Walk 21 Conference October 7, 2009 NYU

Walk 21 – NYC Conference

WALK 21 CONFERENCE – OCTOBER 7, 2009 – NYU

Welcome: Janette Sadik-Khan

Lynne Brown, NYU NYU is largest private university in the world, with 50,000 students 75% of students come from outside the metro area; we believe that we’re propagating a walking culture; students come from Atlanta, Dallas, Houston,… and “we rip that car culture out of them in four years and send them out into the world”

Rodney Tolley, Walk21 Conference director, organized 10 Walk21 conferences now Director of Center for Urban and Sustainable Transport at Staffordshire Walk 21 is a UK-based nonprofit In the early days, a colleague said “they walk, talk, think, and drink” Support professionals with:  Updates on walking profile and policy, aimed at political decision-makers  Local guidance through master classes  Help cities benchmark themselves – “Making Walking Count”  Conduct tailored national seminars Held first global conference on walking in London in 2000  Sydney, Madrid (?), Portland, Copenhagen, Zurich, Melbourne, Toronto, Barcelona 650 delegates here from:  65% local NY-area professionals and activists  35% global, from more than 30 countries in every continent Meet people this week “literally from all walks of life”

Mayor Marcelo Ebrard, Mexico City: Changing the mobility paradigm Elected representative in 1997, and subsequently mayor Has made environmental protection and control of greenhouse gases a priority Requires [department heads?] to come to work by bicycle on at least the first Monday of every month, because he wants them to be aware of the challenges cyclists face By 2050, our world pop of 6.7 billion is projected to add another 3 billion, and most of that growth will happen in cities Asserts that automobilies as a mode don’t meet the needs of people and communities Only a global concerted effort will succeed to slow the global warming

Robin Holzer revised 4/5/18 page 1 of 34 Walk 21 – NYC Conference

“More cars provide only growing immobility” Working to make Mexico City more livable:  Banning parking on some streets  More sidewalks  Building network of bicycle paths  New subway line(s) and extensions  New “metrobus” BRT corridors with exclusive lanes and ergonomic buses  Connecting public areas because community centers are essential to civil society  Establishing car-free areas, especially in historic downtown “We need to redesign our city and we started two years ago; our challenge is to build a new economy and a more equitable social well-being” Thanks to NY for leadership and commitment to sustainability

Our challenge is to build political will to do it worldwide; let us start today with our own neighborhoods

Janette Sadik-Khan, NY DOT – World class streets NY has 6,000 miles of streets; we have a lot going on and “we wouldn’t be here talking about [ped] improvements if we weren’t taking care of the basics” to make streets safe and workable Michael Bloomberg launched PlaNYC framework for a greener, greater NY in 2007 Walking has always been essential to getting around NY but has not always been recognized in plans and projects New effort focuses on the quality of places Not that long ago – in 1990 – almost one pedestrian a day died on NY streets; By 2007, NY traffic fatalities are at their lowest level since the department started keeping records Goal is to make NY the safest city on earth; target to cut ped fatalities 50% from 2007 levels; remaking New York City’s public realm [Transportation Alternatives subsequently conveys it’s still more than 200 people a year]  Safe routes to schools – will triple the number of 20 mph zones in the next year  Negotiated with school construction authority to include traffic safety/calming elements in all new schools going forward  Safe routes for seniors, because seniors are overrepresented in ped fatalities; used demographic mapping and crash data to identify 25 areas to target for traffic calming and six are underway; have already seen a 43% drop this year in senior ped fatalities

 Using complete streets approach to all street reconstructions; adding traffic calming elements and shortening the pedestrian crossing distances; 9th Ave project in Chelsea (added bike lanes and refuge islands): have seen 50% drop in injuries since project  Creating more space for pedestrians  wider sidewalks  New public plaza program has created popular new places to gather New Yorkers are tired of plans that take generations to come into being; implementation that shows people results is critical People take advantage of the space as soon as they place the orange barrels; “people are hungry for places to come and meet people”; NY has been a city without seats and they’re working to change that Repurposed 3 ½ acres of public space from travel lanes into public plazas, from Broadway to Herald Square Now closing 7-mile length of Park Avenue (car-free street program) on three consecutive Saturdays; each day, 50,000 people have taken advantage of it to walk, bike, roll, etc.; have expanded the program to all five boroughs  Adding public art  Adding automatic pay toilets  Adding bike racks “Doing everything we can to up the quality of the walking experience in New York” Eleven city agencies worked together over two years to develop new street design manual for the city: one standard is new sustainable “DNA” for streets of New York Next effort is to promote the health and mobility connection; working with health department to document how street improvements are changing behavior

