Gathering Community Support – Eagle Rock Takes Back the Boulevard

Take Back the Boulevard is an initiative created by residents to improve the quality of life in Eagle Rock through equalizing the mode share on Colorado Boulevard. In Eagle Rock, Colorado Boulevard is the main thoroughfare, a 6 lane roadway connecting major highways and freeways. A more equitable mode share on Colorado Boulevard will facilitate more transportation options and economic opportunities. On the Boulevard, 83% of the distance between one store front to another – 120 feet – is dedicated to vehicular traffic only. Of the 120 feet of public space, including sidewalks and roads, pedestrians and bicyclists are confined to 20 feet of area.

Riverside County Health Department Uses Bar Codes to Measure Walking Program

The Orrenmaa Elementary School, in the City of Riverside, instituted Safe Routes to School National Walk to School day and Walking Wednesdays in 2010, supported by the Riverside County Health Department’s (RCHD’s) Injury Prevention Services. In the past two years, approximately 200 students from the elementary school regularly participate in the Walking Wednesday program out of a total school population of 800 students. The continued success of the Safe Routes to School Program encouraged RCHD and the school district to elevate the program through piloting a new on-line evaluation program using bar code scanning technology to measure walking data.

On Wednesday, May 2, 2012, the school is one of the early adopters of this bar code scanning technology to walking and bicycling programs for to presenting real time data and active transportation metrics. Participating students will carry key tags, shaped like a shoe, on lanyards on their way to school (pictured below on the right). Once students arrive at school, parent volunteers will scan the tags using wireless bar code scanners. Then, the data will be uploaded onto a website administered by the Safe Routes To School program. Parents are given the option to receive an email or text letting them know that their child arrived at school. At the same time, Orrenmaa will add two more programs for students: (1) Running Club/Fit Fridays and (2) Special Needs students will be given the opportunity to earn rewards by walking/rolling during recess.

Safe Routes to School Regional Plan – San Diego County

Why?  “A regional strategy will ensure that the tools provided are germane and that resources are focused in areas across the region with the greatest need for assistance.”

Porter Elementary, San Diego Photo Credit: Safe Routes to School National Partnership

In March 2012, the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) adopted a Regional Safe Routes to School Strategic Plan. Now the Transportation Agency is working to implement, in partnership with stakeholders throughout the County, this important plan to enhance and build upon the region’s existing efforts.

Now that the Strategic Plan has been adopted, the recommendations will be prioritized.  The plan calls for a phasing and financing strategy to be developed and a needs analysis to define areas that will receive priority for some of the resources recommended in the strategy

SANDAG began developing the Strategic Plan in September 2010 with funding through the County of San Diego Health and Human Services Agency (HHSA) Healthy Works program.

San Diego’s Regional Safe Routes to School Strategic Plan

Students at Porter Elementary in San Diego. Photo Credit: Safe Routes to School National Partnership

Sign onto our comment letter to Regional Transportation Planning Agency in San Diego County – help strengthen Southern California’s first Countywide Safe Routes to School Strategic Plan

Safe Routes to School Southern California Network and signatory organizations congratulate San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) for releasing the Draft San Diego Regional Safe Routes to School (SRTS) Strategic Plan.  It is an excellent start for a regional strategy to improve safety, increase walking and bicycling trips to school and further integrate those trips into Regional Transportation and Land Use Planning.

SANDAG can play a vital role by adopting clear data standards and providing technical assistance for SRTS programs.  We recognize SANDAG does not implement SRTS projects. However, SANDAG has the authority to execute valuable planning and policies, monitoring, collaboration,  and evaluating that supports counties, cities, communities, researchers, organizations and community groups.  SANDAG can play a vital role by adopting clear data standards and providing technical assistance for SRTS programs.

View SANDAG’s Draft Regional Safe Routes to School Plan

Read our Comment letter and sign onto it by emailing jessica@saferoutespartnership by 2/13 to be included.

Cost to Build a Walkable and Bikeable SoCal in 25 years: $40 Billion

Los Angeles County Department of Public Health Estimates SCAG region needs $40 Billion to build and support a healthy, walkable and bikeable SCAG Region.

Walking in Baldwin Park, CA. Photo Credit: HEAC on flickr

Background

In December of 2011, the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) released the draft 2012 Regional Transportation Plan/Sustainable Community Strategy (RTP/SCS) which will determine funding and set transportation priorities in the Southern California Region for the next 25 years.  The RTP outlines the specific projects  and the amount of funding available for different travel modes.

