AT-Network December 2013

at-network@lists.umanitoba.ca

4 participants
16 discussions

Enrique Penalosa: Why buses represent democracy in action

by Beth McKechnie

[You may recall that Enrique Penalosa, with his brother Gil Penalosa, started the Ciclovia / carfree routes movement.] "An advanced city is not one where even the poor use cars, but rather one where even the rich use public transport," says Enrique Peñalosa. In this spirited talk, the former mayor of Bogotá shares some of the tactics he used to change the system in the Colombian capital ... and suggests ways to think about building smart cities of the future. http://www.ted.com/talks/enrique_penalosa_why_buses_represent_democracy_in_…

10 years, 4 months

City of Winnipeg 2014 Capital Budget

by Beth McKechnie

Have your eyes glazed over already? I'm hoping not. In fact, I hope you will consider sharing this with your networks or speaking up through your organization about the following: *First – at a time when many of us are calling for an increase in City planning staff to work on AT issues, there are cuts instead. * We are about to lose a transportation planner position at the City that serves as a bridge between the planning department and public works. Given the City's commitment to integrating land use and transportation planning through OurWinnipeg <http://speakupwinnipeg.com/ourwinnipeg/>, Complete Communities<http://speakupwinnipeg.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Complete-Communities.…>and the Transportation Master Plan <http://transportation.speakupwinnipeg.com/>, this is a serious blow. We need more people who understand Complete Streets<http://greenactioncentre.ca/content/complete-streets/>, not fewer. As Winnipeg Free Press columnist Dan Lett<http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/blind-cuts-sign-of-cowardice-2341888…>described the staffing cuts at the City, it's like cutting off an appendage to lose weight. *Second – the Osborne underpass, a serious gap left unaddressed in the first phase of the Southwest Rapid Transitway, is now being pushed back till 2019.* It was previously in the budget for 2.5 million in 2015 and another 2.5 million 2017. It is now slated at 2.5 million for 2019. For more details on this and other aspects of the capital budget, please see Bike Winnipeg's written submission<http://bikewinnipeg.ca/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Bike_Winnipeg_2…> . Finally, on a related note, the U-Pass<http://www.umsu.ca/22-general/u-pass>for students and transit is apparently not going ahead. If you share these concerns, please contact City Councillors and the Mayor. (http://winnipeg.ca/council/contact.stm) thanks, Beth

10 years, 4 months

Canadian Municipal AT Policy Map & webinar

by Beth McKechnie

[Interesting item courtesy of the PACM e-newsletter. Note that I have registered Green Action Centre for this webinar and booked the EcoCentre boardroom in case you care to join us here for a group viewing. Will send out a reminder invite closer to the date. -cheers, Beth] The Canadian Partnership Against Cancer (CPAC) has a new tool to help you find active transportation policies from across Canada. The *Canadian Municipal Active Transportation Policy Map *is a bilingual, customized, google map pre-populated with active transportation policies from the Prevention Policy Directory. To add your community's policy in 5 minutes or less . . . call Chris Politis at 1-416-915-9222 ext. 570 or email: christopher.politis(a)partnershipagainstcancer.ca *CPAC is hosting a free webinar on this new tool on January 16th/2 pm -3:30 pm EST.* Click here to register for this webinar<http://recconnections.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=8de91dae132ff629742…>

