This Year's Pedestrian-Friendly Confereces

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Courtesy of the ever-helpful John Z. Wetmore, a list of conferences that may interest you this year: 

January

7-10  International Disaster Conference / National Evacuation Conference;  New Orleans, LA
12-16  Transportation Research Board (TRB);  Washington, DC
16-17  Transforming Transportation (EMBARQ);  Washington, DC
17-18  Oklahoma Bike Summit;  Tulsa, OK
20-24  World Of Concrete;  Las Vegas, NV
22-24  Conference of Mayors;  Washington, DC
22-25  National Sheriffs Association Winter Conference; Washington, DC
24  Iowa Bicycle Summit; Des Moines, IA
27-28  ASTM F13 Pedestrian/Walkway Safety and Footwear; Houston, TX
28-30  Nat'l Conf on Science, Policy and the Environment: Building Climate Solutions; Washington, DC

February

4-7  Winter Road Congress;  Andorra
6-7  Media That Matters; Washington, DC
8  New Jersey Bike & Walk Summit; New Brunswick, NJ
9-11  National Conference of Regions; Washington, DC
10-11  Good Jobs, Green Jobs;  Washington, DC
10-11  Colorado Bike Summit; Denver, CO
11  Maryland Bike Symposium; Annapolis, MD
12-13  International Winter Cycling Conference;  Winnipeg, Canada
13-15  New Partners For Smart Growth;  Denver, CO
16-19  Conference on Play; Clemson, SC
16-24  Safer Roads by Design: Across Six Continents;  Orlando, FL
21-25  ATSSA - American Traffic Safety Services Assn. Convention and Traffic Expo; San Antonio, TX
22  Alumni Day; Princeton, NJ
23-27  Partners for Public Lands; Albuquerque, NM

March

1-5  NACO - National Association of Counties Legislative Conference; Washington, DC
3-4  Transportation/ Land Use Planning and Air Quality (TLUPAQ) Conference; Charlotte, NC
3-4  Smart and Sustainable Campuses; Baltimore, MD
3-5  National Bike Summit;  Washington, DC
8-12  Congressional City Conference; Washington, DC
9-11  American Public Transportation Assn. Legislative Conference (APTA); Washington, DC
9-12  Active Living Research;  San Diego, CA
9-12  Institute Of Transportation Engineers (ITE);  Miami, FL
11-15  Aging in America;  San Diego, CA
14-16  North American Handmade Bicycle Show;  Charlotte, NC
19-21  Design-Build in Transportation;  San Jose, CA
19-22  Urban Affairs Association;  San Antonio, TX
21  Delaware Walk & Bike Summit; Newark, DE
25-26  National Recreation and Parks Association Legislative Forum;  Washington, DC
26-28  Texas Trails and Active Transportation Conference; Fort Worth, TX
27-29  MT Bike Walk Summit; Billings, MT
30-4/5  Sustainable Trails Conference; Stonewall, WV

Parklets: Neighborhood Amenity or Waste of Parking Spaces?

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LA's Spring Street parklets feature a variety of seating options, like these swing seats, as well as exercise bikes, tables, landscaping, and even a foosball table.

As more and more cities begin to question the value of flooding their urban areas with surface parking, new ideas for street space have begun to catch on. Parklets, made popular through events like Parking Day, transform on-street parking spaces into small public parks and represent a relatively cheap and easy way to increase park space in otherwise built-out neighborhoods.

San Francisco and New York have conducted limited evaluations of their parklets, and have found that they seem to increase pedestrian volumes while have a neutral to positive impact on local businesses. An Assessment of the Spring Street Parklets, a collaborative effort of the UCLA Complete Streets Initiative and Parklet Studies, includes a more detailed evaluation of two of Downtown Los Angeles' four new parklets. Using a combination of bicycle and pedestrian counts, activity mapping, and interviews with users and businesses owners, the report compares conditions in parklet neighborhoods before and after installation.

Volunteers mapped the location of parklet users at different times of day as part of the evaluation process.

The assessment results show increases in both bicycling and walking in the vicinity of the parklets after installation, though for both modes men are over-represented. In part this could be due to the continued perception of safety concerns for female walkers and bikers. At the same time, there was no noticeable change in parking occupancy in the parklet areas, suggesting that at least one common concern (the possibility of a parking shortage created by the removal of spaces for parklets) may not be as likely as many believe. Similarly, concerns about pet waste and panhandling in parklets were not supported by on-the-ground observations at the sites; instead, smoking was by far the most common "nuisance behavior" in the parklets.