Brookings panel: business case for walking

Chris Lineberger, land-use strategist; how to redevelop dense urban, LOCUS developer consortium Great American universities are great in part because of the vibrant urban cities around them; rising in rankings as they embrace walkable urban development in the surrounding community America is the home of sprawl; but a new shift started in the mid-1990s; recognition that creating walkable urban development creates real estate value To buy US, $210 trillion; 35% of US assets in built environment US is 3rd fastest growing country in absolute population increase, behind India and Pakistan Transportation drives development, dictating where buildings and other infrastructure go, molding our metro regions

Changing visions of the American Dream:  Agricultural economy: farms  40 acres and a mule  Industrial economy: one third of all jobs were directly or indirectly related to cars and paving roads for them  drivable suburban development so you can “see the USA in your Chevrolet”  1960s – 2000: most development grew in “favored 90-degree angle” coming out of downtown; different cities grew in different directions, away form historic location of local minority housing  Knowledge/experience economy  choice of walkable urban or drivable suburban For 50 years, developers have built almost only drivable suburban projects, and now that they’ve gotten “good” at it, the market is changing Structural shift is driven by Millennials; argue that our television shows are a reflection of what our culture wants, showing an aspirational future  Boomers lived in urban places but grew up on Leave it to Beaver, etc.  Millennials lived in suburbs and grew up on Friends, Sex and the City, Cheers In 1950s, half of households with children; 2000 only 33% of households with children Over next 20 years, only 14% of new households will have children; 86% without Sentiment of boredom with drivable suburbanism: move out for ease of access by car, open space, and clean air; but as development follows, you get less of what you wanted: more congestion, less open space, and more pollution; “more is less” Further, owning and operating the necessary automobiles is getting damned expensive

US average % of income 19% transport 32% housing Drivable suburban 25% 32% housing Walkable urban 9& 32% housing AAA argues that it costs $7,800 a year to own and operate a Toyota Corrolla for 15,000 miles a year; translate that into $150,000 of mortgage capacity Getting rid of one car from the household fleet creates huge increase in mortgage carrying capacity Preference is split in thirds; but supply of walkable urban is only 5-10% in most US cities; huge pent-up demand drives up prices Arthur Nelson in JAPA: projects demand loss of 22 million units for large lot detached housing; projects gain of 56 million units demand for small lot and attached housing between now and ??? Current price data suggests people will pay 40-200% price/foot premium for walkable urban housing CEOs for Cities, Aug 2009 study of how walkability raises home values; controlled for size, socioeconomics, home type (not school quality); found 1 Walkscore point is worth

$500-3,000 in value; concluded “walkability is strongly associated with higher housing values in nearly all US metropolitan areas” Building walkable urban places is different, more complex to manage, and riskier than building drivable suburban; each new element adds value if its within walking distance of existing assets, but adds complexity; like teaching NASCAR drivers to fly fighter jets Brookings “Footloose and Fancy Free” field survey, Dec 2007, found that Washington DC has more walkable areas per capita than any US city, followed by Boston, San Fran, Denver, and Portland; NY as a whole city came in 10th; only 12% of NY Metro area lives in walkable areas of Manhattan, Brooklyn, etc.; No argument that Manhattan has the finest walkable places in the country, but its suburbs are the next frontier; NY has 21 regionally-significant walkable, transit-served communities; will need 80-100 more to meet pent-up demand Lineberger identifies five types of walkable urban locus  Traditional downtowns  Downtown adjacent: Dupont Circle, Midtown Atlanta, Midtown Houston  Suburban Town Center: Beverly Hills, Redmond WA, Satmford, Pasadena  Suburban redevelopment: Ballston, Belmar, Friendship Heights, Santana Row  Suburban greenfield “lifestyle” centers: Reston Town Center, Valencia Town Center Must also address affordable housing, both short- and long-term; current US strategy is “drive until you qualify” which means low-income families are trading time and gas expense for housing

