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Seniors and transit report generates widespread coverage and discussion

Last week, we released Aging in Place, Stuck without Options, documenting the more than 15.5 million Americans 65 years and older who, by 2015, will live in places with poor or non-existent public transportation.

The report ranked metro areas according to the percentage of seniors projected to face poor transit access, and asked: How do we address the shrinking mobility options of baby boomers who wish to stay in their homes and “age in place?” What happens when people in the largest generation in American history outlive their ability to drive for everything?

The discussions we saw in the comments of blog posts and newspaper articles were very interesting. It’s an immediately relatable story, because almost everyone has a parent or grandparent currently dealing with or facing the prospect of getting older and staying mobile.

Accommodating seniors who want to age in place — most of them do — will be a challenge for our nation’s transportation system. But there is a lot that we can do. We can increase funding for bus routes, paratransit, vanpools and ridesharing. We can provide incentives for community non-profits to operate their own systems. We can encourage states to involve seniors more intimately in the planning process and ensure officials are still able to “flex” federal dollars for transit projects. We can also prioritize “complete streets” that meet the needs of all users, including older Americans on foot, in wheelchairs or on their way to a transit stop.

All of these ideas can — and should — be folded into the next transportation bill currently being drafted in Congress.

The report generated widespread coverage and discussion. In response to the report’s findings, the San Francisco Bay Area gave itself a pat on the back for its top rank, with the San Francisco Chronicle referring to the region as “a good place to retire the car keys,” while the Kansas City Star reacted to its region’s poor ranking. The Wall Street Journal’s Smart Money offered a nice summation of the report’s overall findings.

Some argued that our recommendation to meet seniors where they are is backwards. Rather than extending transit out, they said, we ought to encourage older adults to move to places that already have robust transportation systems. Tanya Snyder surveyed both sides of the debate, which also played out in the comments section and on Twitter, at Streetsblog Capitol Hill:

Those recommendations might help geographically isolated seniors reach services, but is it really the responsibility of the taxpayer to subsidize the decisions people have made to live in places that explicitly reject transit accessibility? Should those inefficient, low-density, sprawling areas be retrofitted with transit now that their populations are aging?

Cristina Martin Firvida, who works on these issues for AARP, said helping seniors marooned in those areas helps everybody. And besides, the suburbs were built through federal policies encouraging outward development after the second world war, she said – it’s not just that one person built a house on top of a mountain and then demanded that taxpayer-subsidized transit come to them. “The suburbs is where our economy and our entire society has moved to since the fifties,” Firvida said.

No one took more umbrage with our report and conclusions than the Cato Institute’s Randal O’Toole, whose response to the growing mobility needs of America’s seniors was a glib: “So what?” While O’Toole is dismissive of the desire for greater options, AARP’s research found that public transportation use among older Americans increased by 40 percent since 2001 (see graphic below). And this is despite the fact that many live in areas with spotty and less-than-reliable service to begin with. T4’s David Goldberg responded to O’Toole last week.

You can still check out the full report and see how your area ranked here.

Coastal Alabama advocates make Complete Streets in Mobile a reality

With the echo of the latest pedestrian fatality figures still ringing, a city in the deep South became the latest, albeit unlikely, place to adopt a Complete Streets policy. To paraphrase the song: if it can happen there, it can happen anywhere.

When people think of “infrastructure,” images of roadways and grids tend to come to mind. But there’s another kind of infrastructure — support from key people and players on the ground — that is equally crucial to how we build our communities.

Wendy Allen and Charlene Lee (pictured at right) of Smart Coast, an advocacy group aimed at strengthening and revitalizing the Alabama coastline, understand the importance of that support structure. Without their coalition-building skills, it’s unlikely the Mobile City Council would have passed a Complete Streets policy this year.

Smart Coast was founded a decade ago to encourage smart and sustainable development in the face of increased population along the coast. In 2009, the Mobile region’s poor ranking on pedestrian fatalities prompted the group to host an event to raise the profile of safe access for all road users.

“We were working in an area that did not have a groundswell or clamor saying ‘my God, this is unacceptable that my area is unsafe,’” said Lee, the programs director for Smart Coast. “We were trying to build that groundswell.”

Allen and Lee cited the recommendations in Transportation for America’s Dangerous by Design report, and T4 Communications Director David Goldberg attended and spoke at the event. Mobile had 138 pedestrian fatalities from 2000 to 2009, according to our most recent report, and the state of Alabama was the fifth most dangerous state overall for people walking.

In January 2010, Smart Coast presented its Complete Streets recommendations to the Mobile City Council for the first time, a meeting Allen described as “a big lovefest.” Prior to the presentation, Allen and Lee had solidified support from Councilmember Gina Gregory, who has a professional background in media and public relations. They also built relationships with business groups, city engineers and other key stakeholders.

The outreach resulted in a “foundational infrastructure with enough people in enough places that cared,” according to Allen, Smart Coast’s Executive Director.

“We had a perfect storm of things happens,” added Lee.

The measure languished for over a year in the council’s Public Safety Committee, but the backing of the Mobile Medical Society, coupled with increased activity among local bicyclists and the full backing of Leadership Mobile, a civic group, helped to finally advance the complete streets proposal to the full Council this year. Growing awareness of the public health implications of unsafe streets was particularly resonant in a state that consistently ranks among the highest in adult obesity.

As the Press-Register reported this week, the measure passed in Mobile is non-binding and lacks an enforcement mechanism, but Lee emphasized that it was important to “get the policy done first” so that advocates would have something to build upon.

Smart Coast is already at work on implementation, with plans to identify three potential Mobile streets that could accommodate a “road diet” that includes bicycle lanes and wider sidewalks. Mobile citizens would be invited to weigh in on where they would prefer to see these changes happen.

“If we can get an early success on the ground, we think that will parlay into this incredible engagement that’s already occurring,” Lee said.

Mobile is the sixth city in coastal Alabama to adopt a complete streets policy, following the lead of Fairhope, Daphne Chickasaw, Mount Vernon and Orange Beach.

Photo courtesy of Smart Coast.

Complete Streets bill introduced in House, policies gaining in popularity across the country

Yesterday’s release of the bipartisan Safe and Complete Streets Act of 2011 is an affirmative step toward ensuring the safety and convenience of America’s streets — for everyone.

