Carmageddon is Nigh

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Image courtesy of Good, with a little tweaking by me.

We'll know in a few days if it's truly the disaster the media is proclaiming it will be, or the disaster that never was, but either way this weekend's shutdown of the 405 is a great excuse to ditch your car and check out your neighborhood on foot. If you live in the Valley near me, you can join in Saturday's Carmageddon Walk to Mulholland Bridge, or take an hour to do a walk audit of your neighborhood and then find out what you can do to fix the problems you discover. Enjoy!

Cool Ped Stuff #15: TV Series

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Perils for Pedestrians is a monthly television series promoting awareness of issues affecting the safety of people who walk and bicycle. It appears on public access cable stations in many cities across the United States and is also webcast. Check out the two latest episodes, or view them all online.

Episode 171:
--Meet the public health director for Broome County, NY.
--Learn about New York State DOT's role in greenways.
--Learn about the City of Binghamton's role in greenways.
--Partnerships are key to the greenway system.
--Talk with a blind pedestrian about traffic.

Episode 172:
--Dobbs Ferry, New York, is losing pedestrian access to development.
--A lawyer explains Sovereign Immunity, Tort, Duty, Notice, and their relation to sidewalk defects.
--An elderly woman in Oswego, New York, makes an inventory of sidewalk defects.
--A pedestrian in New York City is concerned about bicyclists that don't follow the rules.
--A look at sexual harassment of pedestrians in New York City.

Upcoming ITE Webinars

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CSS: Case Study Successes in Designing Walkable Urban Thoroughfares
Wednesday, July 13, 2011, 12:00 p.m.-1:30 p.m. Eastern

Credits: 1.5 PDH/Approved AICP Certification Maintenance (CM) credits for this activity

Instructor:  James M. Daisa, P.E., Associate Principal, Ove Arup & Partners, San Francisco, CA, USA; Brian Bochner, P.E., PTOE, Senior Research Engineer, Texas Transportation Institute, College Station, TX, USA and Beverly Storey, Associate Research Scientist, Texas Transportation Institute, College Station, TX, USA
 
This Web briefing provides background and examples of collaborative planning, community and thoroughfare design, design issue resolution, innovative financing,  value capture through redevelopment and public/private partnerships. It will provide two examples of the use of the Context Sensitive Solutions (CSS) approach to develop a vision, objectives and design for an urban thoroughfare in areas targeted for redevelopment.

Site Fee: $50 non-refundable fee. Register online here.

CSS: Designing Safety and Security Into Walkable Urban Thoroughfares
Wednesday, July 27, 2011, 12:00 p.m.-1:30 p.m. Eastern

Credits: 1.5 PDH/Approved AICP Certification Maintenance (CM) credits for this activity
Instructor: James M. Daisa, P.E., Associate Principal, Ove Arup & Partners, San Francisco, CA, USA; Brian Bochner, P.E., PTOE, Senior Research Engineer, Texas Transportation Institute, College Station, TX, USA; and Beverly Storey, Associate Research Scientist, Texas Transportation Institute, College Station, TX, USA
 
This Web briefing presents a wide range of design approaches and features that help designers incorporate transportation safety into the design of walkable urban thoroughfares. This includes both roadway and urban design. The briefing will cover primary causes of safety issues and the basic approaches to increasing safety, design features that can increase safety in a multimodal, walkable urban environment and safety benefits and personal security aspects.

Site Fee: $50 non-refundable fee. Register online here.

Action Alert from SRTS

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A call to action from our friends at the Safe Routes to School National Partnership:

IMPORTANT – Key lawmakers acting to end dedicated funding for bicycling and walking!
          
Key Congressional leaders are attacking Safe Routes to School, Transportation Enhancements and Recreational trails and are taking steps to cut off dedicated federal funding for bicycling and walking.  We need every single person who simply wants safe options to walk or bicycle to contact their Senators and Representative today!          

House Transportation Chairman John Mica (R-FL) announced today that his transportation bill will eliminate dedicated funding for bicycling and walking, including Transportation Enhancements, Safe Routes to School and the Recreational Trails Program, and discourage states from choosing to spend their dollars on these activities that are “not in the federal interest.”  Chairman Mica’s statement that these programs remain “eligible” for funding is worthless; without dedicated funding for these three programs, they are effectively eliminated.
          
Things on the Senate side are not much better. Senator James Inhofe (R-OK), the lead Republican negotiator on the transportation bill, declared that one of his TOP THREE priorities for the transportation bill is to eliminate ‘frivolous spending for bike trails.’  This is in direct conflict with Senator Barbara Boxer’s (D-CA) commitment to maintain dedicated funding for biking and walking.  However, the Senate is working towards a bi-partisan solution, and Senator Inhofe’s comments mean funding for bicycle and pedestrian programs is at risk of total elimination. 
          
Help protect Transportation Enhancements, Safe Routes to School and Recreational Trails. Contact your Members of Congress  , and tell them to reach out to Senators Inhofe, Boxer, and Congressman Mica to urge them to continue dedicated funding for these important bicycling and walking programs. 
          
Need some good facts to bolster your argument?  Read on:
          

Cool Ped Stuff #16: People Powered Photo Contest

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For all you pedestrisn photographers out there, a fun contest from tge Alliance For Biking and Walking:
The People Powered Movement Photo Contest addresses a critical need for bicycle and pedestrian advocacy organizations. Bicycle and pedestrian advocates need high-quality images of biking and walking to make their campaigns and communications both professional and engaging. Our nationwide contest builds our online Photo Library, which provides hundreds of images for Alliance members to download and use at no cost. Support grassroots advocacy by submitting your best biking and walking photos for use in the Alliance’s photo library. Enter the 2011 People Powered Movement Photo Contest!

You could win:

• An all-expense-paid trip to Tuscany from VBT Bicycling and Walking Vacations
• A new bicycle from PUBLIC Bikes
• Bags from Ortlieb
• Great products from Planet Bike
• Helmets from Bern
• Bikes Are Better products and gear from Fyxation
• PLUS, winning photos will be published in Momentum magazine

The contest runs through October 31, 2011.

• Online photo submissions will be accepted from August 1 to September 30.
• Public voting will open October 1 and close October 31.
• Winners will be announced in early 2012.