October 22 Webinar on Nonmotorized Transportation

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Learn more about how federal transportation funding has been helping pedestrians on 10/22 from 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM (PT).

Representatives from each of the four Nonmotorized Transportation Pilot Program pilot communities will discuss the strategies they used to promote bicycle and pedestrian projects and the lessons learned.  The Nonmotorized Transportation Pilot Program was established in SAFEATEA-LU Section 1807 and  provided over $25 million each to four communities (Columbia, MO; Marin County, CA; Minneapolis Area, MN; Sheboygan County, WI) to demonstrate how walking and bicycling infrastructure and programs can increase rates of walking and bicycling.   

Register here.

This Week on Foot

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Photo courtesy of Hometown Life

This week Safe Kids encourages pedestrian safety during ‘Walktober’ and schools across the country participated in International Walk to School Day. As just a sampling, in Katonah students walk, bike to school and a Catonsville school holds Walk to School Day. But even with these efforts, Parents worry about children walking to school, seek crossing guards. Why can't we Make it safe for our kids to walk or bike to school?

They're trying to do that in Glendale, where Projects aim to improve pedestrian, traffic safety in Glendale, and New traffic light aims to improve pedestrian safety in College Park, while Gulch-to-SoBro pedestrian bridge takes big step. Signs make walking Chapel Hill easier and 12 Westchester towns, villages praised for traffic safety--but elsewhere DelDOT Report Shows Pedestrian Safety Problems and Pedestrian crosswalk vandals on the rise. Kind of makes you ask hard questions. Like How safe is Denver for pedestrians?
Safer than Detroit, apparently. This week Liberty Mutual releases pedestrian safety study showing Seattle top for pedestrian safety as Detroit comes in last. And New York has its challenges, too. Surviving a Walk in NYC Should Not Depend on Luck. Maybe they should learn What Old Transit Maps Can Teach Us About a City's Future, or take a look at our Capitol, where Progress on Parking Reform Could Make DC More Walkable and Affordable.

Here in San Diego, there are other ideas about how to achieve those goals. We're told we should 
Stop Talking About Density. Start Talking About Place. While we're at it, we should be Remembering the Human Scale in Walkable City Neighborhoods, although that leads us to wonder: Livable Streets or Tall Buildings? Cities Can Have Both.

But can it also have bikes? Chicago Trib Bikelash Writer is Confused About the Real Threat to Pedestrian Safety. Maybe we should be Putting 'Walkable City' to the test. 

It's International Walk to School Day!

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Happy International Walk to School Day!

This year there are over 600 schools participating in California alone, encouraging students to walk and bike with fun incentives like prizes and music. Walk to School Day is a great way to get your school community excited about active transportation, increase physical activity for both parents and kids, and even address some of the traffic craziness that drop-off/pick-up entails. There are lots of good resources available here to help you plan an event.

If you didn't walk this morning (technically we biked, which is ok too), it's not too late to walk on the way home. Happy walking!

 

Cool Ped Stuff #30

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The most fun you can having waiting for a light to change, and it might even discourage pedestrians from crossing against the light. (Or we could time signals so pedestrians don't have to wait so long, but that's another post).

A Mixed Bag for PB Pedestrians

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Last weekend our neighborhood got a little more pedestrian-friendly, courtesy of this awesome new crosswalk art in front of the local middle school. Not only does the street painting add some loveliness to a distinctly boring stretch of roadway, it will hopefully improve visibility and crossing safety for students who use this route to walk to and from school (or at least to and from their parents' waiting cars). Kudos to beautifulPB for their work on this project.

But just when it looked like we might actually be starting to take active transportation seriously in Pacific Beach, this happens:

Those signs (they also block the bike lane on a nearby street) are in place as part of a festival at a local park on the beach. While no doubt there are locals who would be interested in walking or biking to the festival, they won't be doing it here, particularly not if they need to push a stroller or use a wheelchair.

The best part? In what surely wasn't intended to be an ironic move, the signs are there to inform drivers that they can't stop and block vehicle traffic. Yep, blocking the sidewalk and bike lanes is totally fine, but it's so critical that no one slows down cars (heavens!) that there has to be a sign every ten feet telling drivers to keep moving.