Short-term strategies for housing affordability Long-term strategies  Standard tax credit and vouchers  Focus credits and vouchers on walkable  Next generation of Hope VI urban places  Inclusionary zoning  Create more walkable urban places (increase supply, decrease prices)  Trade subsidies for impact fees  Infill for less expensive infrastructure  Allow granny flats in residential mortgages  Build second half of transport system:  Location-efficient mortgages transit End subsidies for far-flung suburban development; Brookings estimates currently between 10 and 22:1 subsidies to extend infrastructure to the fringe versus cost of serving existing urban locales Book: The Option of Urbanism: Investing in a new American dream

Sarah Gaventa, UK Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) http://cabe.org.uk “The government’s advisor” on architecture, urban design, and the built environment; see themselves as a “critical friend”; since 1999

Funded by government; runs public campaigns; works only in England so far; materials are free on website Website: http://sustainablecities on preparing cities and towns for a changing climate Sheffield rail station in Yorkshire; local project spent $14 mm UK to convert front area dominated by car/taxi parking into public pedestrian space because most people walking or using public transport Shifting priority: pedestrians  cyclists  cars Says more cyclists are killed by being squished against barriers than hit by trucks; must get rid of roadside barriers Report: Paved with Gold CABE is working to demonstrate the links between creating safe/attractive spaces, walkability, and property values; used regression analysis to demonstrate value Improved walkability reflected in retail space and flat prices, after correcting for distance to transport Pedestrian Environmental Review System (PERS) scale like walkscore; 1 point on PERS scale worth ~5% increase in property prices Key elements: dropped curbs, tactile paving and colour contrast, smooth, clean, well- drained surfaces, high-quality materials, high standards of maintenance, sidewalks wide enough to accommodate all users, no pinch points, possible obstructions placed out of way, enough crossing places in the right places; plus character/place and street trees/shade, Project partnership with Transport for London produced case studies of 10 locations; This Way to Better Streets; concluded that diverting investment from highways to public streets is a better public investment Also making the case for public parks: Making the invisible visible; proposes a framework for valuing public park assets; implications for both maintenance, renewal, and investment; implications for who manages park assets and how they’re compensated Yes, money grows on trees: proximity to parks add 5-7% to residential values Unforeseen side effects: increasing value can lead to gentrification; rent hikes can drive out existing businesses which isn’t necessarily a good thing; making improvements more gradually and tactically can help local businesses stay and improve Another risk: homogeneity; selecting improvements (fixtures, furniture) out of catalogues trades character for “high quality materials” that make distinct places all look the same Private management can create white collar requirements (discrimination against users) in what should be egalitarian, democratic spaces

Discussion Q: Christine asks about parking Lineberger: in drivable suburban development, parking dictates how much you can

Robin Holzer revised 4/5/18 page 6 of 34 Walk 21 – NYC Conference build; parking isn’t going away; suburban calls for 5 spots per 1,000 sqft commercial space; in urban places, even with a 40% transit mode split, you still need parking for the other 60% and it probably has to be decked Paving surface lots: $3/sqft; structured parking is $25/sqft; underground is $50/sqft; and it’s hard to amortize parking costs with the development Lineberger argues that governments should not subsidize private parking; rather, government should build and operate structured parking with a long-term cash flow return on investment mindset; will operate at a loss for perhaps 10 years, but significant revenue after that Q: Lineberger article in The Atlantic about “the next slums”; surplus suburban sites; concern over slum conversion; some will be bulldozed; some will become group and rental housing Gaventa: making suburbs sustainable will require attracting businesses to locate there Q: streetscape design; self-censor designs to reduce project costs; asks about funding mechanisms Gaventa: UK uses section 106 public space fund from development impact fees; partner with private entities to fund improvements Lineberger: volunteer effort has legs; can also use nonprofit, voluntary business improvement districts where businesses tax themselves; says T4 is talking about “asset value capture” to get private entities to fund public investments asserts need budget of $3-10 mm/year to maintain 24-hour walkable urban places Gaventa says good streets have mass public appeal; easy “vote getter” to motivate elected champions Q about relative school scores in suburban and urban places, and relation to school investment Lineberger asserts that public school quality follows land use; as middle class people return to urban places, both teacher quality and parental involvement improve, driving up student performance Lineberger expects that 30% of demand for walkable urbanism will be met in central cities, but 70% will be met in transforming suburbs Q: old view saw walking as mode of poor people who cannot afford to protect their children with a metal box; now see walking as mode for rich people Gaventa: Twenty years ago Margaret Thatcher famously said that a 30-year old on a bus is a failure; cycling is also very middle-class; she and partner don’t drive; went from being socially-awkward couple who can’t get anywhere to being revered eco-warriors; but cars remain aspirational for have-nots around the world Lineberger agrees that streetcars went from being normal to déclassé to hip again; built environment (buildings and transport) account for 70% of greenhouse gases in US, so