H.R. 1780, sponsored by Democratic Representative Doris Matsui of California and Republican Representative Steve LaTourette of Ohio, would require state transportation officials to consider the needs of all transportation users — pedestrians, bicyclists, transit riders and people with disabilities, as well as motorists — in every phase of planning and development.

A complete streets policy at the federal level would help ensure that miserable, dangerous streets like this become history in our communities:

Walking in the Ditch, by Transportation for America

Fortunately, we don’t have to wait for a new federal law for states and local communities to start building streets and roads to benefit our communities and make us safer. More than 200 local governments and 23 states are already doing it, leading the way for Congress. The National Complete Streets Coalition penned a report analyzing these policies and identifying best practices, findings you can learn more about here.

The top-rated policies are diverse in geography and size, and include:

New Jersey Department of Transportation
Louisiana Department of Transportation
State of Minnesota
State of Connecticut
Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission (Columbus)
Bloomington/Monroe County, IN Metropolitan Planning Organization
Hennepin County, Minnesota
Lee County, Florida
Salt Lake County, Utah
Crystal City, Missouri
Roanoke, Virginia
Missoula, Montana
Herculaneum, Missouri
New Haven, Connecticut
Tacoma, Washington

It shouldn’t be a surprise to see complete streets policies sprouting up in places both urban and rural, red and blue. The Rockefeller Foundation Transportation Survey, conducted at the beginning of 2011, found that “safer streets for our communities and children” was voters’ top infrastructure investment priority. A commanding 40 percent listed safe streets as their first priority, and 57 percent listed it in their top two.

The federal legislation is expected to pick up additional support from both parties in the coming weeks.

The Act is a “marker” bill to be folded into what becomes the comprehensive reauthorization of the nation’s transportation law. But to get that policy folded into the bigger transportation bill, we’ll need to let Congress know that their constituents support it in our cities and communities. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be giving all of you the opportunity to call and write your Representative to urge them to join their colleagues in sponsoring or supporting this bipartisan bill. (Something you can certainly do on your own today!)

Congratulations to our partners at the National Complete Streets Coalition for this terrific news. Their hard work over the last few years has made this possible.

Once a critic, now a supporter, Ohio Rep. helps make complete streets bill bipartisan

Rep. Steve LaTourette (R-OH) probably learned the hard way earlier this year that safe, accessible streets for bikers, walkers and all users don’t tend to have any party affiliation, and he is to be commended for proving his support for complete streets by signing onto the House complete streets bill last week, becoming its first Republican cosponsor.

On behalf of our thousands of supporters from communities across the country who think that it’s important that our transportation network be safe and usable by everyone, we’d like to thank Rep. LaTourette for signing on to the Complete Streets Act of 2009, making the bill bipartisan in the House. He joins sixty other co-sponsors in supporting good transportation planning practices that ensure that the safety of everyone using the road will be taken into account – whether they are driving, bicycling, walking, or catching the train or bus.

For some strange reason at the federal level, complete streets have been unfortunately maligned as a partisan issue, with Republicans in Congress hesitant to formally support the principles in a bill, resulting in the strange dynamic of Congress being far behind the curve of their state and local counterparts where politicians and leaders of all stripes have supported complete streets from the state level on down to the big city, metro area, county and small town — no matter their party affiliation.

“With 23 states and more than 140 local governments adopting Complete Streets policies, it has become clear that this is not a partisan issue – and that this is a change in transportation priorities that Americans want to see nationwide,” said Barbara McCann, Executive Director of the National Complete Streets Coalition.

Charlotte Complete Streets-East Boulevard Originally uploaded by Complete Streets to Flickr.

Before its road diet, Charlotte’s East Boulevard was a four-lane, undivided road, that carried over 20,000 per day! Now, East Blvd–with its bike lanes, center turn lane, and curb ramps — is a complete street. Photo: Charmeck.org

We’d certainly like to hope that Rep. LaTourette’s signature on the bill — a product of responding to the voice of his local constituents — will open the floodgates for more House Republicans to support a bill and an idea that has broad support across the country in the local areas they represent. We’re sure there are dozens of House Republicans who are supportive of this idea but have been hesitant to be the only member of their party on the bill at such a polarized time in D.C.

When Rep. LaTourette made his comments back in April of this year about biking and walking to Secretary LaHood in a hearing, he was overwhelmed by the outpouring of comments from residents of his district who agreed with the Secretary that it was high time to treat biking and walking as legitimate and equal forms of transportation.

So local advocates from Walk and Roll Cleveland worked with Mr. LaTourette to bring him on board, sharing information with him about the economic benefits of building infrastructure to serve bicyclists and pedestrians and local bicycle shop owners also visited him. It certainly didn’t hurt that the Ohio Department of Transportation has been showing interest in developing a statewide policy, according to the folks at the National Complete Streets Coalition, or that Cleveland’s metropolitan planning organization adopted a policy 7 years ago.

Members of the National Complete Streets Coalition were pleased with the development.

“In signing on to the Complete Streets bill, Rep. LaTourette has started what could become a significant step toward safer more user-friendly streets for everyone, whether they walk, drive or ride,” said AARP Senior VP for Government Relations and Advocacy David Sloane. “Many Ohioans have seen the benefits of Complete Streets policies in their hometowns; AARP looks forward to the rest of the nation sharing that opportunity.”

Are you represented by someone who hasn’t yet signed onto the Complete Streets Act of 2009? Follow the lead of these Ohio advocates and start calling your representative and organizing meetings to help them see that this idea has broad support back home where their votes are.

Being able to use a street safely — no matter your age, ability or mode of transport — isn’t a partisan idea. Help get that message across in Washington.

Learn more from the National Complete Streets Coalition.

20 years after the ADA, continuing the fight to improve access for all

Sonia at East Beasley Bus Stop 004 Originally uploaded by Transportation for America to Flickr. (Credit to Dr. Scott Crawford)

Still working toward accessible and complete streets for all users, 20 years later.

A couple of years ago, my colleague Stephen Lee Davis profiled Dr. Scott Crawford, a wheelchair user and resident of Jackson, Mississippi who has long fought for accessible buses with wheelchair lifts, curb ramps and better sidewalks.

As Dr. Crawford’s story reminds us, there is still a lot of work to do in making our communities accessible for all users. But he’s had a powerful legal tool in his fight to make Jackson’s streets and transit services equitable and accessible for all users: The Americans with Disabilities Act, which turned 20 years old just this week. President George H. W. Bush signed the ADA in 1990, and his son, George W. Bush, put his signature on the 2008 amendments to the Act, which broadened protections and addressed provisions that had been weakened by the Courts.

