This Week on Foot

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Image courtesy of www.greatergreaterwashington.org

It's a week for creative design, as Flowerpots create a safer pedestrian crossing from Gallaudet to Union Market,  there's a Proposal to curb car traffic in Brunswick Street in favour of pedestrians, NY state gets $70M for bike, pedestrian paths, and Long Beach gets $1 million state grant for more pedestrian, bicycle access on Edwards Blvd. Yet Sidewalk audit shows walkability could be better in Bennington , and a Survey shows residents still crave walkability in downtown Alpharetta . Maybe we should look to Walkable, Bikable Dresden for more ideas, or consider The Airtight Case for Road Diets. Perhaps if we think about How Observing and Recording Pedestrian Activity Transformed a City Center we'll understand more about Why a Street Designed for Transit Is Also Great for People.

And we'd better get at it, because although on Day #089: Engaging streets might be the norm, we really have to ask ourselves today: Is the U.S. Ready for Seniors Who Want to Stop Driving?

Some places probably are. Seattle creates its first ‘Arts and Cultural District’ on Capitol Hill, and they're Making schools in Coquitlam more walkable. And even as we bring our best ideas to promote walkability abroad, like this trip by NACTO to Take Safer Street Designs to Developing World Cities, here at home we're still struggling with our own problems, like Are LA’s Walkable Neighborhoods and Bike Lanes Only for the Creative Class?

While we're asking the tough questions, how about this one: Which Calls for More Regulation, Sprawl or Smart Growth? I don't know if I can answer that one, but I do know that #StreetsR4Families: Walk/Bike to School Day Is Easy.

Finally this week, Trick-or-treaters beware: Pedestrian risk increases tonight, and like me I'm sure your City urges pedestrian safety on Halloween.



 

Happy Halloween

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If you're heading out with kids this Friday, here's Zillow's annual ranking of the best cities to fill your bags with treats. Nice to see LA and San Diego moving up in the ranks! Check out this post for more detail about the neighborhoods to hit in each city (here in San Diego it's Del Mar Heights, Torrey Pines, Kensington, Loma Portal and Mission Hills).

Halloween is one of the most dangerous evenings of the year for pedestrians, so even though Zillow weights WalkScore evenly with other factors in developing its rankings, you might want to prioritize pedestrian safety when you choose your route. Take care out there!

This Week on Foot

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Source: www.trulia.com

With Halloween nearly upon us, this week we learned The Worst Places To Seek Refuge During The Zombie Apocalypse (turns out zombies like walkable cities, too).

Risk of attracting zombies aside, cities across the country are doing what they can this week to make their communities more pedestrian friendly. In Little Falls, the City Adopts Complete Streets Policy, a Road diet study rolls out in North Carolina, and there are Visions of Vibrancy: Center City Philadelphia, ICBC aims to curb pedestrian injuries in fall, winter with new campaign, and an App competition keeps pedestrian experience safe.

But not everyone agrees on what to do about pedestrian safety. While in New Jersey Kearny should be more bike- and pedestrian-friendly, state says and they agree It’s time for Amherst to create ‘pedestrian spaces’, in Georgia Officials split on pedestrian death solution and A simple sidewalk caused uproar in Tulsa's historic Maple Ridge. The Mayor nixed it.

And even though Swiss pedestrian safety takes turn for worse and there may be a Pedestrian-Cyclist Toll Coming To The Golden Gate Bridge, elsewhere in the country people are more excited about walking, as this Survey shows residents still crave walkability in downtown Alpharetta and in Detroit there's an Urgency of resurgence: Build on momentum with intentionality, opportunity, walkability.

If you're wondering what's New in the DOT Fast Lane --UTCs have a key role to play in bike-ped safety, and it should be interesting to see what happens to our favorite walkability ranking site now that Redfin buys Walk Score, marking first acquisition in company history.

Finally this week, These conservatives make the case for vibrant cities. Most of their friends ignore them. Maybe they should spend some time thinking about these 3 Ways To Close The 'Play Gap' Between Rich And Poor Kids (walkability is one!).
 

Walk to Get Your Groceries Challenge

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Last week I took the Strong Towns Walk to Get Your Groceries Challenge, which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like: take a walk to get your groceries, then tell others about your experience. For me this isn't so much a challenge as something I do pretty much every week, but the folks over at Strong Towns recognize that for a lot of people walking to get groceries is a novel idea, and can really raise awareness about the issues that pedestrians face navigating a typical neighborhood to do a mundane task.

Since I was already out on my bike, I "cheated" and biked a route that I often walk for groceries. It's about a mile each way to this particular store, and although there's another market closer to me I often walk the longer distance to get some extra exercise in and to pick up some of the specialty products only available at the more distant store.

Here's a summary of the trip in photos:

Whether on bike or on foot, we often choose to cruise through our neighborhood via alleys because they have less traffic than the adjacent roads and are often easier to navigate with a stroller than the poorly-repaired and often narrow sidewalks (plus my daughter thinks they're interesting spaces).

You can see one of the main reasons we take to the alleys here: no curb cuts. Try getting stroller or bike with a kid on it down that curb, especially while balancing a sack of heavy groceries.

This week on foot

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Source: ProtectedIntersection.com

This week we learn about 6 Intersection Designs That Actually Prioritize Pedestrians, which Syracuse could probably benefit from since 'I cannot walk anywhere': Correspondence on the sad state of 'walkability,' in greater Syracuse. Elsewhere in New York, they're contemplating Vision Zero and the Challenge of Culture Change at NYPD and a Walkability project discussed for Downtown Brooklyn, while Centerville buys into I-15 pedestrian bridge, Active Trans Launches a New Crusade Against Dangerous Intersections in Chicago, and After pedestrian deaths, Mountain View asks residents to suggest traffic fixes. After all that bad news, it's a good thing La Mesa gets grant for pedestrian, bicycle safety.

As we continue on The march to walkability, Nashville Mayoral Candidates Mull A More Walkable City and New Efforts Under Way To Improve Pedestrian Safety In Philly. Things aren't looking so great in LA, where Metro Moving Forward With Flawed Complete Streets Policy, or in Florida where according to one Engineer: State DOTs have ‘blood on their hands’ because lanes too wide. And it's not just roadways; Critics Say Railroads Should Do More To Prevent Pedestrian Deaths.

Outside the US Karachi needs to walk off its energy crisis and there are Calls for 20mph zone after pedestrian injured in crash. Clearly everyone needs lessons from Zurich: Where People Are Welcome and Cars Are Not

Closer to home we wonder Could Tulsa be the next Portland? If so, maybe they need someone like this Metal artist decorates pedestrian walkway. Looks good to me.