10 years, 4 months

Fwd: Active Transportation Canada - New Posts - December 4, 2013

by Beth McKechnie

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Michael Haynes <activetransportation(a)rogers.com> Date: Wed, Dec 4, 2013 at 9:22 AM Subject: Active Transportation Canada - New Posts - December 4, 2013 Active Transportation-Canada Listserv Members: The last notice for Active Transportation-Canada was sent on November 25. Since then, 45 new items have been posted. May I suggest you examine: 1. What Your Street Grid Reveals About Your City<http://activetransportation-canada.blogspot.ca/2013/12/what-your-street-gri…> 2. ‘Free’ streets, highway network an illusion<http://activetransportation-canada.blogspot.ca/2013/12/free-streets-highway…> 3. A Tale of Two Suburbs<http://activetransportation-canada.blogspot.ca/2013/12/a-tale-of-two-suburb…> 4. Walkable Cities are Good News for Small Business<http://activetransportation-canada.blogspot.ca/2013/12/walkable-cities-are-…> 5. Halifax cycling group pushing to make helmet laws extinct in Nova Scotia<http://activetransportation-canada.blogspot.ca/2013/11/halifax-cycling-grou…> 6. Why Correcting Misperceptions About Mass Transit May Be More Important Than Improving Service<http://activetransportation-canada.blogspot.ca/2013/11/why-correcting-mispe…> 7. Edmonton planning to ‘winter proof’ contentious 106 Street bike lanes<http://activetransportation-canada.blogspot.ca/2013/11/edmonton-planning-to…> 8. Council approves master plans for building the future Ottawa<http://activetransportation-canada.blogspot.ca/2013/11/council-approves-mas…> 9. One hour's driving costs 20 minutes of life, study says<http://activetransportation-canada.blogspot.ca/2013/11/one-hours-driving-co…> 10. Dad on Foot Arrested for Refusing to Wait in Line of Cars to Get Kids<http://activetransportation-canada.blogspot.ca/2013/11/dad-on-foot-arrested…> A complete list of all articles posted since the Websites creation may be found in the "Blog Archive" box, located on the right margin of the Website. There are now *2,500+* news items, reports, studies, and articles posted on Active Transportation - Canada, with links available to dozens of studies and hundreds of news items from communities across Canada and around the world. Active Transportation Canada URL: http://activetransportation-canada.blogspot.com/ "Search" function is available on the site. You will find this at the bottom of the page. If anyone has a problem reading this message, please let me know. I welcome suggestions for posts, so if you have news items featuring your community, please share them with the other subscribers from Canada, the US, and Australia on Active Transportation-Canada. Thank you. Michael Haynes Director TransActive Solutions

10 years, 4 months

An old-style new development

by Anders Swanson

[Land-use planning and residential block layout are at the heart of active transportation planning, but whereas bike paths make for sexy news, we rarely see examples/articles about the former. Here though is an interesting article on a new form of Manitoba Housing development planned for Winnipeg. From the article, and the accompanying graphic, I can't exactly work out how it is supposed to accomplish it, but according to the article "....it has that walkability aspect, where cars are kind of in the background and the focus is on pedestrians." - Anders] More: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/columnists/an-old-style-new-develo… >From today's free press.

10 years, 4 months

Fwd: News Release: Study Reveals More K-8 Children Are Walking to School

by Jackie Avent (ASRTS)