The ADA defines a disability as “a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits a major life activity.”

The ADA made reasonable accommodation in workplaces and businesses for people with disabilities the law of the land, ensuring that a disability wouldn’t automatically marginalize anyone. Before it was signed, Americans who were blind, deaf, wheelchair-bound or with chronic injuries or limitations had no legal recourse against inaccessibility. Public and private sector institutions could ignore them as a silent minority — and they often did.

Reasonable accommodation does not mean that every corner of every building can be reached by everyone. It does mean that an employer or government agency must make a concerted effort — through ramps, elevators, doors wide enough for a wheelchair and other resources — to make the workplace accessible for people with disabilities.

Meeting ADA requirements has certainly been a challenge for many communities, especially those with older buildings and smaller economies. Jackson, Mississippi has had the same bus fleet for decades with broken chair lifts and has struggled to find the resources to upgrade. Many transportation departments are more interested in expanding existing roads and broadening access between towns and cities, forgetting what happens within them.

Difficulties aside, many of us are now realizing that the focus on “reasonable accommodations” has actually improved the quality of life for everyone. Older Americans, whether technically disabled or not, face similar challenges with access, have benefited from lifts on public buses. Mothers pushing strollers appreciate new sidewalk ramps.

Beyond mere ADA compliance, everyone is better off with a focus on “Complete Streets,” ensuring that roads accommodate all users regardless of how they get around. Two Mississippi cities, Tupelo and Hernando, recently adopted complete streets policies, and the Michigan State Senate is poised to do the same. Complete streets fit nicely into the universal design approach, which emphasizes the benefits to everyone rather than perpetuating “us” and “them” delineations. The ADA won’t be enough to make our streets truly safe and complete, as Jeff Peel of the League of American Bicyclists pointed out (h/t Streetsblog.net). “…don’t forget, the ADA [doesn’t] require sidewalks — it says that if they are present, they must be made accessible,” he says.

As we celebrate the ADA, it is worth reminding ourselves not to take progress for granted. Progress happens because we pursue the right policies —and the people force our elected officials to listen up. That’s a point worth remembering for everyone who envisions an America with greater transportation options for all.

Blueprint America on complete streets in Atlanta

Do yourself a favor and check out this short video from PBS’ Blueprint America series that aired on the program “Need to Know” recently.

The overall package is about “disappearmarks” — earmarks totaling millions in the last federal transportation bill that have never been allocated or spent, according to the Sunlight Foundation. But this story from Atlanta focuses much more specifically on how unsafe, incomplete streets that don’t adequately meet the needs of all users in Atlanta results in pedestrians that have little choice but to take their lives into their own hands each and every day, just to get to work, school, or the closest bus stop.

They used the numbers from Dangerous by Design, our report on pedestrian safety nationally, to help give some broader national context to the situation in Atlanta.

Watch the full episode. See more Need To Know.

Active transportation, more walking and biking can help us confront obesity

Obesity is on the rise in 28 states and is one of the biggest public health challenges facing America, but taking some concrete steps to boost walking and biking and invest in more active modes of transportation all across America could be a major factor in turning the tide.

That is the conclusion of F as in Fat: How Obesity Threatens America’s Future 2010, a new report sponsored by the Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Most striking about the report are the persistent demographic and geographic disparities in obesity rates, as well as rising rates among children. One’s zip code or income should never be the greatest determinant of health.

In 40 states and the District of Columbia, adult obesity rates were higher for blacks and Latinos than whites. The South was home to 10 out of the 11 states with highest obesity rates — Mississippi clocked in on top with 33.8 percent of adults considered obese. And, accounting for income, 35.3 percent of adults earning less than $15,000 per year were obese, as opposed to 24.5 percent of adults earning more than $50,000 per year.

Childhood obesity rates were up, but fluctuated by state, from just 10 percent in Wyoming to 21 percent in Kentucky. You can view a complete map with obesity rates in all 50 states and the district here.

The authors write:

Reversing the obesity epidemic will require individuals, families, schools, communities, businesses, government, and every other sector of American society to reduce the barriers to healthy eating and active living. Every American must have the chance to lead a healthy lifestyle.

F is for Fat’s transportation plank calls for a bold and comprehensive reauthorization of the surface transportation law, similar to the draft proposal released by key House chairman Jim Oberstar last year. The report compels Congress to act on Complete Streets legislation to ensure that people who walk, bike and use transit can use roadways safely, and a reauthorization of the Safe Routes to School program, in hopes of reversing the trend of more and more kids getting driven to class each day.

The report also identifies three legislative vehicles for reorienting our transportation policy and increasing travel options.

The Active Communities Transportation Act would give cities and localities added funds for increasing walking and biking rates and making it safer. The National Transportation Objectives Act would attach safety, efficiency and economic competitiveness benchmarks to federal dollars, making our transportation spending much more accountable to the taxpayers. And the CLEAN TEA bill would cap greenhouse gas emissions and target revenue toward clean transportation projects that can get us where we need to go while reducing emissions at the same time.

As the report points out, we are already moving forward on a number of fronts and many policymakers get it.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 signed by President Obama earlier this year funds a number of wellness and prevention programs that have the potential to be expanded. A number of states have taken steps toward healthier school lunches, and Congress may act on legislation as well. And First Lady Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” campaign is calling attention to how we can ensure children live healthier lives, including through walking, bike and physical activity.

To view the entire report, you can visit the Trust for America’s Health website here.

Ohio Congressman recants, decides LaHood’s complete streets policy is not so “radical” after all

In an Associated Press story on April 15, Ohio Congressman Steve LaTourette was quoted decrying the apparently “radical” idea that the safety and comfort of people on foot or bicycle deserve as much consideration as those in cars. He even jokingly asked if the new “equal footing” policy for bicyclists may have the product of drug use at the USDOT. LaTourette created a strawman – equal funding for bicycle infrastructure and roads – to attack a sensible and long overdue change.

To his credit, LaTourette has fully recanted the statement and apologized for any misunderstanding, a result due in part to significant pushback from the bicycling community in his 14th Congressional District and throughout the country. In a message aimed at the cycling community, the Congressman said his comments were intended for levity rather than insult and called biking a legitimate form of transportation that ought to be taken seriously.