In Southern California 21 percent of all trips are made by people walking and bicycling (2009 National Household Travel Survey) and  25 percent of all roadway fatalities are bicyclists and pedestrians (2012 SCAG RTP).   In addition, 24 percent of the residents in the SCAG region suffer from obesity with some populations reporting rates of up to 49.6 percent.  This data points to an enormous need for infrastructure improvements for active transportation.  The 2012 RTP/SCS allocates $6 billion dollars to bicycle and pedestrian projects over the course of the plan.  This amounts to a mere 1.1 percent of the total $524.7 billion allocated over 25 years.  Given the discrepancy between estimated funding in the RTP/SCS and the need for improvements to active transportation networks, it became apparent that a cost estimate was needed for building and maintaining these networks.

Burbank City staffers and residents are local Bike Angels

Bike Angels Making Holiday Wishes Come True!

A Bike Angel hard at work. Photo Credit: Ferris Kwar

Every year the Burbank Salvation Army solicits donations from the community to help local families. “When families come in to fill out the Angel Tree tags, they usually include what the kids need, like socks, shoes and other clothing,” said Salvation Army Lt. Kari Rudd. “But what the kids want is a bicycle — it’s the tree topper of all toys.”

Bike Angels, a volunteer group of city employees and local residents from Burbank, is looking for donations and volunteers for this upcoming holiday season. The group refurbishes donated bicycles to “store-bought” condition and gifts them to kids in the community through the Salvation Army’s Angel Tree Program. Organizations currently involved include: Los Angeles Bicycle Kitchen, Burbank Fire Fighters Association 778, and the Burbank Police Department.

Bike Angels is looking for donations of old children’s bikes and/or volunteering at one of their four bike repair parties each month and doing some dirty work!  With the great turnout last year, the program is hoping to build upon that success and expand their reach.

Southern California Regional Active Transportation Peer Exchange

PART I: SANDAG Relates to Active Transportation

Alan Thompson, Gayle Haberman, Jessica Lim, Tony Jusay, Alexis Lantz and Alex Oster dialgoue at Regional Active Transportation Peer Exchange, May 2011.

In May, 20 people representing over ten different organizations and agencies in Southern California working on regional walking and bicycling strategies, came together to share their best practices.

You can review the meeting’s agenda and notes, as well as the questions that guided the discussion on County Safe Routes to School Programs and SANDAG’s Regional Safe Routes to School white paper online.

The meeting had two primary questions for the afternoon’s discussion:

1. What can a Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) do to promote Active Transportation
2. What can be done at the county level to promote Safe Routes to School?

Human Impact Partners Releases: SB 375 Performance Metrics

Photo Credit: heacphotos on flickr

Human Impact Partners, an organization that works to ensure health to be included in public policies and planning decisions, has finalized their recommendations, as developed with other partner organizations, for the use of including performance metrics in transportation planning. 

The documents are meant to ensure that the implementation of SB 375 progresses as healthy and equitably as possible.  With the intent of planners and advocates using the metrics to assess health and equity measures in their communities, the document provides resources which help to transform the policies and places in which people live.

These valuable metrics encourage public health agencies, transportation advocates, planners, and those involved with climate change issues to determine ways in which the metrics can most effectively promote health and equity in their region.

Alliance for a Better Community and Importance of Joint Use

Healthy Spaces, Healthy People: Creating Safe Environments Through Shared Use

Photo Credit: The City Project on flickr

In 2010, the Department of Public Health and Human Services, through Communities Putting Prevention to Work, awarded the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (LACDPH) $15.9 million to address the rising obesity epidemic. LACDPH’s Renew Environments for Nutrition, Exercise & Wellness in Los Angeles County (RENEW LAC) has taken a comprehensive approach to reform health through local initiatives to address the policies, systems, and environment in which communities work, live, and play.

Changing the landscape of the built environment has been key to addressing its disproportionate impacts on the health of disadvantaged communities of color. Los Angeles is ranked last in the amount of open space available for recreation and physical activity among all major cities, with only 1.1 acres of open space for every 1,000 residents, with certain areas in Los Angeles having access to less.  Funded by the LACDPH, the Alliance for a Better Community (ABC) has developed the Joint Use Generating Activity & Recreation (JUGAR) project to increase physical activity among youth and families to decrease the prevalence of obesity.

Watch a great overview of the program in this video:

Caltrans streamlines Adminstrative burdens on Educational and Encouragement Grants

photo credit: pablotrdinc/SCOOP on flickr

Announcement: DLA Office Bulletin 11-10 NEPA Compliance for Non-infrastructure Projects has been posted to the Local Assistance website

Many Safe Routes to School federally funded applicants for non-infrastructure programs (education and encouragement) have voiced their concern over the significant administrative burden in getting projects underway that involve no construction yet are required to follow lengthy federal environmental requirements.  It is exciting to see Caltrans take a important step in alleviating those burdens and continuing to work to streamline the process and help get projects underway in a timely manner. This is a issue that happens in all States – it’s exciting to see California do what it can to support streamlining and reducing administrative burden for Safe Routes to School education and encouragement programs.