Los Angeles County Active Transportation Coalition attends Metro Policy Meeting

Los Angeles County leaders speak out for walking, bicycling and safe routes to school and complete streets in Los Angeles County at LAC Metro Policy Meeting 4.17.13

The Los Angeles County Active Transportation Coalition is launched and is excitedly taking its first steps! Join us!

Today partners from across the Los Angeles County region, representing Long Beach, Downey, El Monte, South Los Angeles, and organizations like Community Health Councils, Cali Bike Tours, Bike San Gabriel Valley, Advancement Project, the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition, Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health provided testimony at Metro Policy and Programming committee in support of efforts to increase funding for walking, bicycling, safe routes to school and complete streets efforts in Los Angeles County.

This group is coming together in support of increasing Los Angeles County Transportation investments for walking and bicycling projects past the 1% allocated in the County 2009 Transportation plan (Metro 2009 LRTP, p.15).  With close to 20% of all trips in the County (2009 NHTS data) on foot or bicycle, and close to 40% of the roadway deaths (2010 SWITRS data) people out walking and bicycling, organizations and individuals are coming together to speak out to address and change this.

Recap of Los Angeles County Active Transportation Coalition Meeting on 3/27/13

Los Angeles County Active Transportation Coalition Meeting March 27, 2013

Last Wednesday over 35-45 people came together at the Wallis Annenberg Science Center to discuss policy needs and goals for the Los Angeles County Active Transportation Coalition.  It was an exciting afternoon with lots of great discussion and feedback.  Multi-modal/complete streets investments and equity were a key and recurring part of the entire afternoon.  Please see our meeting notes here and pictures from the afternoon here.

In order, to fully leverage these co-benefits of walking and bicycling and their connection to riding public transit, Los Angeles County must build out the active transportation network around its expanding rail system and largest public bus system in the state. Active transportation is crucial to the success of implementing projects that support state and regional policies, such as the Sustainable Communities Strategies from state legislation SB 375 and Active Transportation Program from the implementation of MAP-21, forthcoming Cap and Trade revenue, acceleration of Measure R investments (motion at Board this month) and other pending opportunities.

Fully Funded Fellowship Opportunity in Southern California: New American Leaders

The Southern California Leadership Network is excited to share with partners the launch of their 2013 New American Leadership Fellowship . This program will compliment SCLN’s existing signature Fellowships (Leadership LA, Leadership Southern California and California Connections).

The goal of the program will be to be to foster cross-cultural communication and explore the common interests between our region’s immigrant community and larger groups of Southern California stakeholders. The program will be comprised of 13 monthly, three-hour sessions. Candidates should be emerging community leaders who self-identify as first or second generation Americans. The application deadline is March 15, 2013 and the class is launching on April 3. This will be a quick and competitive recruitment process, so they highly recommend interested candidates to apply soon!

The tuition for the inaugural class of New American Leaders Fellowship has been generously underwritten by the California Community Foundation. Would be excellent to see this inagural cohort class include leaders from community planning, transportation, housing, education, public health and other key sectors in Southern California that would greatly benefit from more diverse leadership.

Safe Routes to School Strategic Plan for the City of Los Angeles: Get involved!

The City of Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT)  invites you to save the date for Thursday, March 21, 2:00 – 4:00 in the Caltrans Building (100 Main Street, LA 90012 in Conf Room 1.040B) to review milestones and progress to date on the city’s forthcoming Safe Routes to School Strategic Plan.

The City of Los Angeles is prioritizing need for infrastructure improvements among their 495 schools that fall within the City’s boundaries.  This has been something the SRTSNP and many other partners have been working alongside LA DOT and partners both internally and externally.  Among the many things about this effort that inspire me – is the relationship between the school district and transportation planning agency underway with this effort – not to mention current efforts to loop in community based organizations.  And I love how data is informing this project prioritization effort – it’s inspiring to see the City of Los Angeles endeavor toward this.

Complete Streets in Los Angeles County

Today, many are soaking up the knowledge and networking with great peers in Complete Streets work in downtown Los Angeles at the UCLA Luskin Center’s Complete Streets Conference. Coincidentally, right down the street from this conference at Metro’s Board meeting today, the board took at step towards exploring Complete Streets as well and approved a motion from the Policy and Programming Committee, see item #18 of board agenda.  The agenda item included an amendment for report back with research and evaluation of current checklists, designs and call for projects on complete streets and multi-modal related criteria. Full list of action items included below.

The Safe Routes to School National Partnership, Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition and many other partners and supporters have been discussing how the County could elevate their support of active transportation. We are pleased to see Metro leadership and staff respond by adopting #18 of the board agenda today.

