February 2020 E-News

Safe Routes to School E-News
Issue #167: February 2020

Safe Routes Partnership E-News is a monthly email newsletter published by the Safe Routes Partnership. We are also on Facebook and Twitter. Join us!

  1. Safe Routes in All Weather Photo Contest
  2. House Leadership Prioritizes Infrastructure
  3. Creating Culturally Affirming Safe Routes to Parks in Hayti
  4. Meet Natasha Riveron, Healthy Parks and Places Manager
  5. Active People Healthy Nation Draws National Attention in Washington, DC
  6. Urging SCAG to Strengthen Connect SoCal Plan
  7. Streets of Gold Popping Up in El Monte, California
  8. MOTHERLOAD: A Documentary About Bikes, Families, and Social Justice
  9. Ride More With PeopleForBikes, Walking College Applications

1. Safe Routes in All Weather Photo Contest

Do you or your family and friends walk and roll in rain, shine, sun, and snow? Show us how you get around when the weather is gloomy, gray, gusty, or just great! The Safe Routes Partnership invites you to submit your photo to the Safe Routes in All Weather photo contest. There are prizes!

2. House Leadership Prioritizes Infrastructure

House Democrats have announced a new infrastructure framework, outlining how they’d invest $760 billion into a wide range of infrastructure investments. The surface transportation section has a lot of good language around biking, walking, and Safe Routes, as well as interesting proposals to increase local control, accountability and transparency of federal investments in transportation. Learn more in our federal policy blog. In addition, take a look at our latest quarterly TAP tracking report to see how your state is doing on implementing the Transportation Alternatives Program.

3. Creating Culturally Affirming Safe Routes to Parks in Hayti

The neighborhood of Hatyi, in Durham, North Carolina, was once one of the most prosperous black neighborhoods in the United States. But in the 1960s, Hayti was demolished by the development of the Durham Freeway, which displaced more than 4,000 families and more than 500 black-owned businesses. As part of a Safe Routes to Parks Activating Communities project, Hayti Heritage Center worked with the community to create a culturally affirming, safe walking connection in the Hayti neighborhood. Learn more in this video.

4. Meet Natasha Riveron, Healthy Parks and Places Manager

The Safe Routes Partnership is happy to introduce Natasha Riveron as Healthy Parks and Places Manager for the Safe Routes to Parks Activating Communities program. In this role, she provides technical assistance, develops resources, and builds relationships to support communities working to improve pedestrian safety and accessibility of parks and open space. She is passionate about activating places (whether that’s the local park or neighborhood sidewalk) to strengthen community.

5. Active People Healthy Nation Draws National Attention in Washington, DC

Everyone should have safe and accessible places for physical activity. Active People, Healthy Nation is a national initiative to help 27 million Americans become more physically active by 2027. We were thrilled to join partners in Washington last month to call attention to how Active People, Healthy Nation is promoting physical activity across America.

Safe Routes is a core component of Active People, Healthy Nation's strategy to create active-friendly routes to everyday destinations. Approaches such as Safe Routes to School and Safe Routes to Parks include infrastructure improvements for better traffic laws, safety education, and incentives to encourage walking and bicycling to community destinations.

6. Urging SCAG to Strengthen Connect SoCal Plan

In collaboration with local advocacy groups, Safe Routes Partnership submitted a policy comment letter this week to the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) on the 2020 update of the Regional Transportation Plan/Sustainable Communities Strategy (RTP/SCS). The 2020 RTP/SCS, also known as Connect SoCal, will set Southern California’s plans for transportation and housing for the next 25 years--including thousands of transportation projects. 

7. Streets of Gold Popping Up in El Monte, California

On a Saturday last October, over 800 people came out to the City of South El Monte’s Streets of Gold event to experience pop-up protected bike lanes, curb extensions, and creative crosswalks. Feedback from community members at the event is helping the city move forward with implementing changes that will make the streets safer and more inviting for people walking, biking, and rolling.

The Safe Routes Partnership was part of the team of consultants that worked with the Southern California Association of Government’s Go Human program to organize the event. This was the fifth Go Human event where our team assisted with community engagement, volunteer management, and evaluation. Are you thinking about organizing a pop-up project in your neighborhood? The Safe Routes Partnership’s consulting services can help you plan and implement your project.

8. MOTHERLOAD: A Documentary About Bikes, Families, and Social Justice

MOTHERLOAD is a crowdsourced documentary in which the cargo bicycle becomes a vehicle for exploring parenthood in this digital age of climate change. As Marin filmmaker and new mother Liz Canning meets the people behind the push to replace cars with purpose-built bikes, she contemplates the increasing tension between modern life and our hunter-gatherer DNA, and discovers the history and potential future of the bicycle as the “ultimate social revolutionizer.” Conflict arises when characters in the film encounter cultural resistance—in particular, bikelash focused on women and mothers. MOTHERLOAD draws connections here to the struggle of cyclist Suffragettes and women's seemingly endless fight for bodily autonomy. Watch the trailer.

9. Ride More With PeopleForBikes, Walking College Applications