Smart Growth Around America

The public health community, increasingly alarmed over Americans’ increasing waistlines, has sided wholeheartedly with the need to make our streets safe for walking and biking.
But it was still big news this week when CDC researchers pushed forward community recommendations for preventing obesity in the highly-influential and trusted Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR).  Out of [...]

The report featured in last Thursday’s Washington Post (“Highway Conditions Contribute to Over Half of Fatal Auto Crashes”) got it half right: highway design does affect safety. But the argument that road and bridge widening is a cure for fatalities is wrong. That recommendation could have been written in 1959, and has been refuted on the ground in projects around the country.

Pediatricians should help work against conventional suburban development (top) and for traditional neighborhoods (lower). Why? For starters, so kids can walk to school again. AAP’s Policy Statement includes this drawing by Duany, Plater-Zyberk. A version of the drawing is available at http://www.dpz.com/research.aspx, Diagram #25.

Yesterday, the American Academy of Pediatrics adopted a ground-breaking policy statement on [...]

Tell your Members of Congress to support Complete Streets today!

Half of all trips taken in metro areas are three miles or less and 28% are one mile or less — yet 65% of those trips take place in a car.
A recent poll from the National Association of Realtors found that 83% of respondents would prefer [...]

Investing first in repair and maintenance can prevent another disaster like Minnesota’s I-35W bridge collapse. Tell your Governor to invest in the future with smart, proven, ready-to-go transportation spending.

Creative Commons Flickr photo by Poppyseed Bandits.

Earlier this week, we highlighted a new Smart Growth America report that details 20 proven and ready-to-go ways for states to [...]

Guest post by Barbara McCann, coordinator of the National Complete Streets Coalition
A new poll out from AARP documents how incomplete streets are making it tough for older Americans to avoid paying the high price of gasoline.  Almost 40 percent of those polled say they don’t have adequate sidewalks in their neighborhood, 55 percent say that [...]

Guest post by Barbara McCann, coordinator of the National Complete Streets Coalition
As Americans watch the seemingly inexorable climb in gas prices, many are looking at their streets in a new way. They are looking for streets that can give them more than a way out of their neighborhood – they need a way out [...]

Walking in the ditch to Pleasant View Elementary School in Franklin, Wisconsin on an incomplete street, left, and a complete street that is safe and accessible for all users, right.

updated 5/3/08: Photo source of left photo added at bottom.
If you’ve been feeling pinched at the pump lately and tried cutting down on gas by walking [...]

I’m just a Bill on Capitol Hill…

I just wanted to announce a new action page on our website that covers all of our current work on federal policy. It’s a great place to go to learn more about the legislation moving on the Hill right now — and what you can do about it. We’re [...]

Complete streets consider the needs of all users — and are safer for walkers, bikers, and drivers.
Updated: a few edits made below, and links to bill and factsheet added.
The push for livable streets achieved a victory this week, as Sen. Tom Harkin (Iowa) introduced an important piece of legislation, co-sponsored by Sen. Carper [...]

The most-read story on Indianapolis’ Channel 6 website this morning who took the task of “completing the streets” into his own hands. Muncie resident and Ball State U. grad student Whitney Stump got tired of seeing cars constantly rolling through the stop signs in front of his house at a four-way intersection.
So he called [...]

As we usher out 2007 and look to 2008, here are a few recent victories from the policy front — some of which were finalized in just the last few weeks.
EPA Smart Growth funding restored
There won’t be coal in the EPA Smart Growth office’s stocking this year. Though the program had been threatened with a [...]

What are complete streets?To learn more, visit www.completestreets.org or check out this quick illustration from AARP on what a complete street might look like.

What was simply a loose confederation a few years ago of bicycle, pedestrian, and safety advocates seemingly yelling into the wind has become an organized coalition making significant traction in policy and [...]

I’ve seen this photo in a handful of places this week. It’s an illustration from the city of Munster, Germany, and can be found on the city’s website:

As you may be able to tell, it’s a visual illustration of how much roadway space the same number of travelers take up in individual cars, a bus, [...]

A local foundation has launched an audacious effort to make the southwest Virginia community of Martinsville/Henry County a paragon of walking, biking and healthful physical activity. The Harvest Foundation is investing $1.56 million over three years to transform the furniture-making town into “a place where bicycling and walking are deeply valued and integral features of vibrant and healthy life in the region…”