A couple of weekends ago, I took my son out for a special mom-and-son breakfast. As is typical of a four-year-old, he is on his millionth question of the day when he asks the waiter what his name is.
Resource Library
Page 7 of 106 pages. This page shows results 121 - 140 of 2104 total results.
Fact Sheet
States manage significant funding that can support Safe Routes to Parks. This factsheet lays out how states can use grant guides and project election criteria to prioritize projects backed by meaningful community engagement.
As ever, the end of the federal fiscal year has been busy with hearings, budget debates, and states running competitions for federal funding. To keep you in the loop across a variety of topics, here are a few headlines related to Safe Routes to School, walking, and bicycling at the federal level.
One of my favorite parts of Safe Routes to School is celebrating community. In my day-to-day work, I’m inspired by stories of Safe Routes programs bringing people together. Parents and engineers going on walk audits. School staff and elected officials celebrating Walk and Roll to School Day. Safe Routes to School coordinators and rotary club members installing new bike racks. Neighbors and non-profits organizing school streets pilot projects.
Research
Key takeaways:
- In this study, nearly 25 percent of people consider traffic a barrier to walking. Of this group, 80 percent cite vehicle speed as the major cause of concern.
- Also of concern are the number of vehicles and distracted driving. The type of vehicle (e.g., large trucks) was not a significant concern.
- People who use walking as a mode of transportation are more likely to perceive the number of vehicles as a barrier than people who walk for recreational purposes.
- Improved sidewalks were seen as the best way to improve walkability. Other options included crosswalks, pedestrian signals, street lighting, traffic calming, separating the sidewalk/road, and road diet.
Key takeaways:
- Google Street View (GSV) was used to collect, investigate, and characterize images of neighborhood built environments. Computer vision was used to analyze the images and produce key indicators (characteristics of the built environment). The indicators were then examined for their potential influence on chronic disease and health behaviors.
- Indicators of urban development (two or more cars, streetlights, street signs) and walkability (crosswalks, sidewalks, presence of apartment and commercial buildings) were associated with lower chronic health conditions including obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, smoking, poor mental health, and depression.
- Single-lane roads were used as an indicator of lower levels of urban development and correlated with increased chronic conditions in rural areas.
- Chain-link fences were used as an indicator of physical disorder and correlated with poor mental health and depression but also decreased smoking and improved sleep.
Webinar
On Tuesday, October 25th from 11 am - 12 pm MT, the Colorado Department of Transportation is hosting a free webinar presented by the Safe Routes Partnership
Webinar
Safe Routes Partnership is hosting a free webinar on Tuesday, October 18th from 2 pm - 3:15 pm ET
When I reflect on my Hispanic heritage, the first thing I think about is food. I think about the savory aroma of Cuban rice and beans or sweet, syrupy flan. I hear the laughter of my family mixed with our particular brand of Spanglish and the inevitable music that leaves chairs and tables banished to the edges of the room to make way for our dancing.
Webinar
On Wednesday, October 19th from 2-3 pm ET the Safe Routes Partnership is hosting the first installment of the Walk, Ride, & Roll Webinar Series, Back to Basics: An Introduction to Safe Routes to School.
By now, we hope you know that every state received a massive influx of funding to the Transportation Alternatives Program, the primary source of federal funding for walking, bicycling, and Safe Routes to School.
Research
Key takeaways:
- Adding sidewalks, stop signs, and bike paths - in neighborhoods, to increase opportunities for physical activity can have unintended social, development, and economic consequences for current residents.
- In low-income neighborhoods, resident concerns about the potential impact on cost of living and being forced from their homes, can become a barrier to changes intended to increase physical activity. Community engagement must be an integral part of projects that improve healthy community design.
- Multidisciplinary collaboration – transportation, housing, health, planning, government - provides the most significant benefit to improving the health and lives of residents in disinvested communities facing revitalization.
- Resident concerns about the impact of revitalization on the cost of living in their neighborhood decreased with increasing age. Concerns increased with increasing education and physical activity levels.
- Neighborhood residents can be simultaneously concerned and supportive of changes in the built environment, especially if the changes will provide increased opportunity for active living.
- New businesses and condominiums caused the most concern for residents, followed by the development of new parks and recreation facilities.
Toolkit
Check out this new publication, Let the Good Vibes Flow: Staying Active and Connected Through Community Walk & Roll Programs, inspired by Healthy Savannah’s community health and wellness initiative.
As 2022 chugs along, so does the rollout of new funding and programs created by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
USDOT is competing out $1 billion in funding to support communities to plan for and implement strategies that reduce traffic deaths and serious injuries, and it is an opportunity to elevate or re-invigorate Safe Routes to School in your community! With $1B in federal funds available to communities, Safe Routes to School practitioners can collaborate with community leaders to make sure Safe Routes to School is part of the solution to reduce traffic injuries and deaths.
Webinar
Safe Routes Partnership is hosting a free webinar on Wednesday, August 10 at 2 pm ET.
Fact Sheet
Understanding the Scores and Grading
The 2022 Making Strides state report cards evaluate each state on key areas for state action to promote and support physical activity. This sheet provides a quick summary of the report cards’ scoring structure, including the indicators and possible points in each of the core topic areas and an example report card showing the different components.
Website
El Diccionario de la Calle es un glosario de terminos del transporte activo desarrollado a lo largo de una década trabajando con hispanohablantes monolingües en todo el estado.
Report
Making Strides: State Report Cards on Support for Walking, Bicycling, and Active Kids and Communities
We’ve developed state report cards which provide a snapshot of how supportive each state is of walking, bicycling, and physical activity for children and adults as of 2022.
Toolkit
This promotional toolkit can be used to disseminate the report, “Making Strides: 2022 State Report Cards on Support for Walking, Bicycling, and Active Kids and Communities.”