This Year, Resolve to Give Up Distracted Driving

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Photo courtesy of ADS Logistics

With New Year's behind us, it's time for my annual plea for you to put giving up distracted driving at the top of your resolution list. Although we tend to think of distracted driving as involving texting or talking on the phone, any number of other behaviors can distract a driver from their main task (i.e. driving): eating, adjusting a radio, reading maps, even talking to other passengers. I've been working hard on eliminating the cell phone use from my drive over the past three years, but I admit that there are still other behaviors on this list I should be paying more attention to.

One of the key issues is that while most people seem to agree that distracted driving is a problem, their beliefs don't translate into behavior changes. According to one report by the AAA Foundation, "A percentage nearly identical (67.3%) to the proportion of drivers who disapprove of hand-held cell phone use admits to talking on the phone (of any kind) while  driving in the past 30 days ore than a third of licensed drivers (34.7%) admit to reading messages in the past 30 days (7.7% fairly often or regularly), and a quarter (25.8%) typed or sent them (5.5% fairly often or regularly)."

If you're reading this blog, I probably don't need to convince you that distracted driving is a big problem, but just in case, I've gathered some tidbits about the issue that should totally convince you (and maybe even your friends and family) to put down the phone...and hot dog, and hairbrush...

For pedestrian and bicyclist advocates

• While distracted driving deaths have fallen in recent years for motorists, pedestrian and bicyclist deaths from distracted driving have increased.
• In 2011, 495 non-occupants were killed in distraction-affected crashes. 

For young drivers

• 11% of all drivers under the age of 20 involved in fatal crashes were reported as distracted at the time of the crash. This age group has the largest proportion of drivers who were distracted.
• 55% of the people killed during teen (15 to 19) distraction-affected crashes were other teens 15 to 19 years old.

For people who think headsets are safe

• Headset cell phone use is not substantially safer than hand-held use
• Seven in ten (69.6%) licensed drivers, when asked to compare the safety effects of holding a
  phone versus talking on a hands-free device, said the hands-free option was somewhat or 
  much safer
• There are four types of distractions: Visual – looking at something other than the road; Auditory – hearing something not related to driving; Manual – manipulating something other than the wheel; Cognitive – thinking about something other than driving. Hands-free voice texting while driving involves all four of these types of distractions, albeit to different extents

For people who think it won't happen to them

• In 2011, 3,331 people were killed in crashes involving distracted drivers and an estimated additional 387,000 were injured in motor vehicle crashes involving distracted drivers
• 10% of fatal crashes in 2011 were reported as distraction-affected crashes
• 17% of injury crashes in 2011 were reported as distraction-affected crashes

Fire up your feet

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Photo courtesy of Fire Up Your Feet

Parents and teachers looking for ways to promote physical activity at their school can check out this program from the Safe Routes to School Partnership, Fire Up Your Feet. The program website offers a variety of resources, including videos, printable handouts, webinars, and activity ideas to encourage students (and their families) to walk and bike more. There's also a fundraising component to the site that provides online tools to help schools set up walkathons and fun runs to raise money--a much healthier choice than the cookie sales I remember from my childhood.

This Week on Foot

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Courtesy of NY Times

This week there's been much buzz about a recent story in the NY Times wondering Is It O.K. to Kill Cyclists? --which of course also gets people wondering about the same issue for pedestrians. When Pedestrians injured by cars: whose fault is it? The NYPD seems to think a share of the blame lies with those pesky pedestrians who refuse to take appropriate precautions.Not only should pedestrians wear reflective clothing, NYPD tells them to carry flashlights at night. Never mind that NYC Motorists Killed Three Pedestrians on City Sidewalks Today. Obviously flashlights would have solved that problem. Elsewhere in the country authorities aren't quite so forgiving of vehicles who harm pedestrians, like in Pennsylvania where a Bus driver who ran red light, hit pedestrian can't get jobless benefits, Pa. court says.

Meanwhile other regions are working hard on improving pedestrian safety SANBAG Wins Award for Transit Access Plan for Bicyclists and Pedestrians and Spring Hill hopes to land state grant for pedestrian paths. Unfortunately, as is often the case, it's only After teen's death, Berliners want safer pedestrian crossing

The week has also been full of stories that should be obvious by now. Bike, pedestrian plans should be integrated, official says, and Planning, design plays role in community walkability. And did you know that As people move closer, less need for roads and transit?

Finally this week, here in San Diego Mayoral Candidates Talk About Livable Streets, while elsewhere we contemplate Sesame Street and Children’s Perception of City Life and Suburbia and the American Dream. Hopefully the dream has sidewalks.