What does the National Household Travel Survey tell us?

The 2009 National Household Travel Survey (NHTS) from the Federal Highway Administration is a dataset which inventories the daily travel choices of the nation while allowing website users to quantify, analyze, organize, and interpret the mode share data to fit their needs. This most recent update has an added focus on nonmotorized travel choices. The information obtained from the website allows researchers and others in a wide variety of fields to display relationships between transportation and other aspects of their lives.  Per 2009 NHTS California data, we now know 25% of Californians walk (23%) and or bike (2%) to school.

One More Push Needed for regional SRTS funding and complete streets in the Bay Area!

photo by sfbike

The Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) released a new revision of the One Bay Area Grant proposal. Thanks to the advocacy of many of us, the new proposal has made significant changes to improve active transportation.

Regional Safe Routes to School funding was increased to $20 million over four years, after having been threatened with massive cuts. That’s a big win for our children!

Also, counties and cities will be required to adopt complete streets resolutions in order to receive One Bay Area Grant funding. This will go a long way to ensuring the Bay Area is friendly to bicyclists and pedestrians.

TAKE ACTION: We need one more push to cement these gains!

SCAG Recommends Active Transportation Policies but No Funding Changes

At the March 21st Southern California Association of Governments’ (SCAG’s) Joint  Policy Committees’ meeting, committee members recommend that the Final Draft of the Regional Transportation Plan and Sustainable Communities Strategies (RTP/SCS) be adopted at the upcoming April 5th General Assembly.  Active transportation and public health advocates once again made up the overwhelimng majority of speakers during the public comment period demanding additional funding and planning for active transportation.

Unfortunately, despite the repeated input from the public, the proposed final version of the RTP/SCS allocates a mere $6.7 billion dollars for active transportation over the next 25 years.  This amounts to a mere 1.3% of the total RTP/SCS budget despite the fact that active transportation accounts for 21% of all trips in the SCAG region and that the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health estimates that the true need is in the range of $40 billion.

Attend the Transportation Choices Summit on May 1 & 2 in Sacramento

Photo by jglazer75

Please attend the Transportation Choices Summit on May 1 & 2 in Sacramento. Registration is open!

Californians need real transportation choices that are safe and affordable, and promote walking, biking, and transit. Our economy, environment, and quality of life depend on it.

Safe Routes to School National Partnership and other amazing organizations are on the steering committee for this event, organized by TransForm. Come together this May 1 and 2 in Sacramento to learn, develop common strategies, and send a powerful message that California must support real transportation choies that are sustainable and equitable.

A limited number of scholarships are also available. Hope to see you there!

Pedestrian Safety in Rancho Cucamonga

The City of Rancho Cucamonga (RC) is located 40 miles east of Los Angeles. RC is a place where the Mojave Trail, the Old Spanish Trail, the Santa Fe Trail, former U.S. Route 66, and El Camino Real converge. It is a unique community “inspiring a lifestyle that embraces a healthy mind, body, and earth through active transportation.”  RC’s complete Healthy Living program is available on their website.

On January 25, 2012 the California Department of Public Health conducted a pedestrian safety training program in Rancho Cucamonga. The training brought many stakeholders: RC police department, public health advocates, bicycle advocates, school teachers, RC city staff, planners, consultants, non-profit organizations, and residents. It also provided interactive exercises on risk communication and a brainstorm session on road safety.

RC’s local news station covered the event and posted the video on the city’s website and Vimeo channel. See Healthy RC Living episode 32, minutes 4:50 to 9:00.

Take Action to Support SRTS & Active Transportation Funding in the Bay Area

Photo Credit: HEAC on flickr

The Metropolitan Transportation Commission’s (MTC) One Bay Area Grant proposal will provide $250 million to cities and counties for transportation projects. We need to take action to ensure these projects support active transportation. Thanks to everyone’s advocacy, we were recently able to save Regional Bay Area Safe Routes to School funding from elimination, but full funding has not been restored, and there is insufficient criteria to ensure funding won’t be used primarily for road rehabilitation projects at the expense of bike and pedestrian projects.

We joined with the Bay Area Bicycle Coalition to provide comments (view our letter by clicking here) recently, and now MTC needs to hear from you!

Reach out to MTC Commissioners. We need to urge the commissioners to contact MTC staff to express our concerns. The main points to address are the following:

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.

Sign on to our Comment Letter for SCAG’s 2012 Draft RTP/SCS

Help us increase funding for Active Transportation 

The Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) has recently released the draft of the 2012 Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) and Sustainable Community Strategy (SCS).  The RTP/SCS lays out transportation and land use policies for the next 25 years in the Southern California Region.  It will determine the types of projects that are built and the amount of funding available for active transportation and Safe Routes to School (SRTS) programs.

The Safe Routes to Schools National Partnership (SRTSNP) is coordinating public comments to the RTP/SCS at upcoming Regional Council Meetings and will be presenting out comment letter to SCAG on February 14th.   While we are generally, supportive of the plan, the SRTSNP is concernced with several aspects of the 2012 RTP/SCS.  Below is a summary of the changes we would like to see in the RTP/SCS.

Please consider reading our entire comment letter and signing on to voice your support for these changes.

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.

Help increase funding for Active Transportation in the 2012 RTP/SCS!

The Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) has recently released the draft of their 2012 Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) and Sustainable Community Strategy (SCS).  The RTP/SCS lays out transportation and land use policies for the next 25 years in the Southern California Region.  It will determine the types of projects that are built and the amount of funding available for active transportation and Safe Routes to School (SRTS) programs.In the coming weeks SCAG will be holding a series of public workshops and hearings in each represented county (Ventura, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Orange, Riverside, and Imperial) to give the public (that means you) a chance to submit your comments and talk with SCAG staff about the plan.

The Safe Routes to School National Partnership is actively engaged in advocating for active transportation and SRTS projects in the 2012 RTP/SCS.  Our Southern California Policy Managers (Rye Baerg and Pauline Chow) will be on hand at these meetings offering our suggestions and engaging with stakeholders.  Our goals are to increase funding for active transportation, solidify a commitment for a regional complete streets policy, ensure that social and environmental justice are prioritized, and to fast track existing and planed bicycle and pedestrian projects.

We encourage you to share your thoughts on the 2012 RTP/SCS by attending these meetings.  Future meeting dates can be found here.  If you can attend please contact us to coordinate our strategy!