-18, 2011. 

This conference appeals to a new generation of city builders, urban and regional planners and community revitalization stakeholders. The APPI Conference Organizing Committee is looking for innovative presentations that are reflective of the following suggested themes:

• Connecting our Communities
• Placemaking
• Complete Streets
• Creative places
• Disconnect – Addressing the challenges of mobility and accessibility
• Barrier‐free design
• Planning for the aging population
• Safer communities
• Reconnecting our communities
• Public health and planning
• Community gardens/Urban Farms
• Active transportation
•  Mixed‐use development/Transit Oriented Development

SUBMISSIONS CRITERIA

Audience will be diverse and so should presenters. They encourage student and professional planners including CIP members and their professional affiliates, public health professionals, social planners, professional engineers and architects.

Your presentation must include:

Title, Name of presenter(s), job title, academic background, institution or corporate affiliation and contact information (telephone number and email address).

An abstract of your presentation of no more than 250 words. The proposed presentation format. Equipment requirements.

PRESENTER RESPONSIBILITIES

Deadline for submissions will be on Wednesday, May 11th, 2011 at 5 PM Mountain Time. No submissions will be accepted after that time. Presentations must be saved in PDF format ONLY and sent to andre.darmanin@edmonton.ca. Have the subject of your email state 2011 APPI Conference Presentation Submission.

Presenters must indicate intent and register for the conference. Presenters will be responsible for all expenses including travel, accommodations, conference registration, non‐sponsored meals and miscellaneous charges.

Notification by Conference Committee: June 24th, 2011

- Thanks to Andre Darmanin for the post info

Almost Live's Capable Woman Nancy Guppy

A scant 11 years have passed since Capable Woman was on hand to solve Seattle‘s transportation woes.  Launched on Seattle’s iconic Almost Live, Capable Woman was there to work behind the scenes to solve problems that (less capable) men struggled with.  Notably Capable Woman was on hand to fix potholes and solve light rail alignments challenges for the likes of Nick Licata and then Mayor Paul Schell. 

Today in Seattle with vulnerable structures risking life and limb, elected as well as every day Joe and Jane’s wrangle with not only where infrastructure ought to go, but if it should be built and what it might look like. Modes like pedestrians, cars, trains, buses, freight and bikes are in a daily fracas over who get’s what and who can go where.  All the “Complete Streets” legislation in the world can’t help us… THIS IS JOB FOR CAPABLE WOMAN.

APRIL FOOLS! From Green Growth Cascadia. Photo: ste5ens.wordpress.com

Newly opened McGraw Square

McGraw Square Before Hub Construction (SDOT)

I was in Seattle last weekend and happened past the recently reopened McGraw square. After working across the street for over a year, and passing through McGraw Square nearly everyday, I can attest to the major improvement in pedestrian connectivity this provides. The previous square functioned as a slightly oversize pedestrian refuge in a sea of vehicles, rather than a public space as the new McGraw Square undoubtedly will. This initial phase is part of a larger hub strategy. Design features include a second streetcar platform (boarding from both sides), bicycle parking for up to 10 bikes, landscaped rain garden, energy efficient (LED) light tiles, trees to replace those removed during construction and oversized curb ramp with utility connection to facilitate mobile food vending and plaza programming. This first phase of the transportation hub strategy is a definite improvement and hopefully will build momentum for the remaining phases of the Westlake transportation hub strategy.

Redesigned McGraw Square (SDOT)

Seattle Streetcar at McGraw Square

San Diego Trolley

I have no problem admitting it, I like to include transit in my vacations. I also consider myself a die-hard husky fan so when they were anounced as playing in the Holiday on Dec. 30th I immeidately had a plan. Stay in the downtown or gaslamp districts, enjoy the local bars and restaurants and take the San Diego trolley to the game (never mind the 8+ hour drive to San Diego from San Francisco. That deserves a post on California High Speed Rail all its own).

The trip to the game was a breeze. A ticket vendor was happy to sell us a holiday bowl comparative round trip ticket. After a few stops the train started to fill with Husky fans, although with heavy jackets instead of the purple sea they usually are (the low temp was in the mid 30′s). Before long the train was packed in predominantly husky fans.

San Diego Trolley Filled with Huskies

Post Game Trolley Line (1+ hour)

The game was outstanding! The Husky defense looked like those of my younger years: dominating and relentless. The post game trolley ride was a different story. Being a die-hard fan I stayed ’til the final whistle and through the trophy and MVP presentations before beginning to file out of Qualcomm. Noticing that most the Nebraska had left with 5+ minutes remaining in the game I was pretty confident that the line to leave wouldn’t be too terrible. I was poorly mistaken. The line to get onto the trolley was over an hour. The Qualcomm station is the end of the red-line and trolleys were lined up ready to take passengers back towards Downtown San Diego. They just weren’t leaving very often and it was clear that more trolleys weren’t arriving fast enough to get everyone out of there in a reasonable amount of time. Most fans in line were of the purple nature so a little wait wasn’t going to damper any of our spirits, but frankly it was pretty disappointing. San Diego was outstanding. Couldn’t have asked for a better bowl game experience and while I wouldn’t let my long wait in the cold prevent me from coming back I would recommend planning accordingly with necessary provisions in the parking lot and a good understanding of the late night service (our ride home involved a transfer to a different line and de-boarding at a different station than the one we boarded on).