This blog post was collaboratively written by Marisa Jones (Safe Routes Partnership), Caron Whitaker (League of American Bicyclists), and Mende Yangden (National Resources Defense Council).
Safe Routes Partnership releases our Making Strides state report cards every two years, providing an at-a-glance snapshot of how states are doing in their support of walking, rolling, and active kids and communities. Following the release of the latest report cards in June 2022, we received numerous great questions from state agency representatives, walking and rolling advocates, and community health champions. We’ve collected a few of the most commonly asked questions here.
What is required for long-term change? Our Safe Routes to Parks Activating Communities program is all about making changes, big and small, to make park access safe, convenient, and equitable for people walking and biking. However, we know that making changes to a sidewalk or holding one community engagement meeting isn’t going to have as long-term of an effect if we don’t zoom out to see the whole system that created unsafe routes or inequities in the first place.
This year, we’re thrilled to be teaming up with four local communities in Pennsylvania to make accessing parks safe, convenient, and equitable for people walking and biking. As we celebrate National Parks and Recreation Month this July, we want to uplift this year’s theme, “where community grows” from our partners at the National Recreation and Parks Association by sharing a couple of highlights from our Safe Routes to Parks Pennsylvania Activating Communities.
This blog was written by Amy Johnson, GIS Intern, and Portland Community College student.
Thinking of my childhood trips to the park brings me right back to the feeling of the sun on my face and summer days when all I was worried about was not missing the neighborhood ice cream truck. As a kid, I would go to several nearby parks with my grandparents after school or on weekends on foot, bicycle, or skates. Living in Queens, New York meant I had sidewalks to walk or roll, and depending on the destination of my park of choice, a few high-traffic intersections that required the assistance of a guardian.
This blog was written by Maria Gabrielle Sipin.
While we await the President’s budget and meet with members of Congress on our appropriations requests, it is a nice time of year to check-in on how states are doing implementing the Transportation Alternatives Program.
This guest blog post is written by Noah Lenstra, Associate Professor of Library and Information Science at the University of North Carolina Greensboro (njlenstr@uncg.edu