I regret the online story caused so much anxiety and that it made some of you question me. Nothing has changed my ardent support of bike trails, bike lanes and the right of cyclists to share the road. This has been a lesson on the power of the Internet, and it sure has given me a new respect for the fierce advocacy from the cycling community.

LaTourette also cited his support for the Safe Routes to Schools program and other active living efforts. LaTourette’s consistent support for funding bike paths in his own district was not lost on Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, who noted after the initial hearing: “He knows people in his district like them.”

Transportation, like most issues these days, is highly polarized, but LaTourette’s experience with his own constituents confirms what Transportation for America’s recent poll found: people want their streets to be safe enough for kids to ride their bikes to school. They want seniors to be able to cross the street safely and for bicycling and walking to be legitimate ways of getting around. None of this takes away from cars. If anything, giving a greater voice to bicyclists makes our streets safer and more accessible to everyone.

LaTourette did the right thing by clearing up this controversy and making amends with cyclists in Ohio’s 14th Congressional District and around the country.

Task force on childhood obesity should look at increased opportunity to walk and bike

Photo courtesy of the California Department of Transportation

In the last couple of weeks, we suggested First Lady Michelle Obama’s Task Force on Child Obesity consider transportation and the built environment.

Another important component is enhancing infrastructure for walking and bicycling.

Infrastructure to support walking and biking includes bike lanes, shared-use paths, and routes on existing and new roads as well as sidewalks, footpaths, walking trails and pedestrian crossings. Improving bicycling infrastructure results in more bicycling, which makes intuitive sense.

Street-scale neighborhood design, such as improved street lighting, street crossings and traffic calming approaches, can also facilitate physical activity in small geographic areas.

On average, people in highly walkable neighborhoods take one or two more walking trips per week than those living in places with poor walkability. This additional 15 to 30 minutes of walking per week means a 150 pound person expends the energy equivalent of about one extra pound per year.

After only two years, participating schools in the Safe Routes to School Program in Marin County, CA, serving 4,665 students in 15 schools, reported an increase in school trips made by walking (64%), biking (114%), and carpooling (91%) and a decrease in trips by private vehicles carrying only one student (39%).

One way to facilitate increased bicycling and walking in through Complete Streets policies, which can happen at the state, local or national level. A Complete Streets approach requires jurisdictions to consider the needs of all users—whether walking, bicycling, taking public transportation or driving—in transportation projects.

As Michelle Obama’s task force continues its work, we hope they will take a look at active living through increased changes to get outside, walk and bike.

U.S. Transportation Department makes good on promise to ensure our streets are made safer

Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood issued a exciting new directive yesterday that officially shows DOT’s support for improving safety for walking and bicycling and the importance of integrating them into transportation systems — treating them as equal modes of transportation.

Last fall we released a report chronicling the tragedy of 76,000 preventable pedestrian deaths over the last 15 years. “Dangerous by Design” took a hard look at our often unsafe streets that are engineered for speeding traffic with little or no provision for people on foot, in wheelchairs or on a bicycle.

DSC_0376 Originally uploaded by Transportation for America

When that report was released, we asked supporters like you across the country to sign a petition to Transportation Secretary Ray Lahood asking him to support Complete Streets at DOT, and more than 4,100 of you responded. We took that petition directly to Secretary Lahood back in November of 2008, and afterward, he told T4 America, “the right of way “belongs to pedestrians and bicyclists as well. The DOT Safety Council is going to look at this report and work with advocacy groups to ensure our streets are as safe as possible.”

Yesterday, Secretary Lahood and DOT responded by turning his words to us from November into official DOT policy with the release of a DOT “policy statement.”

The DOT policy is to incorporate safe and convenient walking and bicycling facilities into transportation projects. Every transportation agency, including DOT, has the responsibility to improve conditions and opportunities for walking and bicycling and to integrate walking and bicycling into their transportation systems. Because of the numerous individual and community benefits that walking and bicycling provide — including health, safety, environmental, transportation, and quality of life — transportation agencies are encouraged to go beyond minimum standards to provide safe and convenient facilities for these modes.

Or as he described it more simply on his Fastlane blog yesterday, “This is the end of favoring motorized transportation at the expense of non-motorized.”

We applaud the Secretary’s work on this issue and are especially thankful for the thousands of you who wrote a letter to Congress or signed our petition to Sec. Lahood urging him to use all the powers at DOT’s disposal to make safe, complete streets the norm all across America. Your voices were heard, and policy has changed.

“This is an issue that has been ignored far too long, even as thousands have died or been injured unnecessarily just by doing something as simple as trying to cross the street,” said T4 America director James Corless.

“We thank Secretary Lahood for his leadership at DOT and for elevating this urgent issue to the level of prominence that it deserves. Americans deserve have a safe route for walking to the store, walking their kids to school, or walking to the bus stop at the end of their block to get to work. Taking these simple steps to consider the needs of everyone who uses a street — bicyclist, pedestrian, or wheelchair user — is exactly what we were hoping for when we took our message into Secretary Lahood’s office last November. It can help us stay healthier by giving us one more option for travel, and Secretary Lahood is spot-on when he says that it’s a key part of making livable neighborhoods.”

This certainly doesn’t mean that the issue is over. As Barbara McCann with the National Complete Streets Coalition reminds us, there is still no official federal requirement for complete streets on projects the feds spend money on. And only a fraction of states, cities, and towns have rules on the books requiring them to ensure the safety of all users when they build or retrofit a street or road.

DOT is saying all the right things in this statement, but they need the legislative authority and money from Congress to line up with their excellent intentions.

So we’ve taken a first step. A big, important leap into a safer world for everyone who uses our streets. But there is more left to do.

TIME Magazine features Dangerous by Design report on pedestrian safety, culminating three weeks of coverage nationwide

This week’s issue of TIME Magazine topped off three weeks of nationwide coverage of Transportation for America’s Dangerous by Design report ranking communities according to the risk for pedestrians.

The excellent TIME piece opens with the tragic story of Ashley Nicole Valdes, “a smart, pretty 11-year-old girl” who was killed while crossing the street in Miami earlier this year and became “a heart-wrenching symbol of South Florida’s notoriously reckless car culture.”