Robin Holzer revised 4/5/18 page 7 of 34 Walk 21 – NYC Conference hope people get it; see private investment following rail transit but not buses, so argues that’s what US needs to pursue Gaventa: singing bus stops in Leeds with color detectors Q: asks about Lineberger’s definitions Lineberger says they don’t have data yet; don’t know where “Midtown” ends, or how many square feet are there, what floor-area ratio (FAR) is, or density; also they only looked at regionally-significant places with jobs and retail, and not bedroom communities Q: need to invest in public places Gaventa: our public purse will be empty for the next decade; long-term maintenance must be built into projects, but also where things get cut Lineberger: park maintenance is the first thing cut in a recession; police and fire are last; argue that parks need a dedicated tax line item (Minnesota does this); place management is also increasingly recognized as important, primarily by business improvement districts that have cash flow to maintain places Gaventa adds that relating public streets and places to other agendas like public health will raise their import; in UK, demand for public events and activities has gone up 100% since recession began Q: hard for advocates to promote improvements in neighborhoods that are aware of gentrification and implications of rising property values; seeking examples of cities that manage balance between great public places, affordable housing, and retaining small businesses Gaventa recommends “Space Shaper” as a toolkit to capture what locals like about a place, to make sure stakeholders get on the same page; includes post-project assessment; having the right conversations is essential Lineberger points to Montgomery County, MD as a place that has used “inclusionary zoning” to ensure significant affordable housing is developed; best example is Pearl XXX that has achieved 10% affordable housing requirement; worked with UC Irvine to develop for-sale housing with prices capped permanently at 60% below market rate

Evaluating pedestrian projects

Moderator: Daniel Sauter, Urban Mobility Research, Switzerland

Spencer Clark, Transport for London, Borough Walking Manager [email protected] http://www.tfl.gov.uk Delivers 140 walking schemes annually in London; helped develop the PERS audit methodology Mayor Boris is “keen” on cycling and walking; committed to making walking as enjoyable as possible TfL funds and delivers new ped projects; also does “walking monitoring”

Used to focus on single projects; now focus on route and area schemes to deliver whole contiguous routes; also do personal safety schemes; new ped crossings Measure projects for success and failure, and to justify continued investment in walking; understand indirect benefits; have been measuring for 4+ years Select 7-8 projects per year for evaluation; conducted by independent experts; adjust methodology for each scheme; results are published and free on website Produce a guidance booklet on monitoring pedestrian schemes Methodologies:  Ped numbers; automatic ped counters (lasers), CCTV  Activities in public space analysis (APSA), CCTV  Attitudinal and opinion surveys, survey staff London has 33 separate boroughs Pedestrian street from park-drive-park configuration: Collect data for 14 days: 7 in year before improvement and 7 days one year later; always collect in same calendar month for results consistency Laser-based automatic counters were only 80% accurate; relied on CCTV for counts  new scheme increased number of people using street APSA analysis denotes individuals as circles, color-coded for what they’re doing: commercial activity, informal sitting, formal sitting, standing/walking; then buying food, eating/drinking, phoning, smoking, talking, browsing shop windows  showed that new ped scheme changed how people were using the space, and increased representation of both women and seniors, and increased group size; increase perception of safety and sociability Bridge crossing: Wider bridge led to more cyclists pushing bikes and lower cycle speeds when crossing, presumably because of reduced conflicts Personal safety monitoring: Mayor is committed to reducing perceived fear of crime, which is a barrier to walking; using increased ped lighting, improved footways, pigeon- proofing, and cleaning; use ped counts  22% increase in ped counts; also increase in women; used attitudinal surveys  significantly improved perceptions of lighting, general condition Ped crossings: new crossing intended to increase shopping in area; measured both counts in flows leading to/from crossing and number in crossing  counts on both sides up 8-27%, crossing counts up but not relative to flows; one side of street benefited more than the other Conclude that all of the schemes have had some benefits, though some unexpected; justify continued investment in walking; recognize that monitoring methodologies cannot be one size fits all Cathy Buckley, Boston MPO asks about weather and crime data: Spencer says that for the projects he talked about, they did not correct for weather and did not look at actual