New research from the US shows that the rates of K-9 students walking to and from school are increasing across the border. It's interesting to note the significant importance of the schools being supportive of and encouraging walking and cycling, as well as the importance of investing in infrastructure, safety education and safe routes to school programming to help the shift occur. Between 2005 and 2009 the federal US government established a National Safe Routes to School program and dedicated $612 million to programming in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Jackie ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: National Center for Safe Routes to School <news(a)saferoutesinfo.org> Date: 2 December 2013 08:01 Subject: News Release: Study Reveals More K-8 Children Are Walking to School To: asrts(a)greenactioncentre.ca New research from the National Center for Safe Routes to School shows that more K-8 students are walking to and from school across the country. Is this email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser<http://us2.campaign-archive2.com/?u=55978ef31b4a403489524d3b8&id=b0420f1cf7…>. [image: SafeRoutes, National Center for Safe Routes to School]<http://saferoutesinfo.us2.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=55978ef31b4a403489…> Go to SafeRoutes website<http://saferoutesinfo.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=55978ef31b4a4034895…> News Release Study Reveals More K-9 Children Are Walking to School *School support of active transportation a critical component* *CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (Dec. 2, 2013) – *New research from the National Center for Safe Routes to School – based on parent survey data collected by nearly 4,700 U.S. schools from 2007 to 2012 – shows that more K-8 students are walking to and from school across the country. According to the data, the percentage of K-8 children who walked to school in the morning increased from 12.4 percent to 15.7 percent (representing a 27 percent increase). Similarly, the percentage of K-8 children who walked from school in the afternoon increased from 15.8 percent to 19.7 percent (representing a 24 percent increase). “We have heard anecdotally that more families are choosing active transportation for everyday trips, and this first-ever large dataset provides evidence that this is indeed the case for the trip to and from school.” said Lauren Marchetti, director of the National Center for Safe Routes to School. “This encouraging news illustrates the importance of continuing to invest in building safer infrastructure, promoting safety awareness and continuing programs like Safe Routes to School.” Another significant finding of this research was that the percentage of parents who reported that their child’s school supporting walking and bicycling for the school commute rose from 24.9 percent to 33 percent. “School support for walking and biking is an important element in parents’ decisions to allow or to encourage their children to make this transportation choice,” Marchetti continued. “And, as nearly 15,000 schools have benefited from Safe Routes to School funding across the country, this is an exciting finding. Together, schools, families and communities can help integrate physical activity into daily life.” The full report, *Trends in Walking and Bicycling to School from 2007 to 2012*, analyzed parent survey data collected by nearly 4,700 schools located in all states and DC from 2007 through 2012. The surveys represent more than 525,000 K-8 school children across the country. Parent surveys are not considered representative of all households, instead they give insight into communities where walking to school was slightly more feasible than average (for example, rural schools are under-represented in the study). Surveys came from schools with ranging amounts of SRTS activity, from those seeking SRTS funds to get started to those actively conducting SRTS programs. The complete study and a companion piece for practitioners, *Trends in Walking and Bicycling to School: Takeaways for Building Successful Programs*, is available online at www.saferoutesinfo.org/program-tools/school-travel-trends-2007-to-2012<http://saferoutesinfo.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=55978ef31b4a4034895…> . *Additional findings* - Although walking increased among students who attended low-, medium- and high-income schools, walking increased especially among students who attended low-income schools (schools where at least 75 percent of students were eligible to receive free or reduced price meals). - Although schools located in suburbs, towns, and rural areas showed higher rates of walking over time, walking increased especially at schools located in cities. - There was a small but statistically significant decrease in bicycling to school between 2007 and 2012, from 2.6 percent to 2.2 percent in both the morning and afternoon. - Using the bus decreased significantly between 2007 and 2012. Within one mile of school, the largest shift between travel modes occurred between busing and walking, with busing decreasing significantly and walking increasing significantly. Marchetti added, “While the study does document a small decrease in bicycling, there are reasons to believe that bicycling is gaining traction among children and families. The first National Bike to School Day was held in 2012 and the number of events grew 80 percent in 2013. As this support for bicycling to school continues to grow, we think we’ll see the numbers go up. And we do plan to examine the numbers again in 2014.” # # # *About the National Center for Safe Routes to School* Established in May 2006, the National Center for Safe Routes to School assists states and communities in enabling and encouraging children to safely walk and bicycle to school. The National Center serves as the information clearinghouse for the federal Safe Routes to School program with funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration. Part of the University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center, the National Center also provides technical support and resources and coordinates online registration efforts for U.S. Walk to School Day and facilitates worldwide promotion and participation. For more information, visit www.saferoutesinfo.org. *Media Contact:* Doug Nicholas 919-843-8854 Nicholas(a)hsrc.unc.edu like us on Facebook<http://saferoutesinfo.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=55978ef31b4a4034895…>| forward to a friend<http://us2.forward-to-friend1.com/forward?u=55978ef31b4a403489524d3b8&id=b0…> *Copyright © 2013 National Center for Safe Routes to School, All rights reserved.* You are currently subscribed to receive periodic information from the National Center for Safe Routes to School, such as news releases, updates and our e-newsletter Safe Routes Matters, because you opted in at www.saferoutesinfo.org/newsletter-sign. *Our mailing address is:* National Center for Safe Routes to School 730 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. Suite 300, Campus Box 3430 Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3430 Add us to your address book<http://saferoutesinfo.us2.list-manage.com/vcard?u=55978ef31b4a403489524d3b8…> - unsubscribe from this list<http://saferoutesinfo.us2.list-manage1.com/unsubscribe?u=55978ef31b4a403489…> - update subscription preferences<http://saferoutesinfo.us2.list-manage.com/profile?u=55978ef31b4a403489524d3…> - view email in browser<http://us2.campaign-archive2.com/?u=55978ef31b4a403489524d3b8&id=b0420f1cf7…> -- *Jackie Avent* | Active and Safe Routes to School Green Action Centre <http://greenactioncentre.ca/> 3rd floor, 303 Portage Avenue* | *(204) 925-3773 Green Action Centre is your non-profit hub for greener living. Support our work by becoming a member<http://greenactioncentre.ca/support/memberships/> Find us here<http://greenactioncentre.ca/content/ecocentre-directions-and-travel-options/>

10 years, 4 months

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AT-Network December 2013