Florida was identified in the report as being the most dangerous for pedestrians. “You see all these people getting run over,” said Ashley’s mother, Adonay Risete, “and you ask yourself: What’s happened to us as people here? We need to get tougher and change attitudes.”

The phenomenal response to Dangerous by Design is a hopeful sign that change may be under way.

More than 150 newspapers, 300 TV broadcasts and 50 radio programs have covered the report, co-authored by the Surface Transportation Policy Partnership, since its release three weeks ago. The report’s findings speak to the need for action: America has a pedestrian fatality rate equivalent to a jumbo jet full of passengers crashing every 31 days. This decade alone, 43,000 Americans – including 3,906 children under 16 – have been killed while walking or crossing the street.

We could make great strides on pedestrian safety by adopting “complete streets” policies, ensuring that roads are designed to be safe and accessible for everyone who uses them, whether motorist, bicyclist, transit rider or pedestrian. You can help by asking your member of Congress to support the pending national Complete Streets Act.

Meanwhile, more than 100 communities and states have adopted such policies, and more are coming. One of the report’s greatest success stories was the swift action of officials in Southwest Florida’s Lee County, who adopted a resolution in support of Complete Streets within 48 hours of the report’s release, and just one day after the local Ft. Myers News-Press editorialized in favor of the policy.

Dangerous by Design was covered extensively in both national and local media, including National Public Radio, TIME Magazine, USA Today, The Christian Science Monitor, The Washington Post, Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, Denver Post, Baltimore Sun, Houston Chronicle, Consumer Affairs, Orlando Sentinel, Detroit Free Press, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and dozens more.

The Kansas City-Star wrote that the Kansas City metropolitan area’s “widely dispersed population and auto-oriented development are doing no favors for pedestrian safety.”

The Minnesota Daily wrote: “With the implementation of Complete Streets…streets wouldn’t be something we simply drove through, but the destination itself.”

And, the Billings Gazette in Montana drew on the experience of T4 America partner Dr. Michael Vlases to link transportation safety and health. “Bringing walking back into daily urban life is not just about aesthetics,” Vlases told the Gazette. “It’s a matter of public health.”

The “room for improvement” designation easily goes to Harris County, Texas, which according to the Houston Chronicle, “has a policy of not installing sidewalks when it builds a new road, unless a group or city provides the extra money. ‘It’s an expense that doesn’t have to do with transportation,’ said Mark Seegers, a spokesman for Harris County Commissioner Sylvia Garcia. ‘The county does not do sidewalks; it’s not what gets cars from point A to point B.’”

Harris County serves as a reminder of how much work there is to be done.

The steering committee for Dangerous by Design included the American Public Health Association, Smart Growth America, AARP, America Bikes, America Walks, the Safe Routes to School National Partnership and the National Complete Streets Coalition. T4 America is indebted to these partners for their work helping create and release this report.

Help us send a message to Secretary LaHood and the USDOT

As our new Dangerous by Design report illustrates, pedestrian safety is a matter of life or death for thousands of Americans each year. With a loss of life equivalent to a jumbo jet going down roughly each month, it is a tragedy that simply does not get enough attention at any level of government. Tragic, because these are preventable deaths, largely on roads that are not safe for walking or biking.

As a follow-up on the release of the report, Transportation for America is working to arrange a meeting with U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, perhaps as soon as next week. At this meeting, we plan to deliver the message from our hundreds of partner organizations and thousands of supporters across the country that safer streets must be a priority!

Sign our petition today and help us send a strong message to the USDOT!

Secretary LaHood has already demonstrated a strong interest in safety with a distracted driving initiative and the creation of a new Safety Council, and we have praised his vocal commitment to livability in our towns and communities. Because the Department of Transportation holds the purse strings, if Secretary LaHood adds Complete Streets to his list of safety priorities, we can ensure that every road project facilitates safe travel for everyone — including vulnerable pedestrians.

So if you have not yet signed the petition, go and sign it now so we can take an enormous stack with names from across the country to Secretary LaHood soon. This is our chance to make a big impression and to let him and the DOT know how many of you care about making our streets safer for everyone.

If you have signed the petition already, be sure to post it to Twitter or Facebook with the links below, or tell a friend about it.

Post about this action on Twitter!

Post a link to your Facebook profile

New York City sees biking go in one direction — up!

All of the videos from Streetfilms are certainly worth watching, but we wanted to call out special attention to this one, especially on the heels of the Dangerous by Design release yesterday morning. With nearly 5,000 people dying every year on our roads while walking or biking, some cities are working hard to bring those numbers down by making biking (and walking) safer and more convenient.

New York City is one of those places. If you looked at the detailed rankings of the largest 52 metro areas in Dangerous by Design, you might have seen that New York is already one of the safest metros in the country when measured with the Pedestrian Danger Index. Part of the reason for that is the relatively low number of fatalities when compared against the high percentage of people who walk to work in the metro area. But that doesn’t mean it’s inherently safe. New York City has the largest share of pedestrians dying in traffic accidents in the country, with pedestrians making up a whopping 31% of all traffic fatalities.

So for the last few years, the City has been committed to making the public realm and their streets safer for walking and biking, and the numbers are bearing it out in a positive way. Watch this encouraging video from the gang at Streetfilms chronicling the huge rise in the numbers of people bicycling in the Big Apple.

Dangerous by Design

What would the national reaction be if a jumbo jet full of passengers went down with regularity every 31 days or so? How loud would the calls be for a fundamental change in airline safety? It’s easy to imagine the shock and outrage if such a thing happened. Yet that is essentially what happens every year with preventable pedestrian fatalities on our nation’s streets and roads.

Every year, nearly 5,000 Americans die preventable deaths on roads that fail to provide safe conditions for pedestrians. This decade alone, more than 43,000 Americans – including 3,906 children under 16 – have been killed while walking or crossing a street in our communities. With more than 76,000 Americans dying in the last 15 years, it’s the equivalent of a jumbo jet going down roughly every month, yet it receives nothing like that kind of attention.

A new report from Transportation for America and the Surface Transportation Policy Partnership, Dangerous by Design: Solving the Epidemic of Preventable Pedestrian Death (and Making Great Neighborhoods), ranks metropolitan areas based on the relative danger of walking.

Download the full report, see the comprehensive rankings and view all of the companion tables of data online right here: https://t4america.org/resources/dangerousbydesign. After you’ve taken a look, ask U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood to make pedestrian safety a priority for the administration. Pedestrian deaths are preventable, and we demand safer streets!