Robin Holzer revised 4/5/18 page 9 of 34 Walk 21 – NYC Conference crime statistics; but for new projects they’re looking at more factors to build a stronger case

Thomas Gotschi, Rails to Trails Conservancy Director of Research, [email protected], USC PhD Epidemiology Invest in trail development; but also focus on federal non-motorized transport policy US Section 1807: Nonmotorized transportation pilot program Fund pilot projects to construct a network of nonmotorized transport infrastructure Demonstrate the extent to which walking and bicycling can take mode share Includes program assessment requirement calling for statistical analysis Four communities – Marin County, Minneapolis, Columbia MO, and Sheboygan County – each got 425 million for 2006-2010 for projects; Congress did not allocate funds for post-project evaluation Data from Portland and Crooker (?) analysis shows that bicycle mode share is highly correlated with investment in bicycle facilities Invest in both infrastructure and programs for expected benefits:  Increase total NMT (nonmotorized miles traveled) and mode share/split  Increase VMT avoided (NMT-VMT conversion)  Decreased congestion and energy use; better health and cleaner environment Nonmotorized miles traveled (NMT) Portland has measured daily bridge bicycle traffic from 1991-2008 Look both at absolute NMT, and also changes in trends of NMT to show that projects/interventions make an impact Use annual counts and intercept surveys to benchmark and bookend Local counts are challenged by spatial variability; it matters where you measure; time of day, seasonal, weather, and special events all impact data  need longer count times Population-based surveys like Census and American Community Survey, and National Household Transportation Survey provide bigger picture but are vulnerable to recency effects of recall; snapshots versus travel diaries Random sampling will overrepresent motorists; use oversampling to increase responses from cyclists/pedestrians, then correct statistically afterward VMT avoided: how many miles of driving are avoided by one mile of walking or biking? Depends on context In a transport context, it matters whether someone is biking to the store or for exercise (utilitarian vs recreation); in a health context, that distinction matters less

Also, recognize that roadway constraints (one-way streets) mean some driving trips are longer than the replacement walking trip; also consider walking to Kroger vs driving to Whole Foods further away Estimating benefits: fuel savings, CO2 reduction, and reduced pollutants are straight- forward to estimate; health care savings and health in terms of Statistical Value of Life are probably doable; but congestion relief is tricky to show; economic impacts, infrastructure savings, and effects on land use are difficult to demonstrate Report: Active Transportation for America http://railstotrails.org/AFTA includes monetary value of benefits of current and future bicycling and walking in the US Evaluation is key to a success story; adjust goals to means; more complexity is not necessarily better

Carl Sundstrom, UNC Highway Safety Research Center BA/MA CivE from GA Tech, [email protected] (919) 843-4963 UNC is home to a FHWA-funded national clearinghouse called the Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center; developing project called Walk Friendly Communities Operates three websites: http://walkinginfo.org, http://bicyclinginfo.org, and http://pedbikeimages.org Just launched a free webinar series PBIC helped the League of American Bicyclists develop the Bike Friendly Communities initiative; evaluates, benchmarks, and recognizes bicycle-friendliness; 108 communities in US now designated as gold/silver/bronze; promotes media attention and awareness Want the Walk Friendly program to encourage walkable communities (cities) in a similar way; also educate communities through resources and applicant feedback Started with a literature review and white paper; looked at transferability of other initiatives; like Florida’s seal of walkability Recruited APBP technical advisory group (10) and a national advisory group (18 orgs) including AARP, CDC, LAB, LGC, ITE, EPA, FHWA Teaching and assessment tool includes 8 sections:  Community profile – demographics, weather, etc.  Status of walking  Planning  Education and encouragement  Engineering  Enforcement  Evaluation  Additional questions

Each section includes an introduction and definitions, a rationale as to why it matters, and relevant research and reference case studies that give ideas for how to improve But result is draft tool is 48 pages (with rationales) versus 10 pages for the BFC app; pilot testing tool in 3 communities Next steps: develop reviewer evaluation criteria and a draft “report card” for feedback to applicant cities; intend to finish by Feb 2010; working on fund raising and marketing Safe routes to schools programming can include international Walk to School Day in October, Walking Wednesdays, etc. study  about factors affecting routes to transit stations

