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Entries tagged: Transportation For America

• The new report from Transportation Alternatives — Vision Zero: How Safer Streets in New York City Can Save Over 100 Lives a Year — cite compelling data on traffic calming measure and, more importantly, challenges the notion that traffic casualties are “accidents” that cannot be controlled, rather than environments that can be altered with specific design elements and policy changes. Absolutely essential ready for all advocates and officials working for safer streets.

• Check out a new Transportation and Health Online Toolkit from the American Public Health Association that builds a bridge between the public health and transportation communities, providing talking points, outreach materials and resources.

• See how your community rates in Transportation for America’s new report — Aging in Place, Stuck without Options — which ranks metro areas by the percentage of seniors with poor access to public transportation, now and in the coming years, and presents other data on aging and transportation.

• Did you know that vehicular travel drops by more than 3 percent and carbon emissions fall nearly 5 percent when cities’ ensure that 70 percent of their streets offer safe pedestrian space? An analysis from the Washington State Department of Transportation shows the myriad climate benefits of active transportation.

• Not to reiterate last week’s resources, but more insight on separated bicycle facilities: A study from Portland State University evaluates some of that city’s recent bicycle innovations, including a cycle track and several buffered bike lanes.

• I know I’ve been trying to get the word out about Alliance events via Facebook and Twitter (Hint, hint: Sign up for our Membership Development Training by tomorrow to save $50!), so I found this booklet — Event Marketing 2.0: How to Boost Attendance Through Social Media — particularly interesting.

• And, speaking of events, if you missed our “Cultivating an Active, Involved Membership” Mutual Aid Call, here’s a link to the tip sheet and call recording.

As always, if you have resources to share, please send them my way: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Have a great weekend!

From 2000 to 2009, more than 47,700 pedestrians were killed on American roadways. Another 688,000 were injured — the equivalent of a pedestrian being hit by a car or truck every seven minutes. Despite this preventable epidemic, few resources are dedicated and little attention is paid to making our streets safe for vulnerable users.

This disturbing trend is laid out in compelling and action-able fashion in Dangerous by Design 2011, released today by Transportation for America.

The update to a 2009 report by the same name uses a Pedestrian Danger Index (PDI) to rank the country’s largest metropolitan areas according to their relative risk to walkers. Topping the list of most-dangerous communities for pedestrians: Orlando-Kissimmee, FL; Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL; Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach, FL; Jacksonville, FL; Memphis, TN-MS-AR; Raleigh-Cary, NC; Louisville/Jefferson County, KY-IN; Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, TX; Birmingham-Hoover, AL; Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta, GA.

Click here to find data for your state or community.

Overall, the report finds: “The roads have gotten somewhat safer, but pedestrian fatalities have fallen at only half the rate of motorist fatalities, dropping by just over 14 percent during the period, compared to 27 percent for motor vehicle fatalities. In many places, including 15 of the country’s largest metro areas, pedestrian fatalities have actually increased, even as overall traffic deaths fell.”

Dangerous by Design also highlights the critical role of the federal government in providing the funding and creating the policies to improve pedestrian safety.

According to the report: “[Pedestrian] deaths typically are labeled ‘accidents,’ and attributed to error on the part of motorist or pedestrian. In fact, however, the majority of these deaths share a common thread: they occurred along “arterial” roadways that were dangerous by design, streets engineered for speeding traffic with little or no provision for people on foot, in wheelchairs or on bicycles… 67 percent of all 47,000+ pedestrian fatalities from 2000 to 2009 occurred on federal-aid roadways — major roads eligible to receive federal funding for construction and improvements with federal guidelines or oversight for design.”

“Fortunately,” the report continues, “improving the pedestrian environment requires a relatively small public investment, one greatly outweighed by the cost savings that would result from reducing traffic-related fatalities and improving health. Congress has an opportunity to help communities fix past mistakes and make our streets safer – not just for people on foot, but for everyone who uses them.”

T4America suggests several key ways the next federal transportation bill can start to reverse this tragic trend, including:

• Retain dedicated federal funding for the safety of people on foot or on bicycle.
• Adopt a national complete streets policy. (Click here to learn more about the Safe and Complete Streets Act of 2011 and contact your member of Congress.)
• Commit a fair share for safety. (Click here to read the latest Advocacy Advance report on winning funding for bike/ped projects from the Highway Safety Improvement Program.)

Download the full report, access the interactive map of pedestrian fatalities and see how your state ranks on the T4America website.