Many of these preventable deaths are occurring along roadways that are dangerous by design, streets engineered for speeding cars with little or no provision for people on foot, in wheelchairs or on a bicycle.

YikesPedestrian Originally uploaded by Transportation for America

Look carefully in the turning lane above the center of the photograph. There’s a pedestrian trying to cross this 7-lane urban arterial road. See any crosswalks anywhere on the road? Photo courtesy of Dan Burden.

Over the last several decades, many of our cities and communities have seen the same shift of daily business from walkable, downtown Main Streets to wide, fast-moving state highways. These “arterial” roads are the new main streets in most communities, drawing shopping centers, drive-throughs, apartment complexes and office parks. Unlike the old walkable main streets, however, the pressure to move as many cars through these areas as quickly as possible has led transportation departments to squeeze in as many lanes as they can, while disregarding sidewalks, crosswalks and crossing signals, on-street parking, and even street trees in order to remove impediments to speeding traffic.

As a result, more than half of fatal vehicle crashes occurred on these wide, high capacity and high-speed thoroughfares. Though dangerous, these arterials are all but unavoidable because they are the trunk lines carrying most local traffic and supporting nearly all the commercial activity essential to daily life.

Before the top 10 most dangerous city rankings, here are just a few facts you might like to know:

Inadequate facilities. Of the 9,168 pedestrian fatalities in 2007-08 for which the location of the collision is known, more than 40 percent were killed where no crosswalk was available.

Spending disparity. Though pedestrian fatalities make up 11.8 percent of all traffic-related fatalities, states have allocated less than 1.5 percent of total authorized transportation funds to projects aimed at improving safety for pedestrians (for funds spent under current transportation bill.) No state spends more than 5 percent of federal transportation funds on safety features or programs for pedestrians or cyclists, despite a 30 percent increase in total federal transportation dollars beginning in 2005.

Complete streets save lives. Providing sidewalks, crosswalks and designing for lower traffic speeds saves lives. Only one in 10 pedestrians deaths occurred within crosswalks, while six in 10 occurred on arterial-type roads where speeds were 40 mph or higher.

The danger is not shared equally. Older adults, disabled and low-income Americans are being killed at disproportionate rates. African-Americans, who walk for 50 percent more trips than whites, and Hispanic residents, who walk 40 percent more, are subjected to the least safe conditions and die disproportionately.

Aging in place, yet unable to leave the house on foot. An AARP poll of adults 50 years and older found that 40 percent reported inadequate sidewalks in their neighborhoods and nearly half of respondents reported that they could not safely cross the main roads close to their home.

Rank	Metropolitan Area	2007-08 Pedestrian Danger Index
1	Orlando-Kissimmee, Fla.	221.5
2	Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, Fla.	205.5
3	Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach, Fla.	181.2
4	Jacksonville, Fla.	157.4
5	Memphis, Tenn.-Miss.-Ark.	137.7
6	Raleigh-Cary, N.C.	128.6
7	Louisville/Jefferson County, Ky.-Ind.	114.8
8	Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, Texas	112.4
8	Birmingham-Hoover, Ala.	110.0
10	Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta, Ga.	108.3

	See the full rankings and download the report

Improving access to healthcare by improving transportation options

Photo by Dan Burden

Yesterday we noted transportation’s impact on health care costs, and how expanding access to public transportation and investing more money in complete streets safe for walking and biking can improve overall health and lower healthcare costs.

At the same time, we should remember that having transportation options and the ability to easily get where you need to go have a huge impact on whether or not you receive care. Folks who can’t get to the doctor or who must wait on rides from family and friends are more likely to stay sick.

A study of over 1,059 households in 12 western North Carolina counties tests the relationship between transportation options and healthcare utilization while adjusting for the effects of personal characteristics, health characteristics, and distance. The report found that people with reliable access to healthcare visited their doctor 2.29 times more frequently for serious illness and 1.92 times more frequently for regular checkups than those who did not.

The ability to reliably and affordably make it to doctor’s visits or healthcare appointments is also a matter of transportation equity. Minorities, households in rural areas, the disabled, and low-income Americans face even greater hurdles because many cannot drive and public transportation is often unavailable, inaccessible or unreliable. (Not to mention public transportation, paratransit or dial-a-ride programs being cut left and right)

We already know Americans are tired of being stuck in traffic and are clamoring for more options for getting around. But they are also demanding prevention as a top health care reform priority, and overwhelmingly support increasing funding for prevention programs to reduce disease and keep people healthy.

Meeting the health care needs of all Americans will require funding infrastructure projects that can create more opportunities for physical activity. The healthcare bill Congress is currently working on is just another opportuniy to demand that transportation options and access issues are more broadly included in the debate. It is not just the cost of care, but the ability to access that care that’s proven to reduce hospitalization rates for chronic conditions.

Planning for the future: Washington’s new Woodrow Wilson Bridge

A New Trail Originally uploaded by M.V. Jantzen.
A bicyclist cruises along I-495/95 on the new Woodrow Wilson Bridge “active transportation lane,” leading to the rare sight of someone not in a car using the Capital Beltway. View more photos of the opening on Flickr from Eric Gilliland, director of the Washington Area Bicyclist Association (a T4 partner.)

Two weekends ago, the 12-foot-wide bicycle and pedestrian lane of the Woodrow Wilson interstate bridge over the Potomac River held its grand opening in Washington DC, filling with bikers and walkers who can now join the thousands of cars that cross the bridge each day.

The bridge, which connects Virginia and Maryland on the southern part of the Capital Beltway, is a vital transportation link in the region, where Interstate 95 (and the large majority of truck traffic) bypasses Washington, continuing north or south along the eastern seaboard.

Hundreds of bicyclists enjoyed a ride across the bridge for the first time ever last weekend, and the renovations to the bridge also added dedicated space for a future transit line — not something you see everyday on an interstate bridge in the United States.

Building a new bridge to replace the 1961 bridge had been discussed for decades, but the planning kicked into high gear in the 1990’s, with Maryland, Virginia, and the federal government all engaged in the process (DC relinquished control to the states.)

The King Street (Virginia) and Branch Avenue (Maryland) Metro stops are separated by just a few miles and the Potomac River, but require a long ride into DC to travel between the two on the Metrorail system. One day, Metro might cross the Wilson Bridge instead.