Metro is currently reviewing 2013 Call for Project applications from local jurisdictions, and interestingly enough almost half of the Call for Projects applications this year were for walking and biking projects. Cities are voting with their time and energy and walking and biking are their priorities.  And today the Metro board began steps to consider addressing these local priorities and allocate additional money to walking and biking projects in this cycle as well as look at other key ways Metro investments can support all modes in every project.  Today’s motion calls for a staff report back in April.

Los Angeles County Active Transportation Coalition Meeting 3/27

Save the Date for the Los Angeles County Active Transportation Coalition Meeting on Wednesday March 27th at 2pm at Exposition Park in Los Angeles

Join the Safe Routes to School National Partnership, Prevention Institute, Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition, Los Angeles Walks and partners and friends from all over Los Angeles County to discuss Transportation Policy and Investments to improve the built environment for our communities.

This event is open and free for all to attend, but RSVP’s are required and space is limited so sign up today!

LA County: Why Is It Important to Understand Transportation Finance?

In Los Angeles County, the popular narrative says that everyone drives all the time, and transportation policy has largely reflected this social understanding.  However, active transportation modes are a significant form of mobility, calling into question the truth of the dominant narrative.  As Los Angeles County implements state and regional policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, such as the Sustainable Communities Strategy from State Legislation SB 375, active transportation will play an even more important role in the transportation system, requiring additional investment to achieve regional objectives of clean air, healthy populations, reduced congestion, safe mobility options for all, and economic prosperity.  As the County Transportation Commission, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) is the primary agency responsible for planning, funding, and operating a regional transportation system in which:

• 19 percent of all trips made in Los Angeles County are completed on foot or by bicycle (2009 National Household Travel Survey: 17.6 percent walking and 1.4 percent bicycling);
• 34 percent of Los Angeles County students walk and bicycle to school (2009 National Household Travel Survey); and
• 39 percent of Los Angeles County roadway fatalities are people walking and bicycling (SWITRS 2010);
• One percent (1%) of Metro’s funding is dedicated to pedestrian and bicycling projects (Metro LRTP 2009 p.15)

Research shows that when streets are designed for safe walking and biking, fewer people are injured and killed in automobile collisions and more people walk and bike.  Designing streets safe for walking and biking entails building and maintaining a network of sidewalks, bikeways, and street crossings that create safe and comfortable walking and biking environments that connect to transit, commercial centers, schools, parks and other destinations. Further, streets safe for walking and biking are designed to reduce vehicle speeds.

Advancement’s Project: Using Budgets as an Advocacy Tools

Advancement Project understands the power of analyzing and understanding public budgets as a way to make social change. AP’s Equity in Public Funds program demystifies and makes public budgets accessible, specifically for community organizing and advocacy groups. This past year, they released Following the Money: Understanding Los Angeles City’s Finances and Impacting the Budget, and they will be providing a free training at their offices in Echo Park:

Free Training for Advocates
Following the Money: Understanding the L.A. City Budget
Friday, March 15, 2013
9 am – 12 pm

To register or for more information, contact Deanna Cooke at dcooke@advanceproj.org or (213) 989-1300.

Advancement Project has also created “Following the Money” tools for understanding Los Angeles County and the Los Angeles Unified School District budget.

2013 Safe Routes to School National Conference Opens Call for Session Proposals

2013 Safe Routes to School National Conference Opens Call for Session Proposals:  The Call for Session Proposals for the fourth biennial Safe Routes to School National Conference has officially opened. The conference, Building on Success—Projects, Programs, People, will be held August 13-15, 2013, in Sacramento. The Call for Session Proposals is open from January 7 through February 15.

The Call for Session Proposals Instructions and online Submittal Form are available on the conference website. All proposals must be submitted using the online form. This process should be used to submit any proposals for breakouts, workshops, tours, mind mixer sessions or networking activities. Click here to access the form and instructions.

Learning from Food Policy Advocates – Los Angeles Food Policy Council

Bi-monthly meeting of Los Angeles Food Policy Council – photo credit: LAFPC’s facebook

I attended my first LA Food Policy Council meeting in the Spring of 2012 and was blown away by the amount of people attending (over 75!), the diversity of perspective, ages and approaches all coming together in a welcoming setting to address Food Policy – and was quickly struck by the thought, “how amazing would this be to have a gathering table like this for active living ideas.”

Many partners working on active transportation policy, safe routes to school, public safety, shared use, green space, and other ways to increase safe places to play, travel and transform our LA built environment are interested in coming together at a larger collective table as the Los Angeles Food Policy Council has effectively demonstrated.  So, this week, several partners working on Active Living Policy, sat down with LAFPC staff for a conversation on their history, creation and lessons learned.