Looking at a map of the Metrorail public transportation system, one can see that only a few miles separate the end of the green line in Maryland and the yellow and blue lines in Virginia. There was no active work to connect the two lines, but a handful of people in the planning process wondered about dedicating some space on the bridge for a future, useful Metro connection.

Parris Glendening, Governor of Maryland from 1995-2003, said that planning for a future transit connection was just common sense.

“Those stations are just a few miles apart as the crow flies, but no one in Maryland who has a choice is going to ride all the way up into DC to switch trains and ride all the way back out to Virginia — and end up only a few miles from where they started,” he said. (more…)

Today’s briefing on Complete Streets — and the view from Decatur, Georgia

Decatur Mayor Bill Floyd Originally uploaded by TimothyJ

Mayor Bill Floyd of Decatur, Georgia helped get complete streets policies adopted in his city, resulting in a safer, more livable enjoyable city. Tell your representatives to support the Complete Streets Act of 2009 in the House and Senate.

With the Environmental and Energy Study Institute and a few of our key partners this morning, Transportation for America held a briefing on Capitol Hill about Complete Streets — and how putting complete streets into the next transportation bill will go a long way towards improving health, safety and livability for Americans.

Tell your representatives to support the Complete Streets Act of 2009 in the House and Senate.

Decatur, Georgia Mayor Bill Floyd, one of the panelists, told the story of how building complete streets in Decatur have made the city safer and more livable for its residents and visitors. Decatur, a city of about 18,000 just six miles east of downtown Atlanta, adopted ‘complete streets’ policies to ensure that their roadways get designed and improved for all users. But it wasn’t easy to do, and Mayor Floyd said they still face numerous hurdles from the state government.

Why do we need a federal law? Because current plans require variances from GDOT (Georgia Department of Transportation). For every project, it takes a variance. If we got a bike and sidewalk approved, and went back for another one, we’d have to get another variance. Federal laws are applied differently from state to state even.

Just like many Georgia cities, it has several state-maintained highways that pass through it. And those get treated the same way by the Georgia Department of Transportation whether they run through urban Decatur or rural south Georgia.

He pointed specifically to a mid-block crosswalk in downtown — where pedestrians come and go all day long from the MARTA transit hub, shops, and restaurants — with a raised crosswalk and a yield sign in the road between the lanes of traffic. He pointed to a photo of the crossing and noted “that mid-lane crossing sign is in violation of GDOT — they call it a vehicle impediment.” They succeeded in getting the road de-classified as a state highway — a long, difficult process, but one that resulted in them being able to control the design of the road.

One of the biggest reasons why Decatur wants streets safe for walking and biking has to do with their 3,000 children. The city, while only 4 square miles in size, has its own school system with pre-K all the way up to Decatur High School right off the city square. As a result many kids in the city should be within a mile of their school, and those children should be able to walk or bike to school. “Kids love to walk to school and ride those bikes,” Mayor Floyd said. But the streets just weren’t safe enough.

They utilized money in the Safe Routes to School Program (yes, the one proposed for cuts) to improve the safety of their streets, giving kids the chance to be outside and get some incidental exercise on their way to and from school.

Research shows that well-designed sidewalks, bike lanes, intersections, and other street features to accommodate all modes of travel can significantly reduce injuries, deaths, and automobile crashes. Communities adopting the complete streets approach are discovering additional benefits including higher rates of physical activity among residents—an important factor for improved health—and more vibrant business districts and neighborhoods.

Tell your representatives to support the Complete Streets Act of 2009 in the House and Senate.

Aloha Complete Streets!

Great news coming out of Hawai’i today, where a burgeoning coalition of passionate advocates were able to get a statewide complete streets policy signed by the Governor. (For more background on Complete Streets, visit T4 America partner the National Complete Streets Coalition.)

The One Voice for Livable Islands Coalition brought together biking, walking, health and other advocates to help raise awareness about the dangerous situation on Hawai’i’s roads — and how a complete streets bill could help make the streets safer and more accessible for everyone.

“This bill is great for Hawaii,” says Jackie Boland, Associate State Director for coalition member AARP Hawaii, in the One Voice release (.doc). “We’ve been very concerned about the number of pedestrian and cycling fatalities and are pleased that Hawai’i’s policymakers have decided to proactively address this issue at the planning stages of a transportation project.”

There were a total of 54 pedestrian fatalities in the last three years, and per capita, Hawai’i is the most dangerous state for pedestrians over 65. Local station KGMB reported on the increase in seniors and the policy.

With the elderly population expected to double in the next two decades, AARP Hawaii is calling for safer, complete streets. “Complete streets are desperately needed,” said Lolena Nicholas, AARP Hawaii. The complete streets law would take into account all users of the road. Not just cars but bicyclists, pedestrians, the elderly and disabled.

Hawai’i’s policy comes right on the heels of an executive order from Delaware Governor Markell, directing the Delaware state transportation department to create a policy to “promote safe access for all users, including pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists and bus riders of all ages to be able to safely move along and across the streets of Delaware.”

Hawai’i’s bill marks the 92nd policy at any level passed in the U.S. But even as cities like Rochester, MN and states like Hawaii are passing their own policies, there is still a chance to get complete streets enacted at the federal level — requiring that any roads built with federal dollars consider the needs of all users while in the planning process.

Complete streets bills are still circulating in Congress, and T4 America and The National Complete Streets Coalition are looking for legislators to sign on and co-sponsor these important bills.

It’s not too late. Write your member of Congress today and tell them to support or co-sponsor this important legislation.

“A small group of committed individuals can and often do make a difference.”

Bus Ride 9_26_07 013 Originally uploaded by Transportation for America

Dr. Scott Crawford being told that he can’t ride a JATRAN bus because the lifts don’t work. (Please credit photos to Dr. Scott Crawford)

Policy may get made here in Washington, but transportation, mobility and safety are truly local issues. The kinds of transportation investments that we’re pushing for aren’t luxuries — they’re essential necessities that enable Americans to get where they need to go, safely and affordably.

It’s high time that we made sure we invested in a transportation system that is safe and accessible for everyone.

So why is access to transportation choices and safe, complete streets so important?

Just a couple of months ago, Dr. Scott Crawford sent us this sobering story about a friend of his in a wheelchair who was struck and killed by the driver of an SUV while in the shoulder of a main highway in Jackson, Mississippi. With no options for a safer way to travel — broken lifts on buses and a lack of sidewalks on main streets — 66 year-old James Smith was riding in his motorized wheelchair in the shoulder of Medgar Evers Boulevard in Jackson.

A collision in the middle of the road resulted in the SUV rolling into the shoulder, where he was crushed underneath the vehicle. (No one was charged.) Dr. Crawford told WAPT that it was only a matter of time due to the conditions of the streets in Jackson.

“I feel very sad for his family. It breaks my heart to see older adults riding in the streets in wheelchairs because they have no alternative.”

Dr. Crawford has been a tireless advocate for complete streets in Jackson, as well as more funding and accessibility compliance for the transit agency there. You may remember his story about the broken bus wheelchair lifts, inadequate transit facilities, and how unsafe and inaccessible most of the thoroughfares are for the handicapped or disabled in Jackson, Mississippi.

He told us in late 2008 that “they recently cut the budget for our transit system by 1.5 million dollars, and they are being sued by a consortium of people with disabilities for violations of civil rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act (me being one of the plaintiffs).”

image004 Originally uploaded by Transportation for America

These are the 5 new paratransit buses that JATRAN ordered, in part due to Dr. Crawford’s efforts. (Please credit photos to Dr. Scott Crawford.

But after several discouraging updates from Dr. Crawford, he sent us this development last week:

I figure you’re ready for some *GOOD* news from Jackson! The class action lawsuit I filed in Federal Court has started to result in some changes for the better: the city just bought 5 new paratransit buses for the JATRAN system, and they should be on the road this week. I’ve enclosed pictures if you are interested in posting them.

The suit is also pressuring the city to buy three new lift vans as “back-up” transportation should people like me be stranded by non-working lifts (but they have yet to arrive). The city also tells me (not yet in writing) that they will buy 13 new fixed route buses by November. It’s a start!

As he told us, “a small group of committed individuals can and often do make a difference.” So things are looking up in Jackson, right? They’ve got 5 new paratransit buses ready to hit the road and serve the estimated 16,000 citizens of Jackson who are physically disabled. Well, almost.

The new buses, while great, are yet to be put on the road due to insurance delays and inefficient paperwork.

Jackson is not alone, and it’s certainly not all their fault.

This is the current state of transit agencies in many of our smaller communities like Jackson. They are chronically underfunded and neglected by city or county governments. And more often than not, woefully ignored by State Departments of Transportation mostly concerned with using their federal transportation dollars to pour new asphalt and open new highways.

Public transportation and safe, complete streets are not just something for big, urban cities. And for people like James Smith and Dr. Scott Crawford in communities big and small, it’s a basic question of equity.

Tell Congress that you’re ready for them to step in to help the more than 11 million people who are facing transit service cuts, fare increases, or job losses in almost 100 communities across the country.

Do you have a story like Dr. Crawford’s you’d like to share? Send it to transitcuts@t4america.org

Congress takes a step towards “completing America’s streets”

Before and after of a complete street. Tell Congress to support complete streets.

Did you know that almost half of all the trips we take each day are under three miles? So why aren’t more of us walking or biking for some of these shorter trips each day? Frankly, most of our streets just aren’t designed for safe and comfortable use by everyone — and almost all of us are pedestrians at some point during each day.

Complete streets are safe and accessible for everyone that needs to use them — cars, transit users, bicyclists, pedestrians, young, old, disabled, and everyone else.

Over the last two days, Complete Streets bills have been introduced in both the House and Senate.

Introduced by Sen. Tom Harkin in the Senate, and Rep. Doris Matsui in the House, these bills need our support — and more congressional sponsors. (Sen. Tom Carper and Rep. Ellen Tauscher, Rep. Carolyn Maloney, and Rep. David Wu are the current co-sponsors.)

Complete streets make it possible for children to walk and bike to school safely, give seniors more security traveling to appointments, and provide everyone with safer, greener and more convenient ways of getting around without their cars.

Photos of La Jolla, California before and after by Dan Burden

For the last few years, local governments have been the ones leading the way. More than 80 state and local governments have passed ordinances mandating that new road construction provide a full menu of transportation options to meet the needs of everyone using the road. As you can see from the quote from Mayor Diaz in Miami at right, mayors — and the cities they lead — have seen and experienced the immeasurable benefit that complete streets provide for their communities.

Now we need Congress to take the next step.

“Rates of childhood obesity have tripled in recent years, and mayors clearly understand that this is due in large part to the lack of a pedestrian infrastructure. In opening streets to multiple modes of transportation, we are enabling a more active lifestyle by providing the option to get out of cars. America’s mayors strongly endorse transportation policies that integrate transportation, energy, environmental and public health.”

– Mayor Manuel A. (Manny) Diaz, President, US Conference of Mayors, Miami

With these bills in Congress, we have a chance right now to make sure our streets are safe and inviting for everyone who uses them — not just those driving cars.

The Complete Streets Act (H.R. 1443 and S. 584) would direct state and metropolitan transportation authorities to adopt and implement complete streets policies for upcoming federally-funded transportation projects.

Complete streets provide a full menu of transportation options to meet the needs of everyone using a road — pedestrians, cyclists, the disabled, and users of public transportation. They are cost-effective because they save money on retrofits and reduce congestion, improving conditions for existing businesses and attracting new development. They help us reduce our oil dependence by making it easier for people to leave their cars at home. And complete streets improve safety for everyone and encourage healthy and active lifestyles, saving all taxpayers money in future health care costs.

Write your member of Congress today and tell them to support or co-sponsor this important legislation.

From the National Complete Streets Coalition release:

The gradual conversion to complete streets will reduce crashes, deaths, and injuries, particularly the almost 5,000 annual fatalities and 70,000 injuries among vulnerable road users such as pedestrians and bicyclists, including older Americans and children. Studies have found that designing for pedestrians by installing raised medians and redesigning intersections and sidewalks reduces pedestrian risk by 28 to 40 percent, and some treatments reduce automobile crashes as well.

More resources:

» Press release from Rep. Matsui’s office.
» Press release from Sen. Harkin’s office.
» More about Complete Streets from T4 coalition member The National Complete Streets Coalition.
» Guest post from Barbara McCann with the CS Coalition at the Infrastructurist
» Read the press release from the National Complete Streets Coalition. (pdf)
» Questions? Ask away in the comments. Some experts might stop by to answer.