Discussion Q: easy to measure public transit use and auto use; but what’s a walker, given that many trips include both Thomas Gotschi acknowledges that people take different trips differently; the travel diary for the National Household Travel Survey is helpful for this; other methodologies that focus on just one “reference” trip can skew results Spencer Clark says London breaks out walk-all-the-way, walk-to-public-transport, and walk-for-pleasure pedestrians; they then only count the first group which means ped counts in London grossly undercount pedestrians Thomas adds that some surveys arbitrarily recognize whichever mode segment is longer: the walk to the stop or the transit ride; says in US walking is 10% of trips but only 2% of miles traveled Q: why is it harder to estimate economic benefits than health benefits? Also observe that increasing ped activity is increasing everyone’s safety Thomas acknowledges “safety in numbers” observation, but it’s hard to know whether safer infrastructure or higher counts are causal Gas savings is easy to estimate and studies have shown increased real estate value near trails; but job creation and local churn of savings are really hard to capture; Q: infrastructure spurring additional private investment? Spencer says they wish they had captured factors like cafes that have expanded out into the street and are presumably doing better; but did not measure retail take previously; will this time Q: how to choose which projects to monitor? Spencer says he picks the one he’s most interested in; but really trying to build a library of likely effects from each different type of improvement scheme so that the boroughs can anticipate benefits from different projects; now monitoring projects to fill gaps in the library Q: expanding Walk-Friendly Communities to non-US jurisdictions, and asks how it will be funded

Carl says current funding is US; hope to run whole program under grants though there may be a small application fee

Safe routes to school – what works

Moira Donahue, Safe Kids Worldwide [email protected] Grassroots nonprofit with 19 member countries; mission is to prevent accidental injury and death (not just traffic) for kids under 14; research, education, and advocacy; started 1999 in US Coalition members include fire/police responders, teachers, parents, advocates,… Have programs on child passenger safety, fire safety, etc. Walk This Way programs in Canada, China, Korea, Philippines, India, etc. right now:  Collect data (hospitalizations, crashes) and promote improvements  Make long-term traffic improvements  environmental improvements  Teach child pedestrians safe behaviors  curriculum (look left/right/left or vice versa is a new concept in some countries that have only focused on treatment so far)  Advocate for and strengthen laws  Increase traffic enforcement  Raise awareness among parents and caregivers/drivers  Media and awareness campaigns  PHOTOVOICE photojournalism project Some reports are secondary analysis of existing data, but also do primary research including focus groups with kids and parents Sào Paulo takes sidewalk responsibility even further; not only are adjacent property owners responsible for funding and maintaining sidewalks; there are no standards so different segments are discontiguous Points to obstructed school crossing in Shanghai; while problems (planter, trash, no curb cut) appear obvious, the process with the CDC and school kid inventory were essential to get buy-in Have partnered with FedEx for ten years; leverage road safety expertise and volunteers PhotoVoice methodology gave grants and cameras to 10-14 year old kids in 7 countries; taught transport safety pre-survey and brought in local photography experts to teach kids the arts side of shooting; 1,676 kids participated and shot 4,300 photos Pre-post safety knowledge test showed safety knowledge increased an average of 25% Around the world, most kids walk without adult supervision; kids in the US and Canada felt pretty safe, but kids in other countries did not Are now funding a phase 2 where communities can work from kids’ photos to identify needed safety improvements and make them,

Leigh Ann von Hagen, Rutgers and Elise Bermer-Nye (?) Rutgers planners, NJ statewide safe routes to schools program http://bikewalk.org National Center for Bicycling and Walking Federal program started in 2005 and gave $612 million to implement projects; NJ received about $15 million; half the towns in the state asked for $70 million of projects during first $3 mm call for projects Noticed that the biggest problems were in cities but that cities weren’t applying; began an urban SRTS demonstration program; Cities are leaving money on the table;  Camden official said that grants that aren’t worth millions aren’t worth going after  Newark official said “we don’t have funding to apply for the SRTS grant, and if we did, we don’t have manpower to implement it” Working with Newark, Trenton, and Camden; biggest urban centers are in top 10 for ped fatalities; picked two schools in each city Build a team in a city on one school that you can work with on the next school Rutgers looked for differences between urban and suburban schools; most of the kids in Camden live in poverty, plus high cost of living State funds 40+% of schools statewide, but more than 80% to these urban schools; found that nearly 80% of the property in Newark is nontaxable (institutions, churches) Violent crime rate is highest in Camden, still high in Newark and Trenton; schools are recruiting areas for schools; police report that half their gang calls are to schools Higher density is associated with higher bike/ped crash rates; found that kid crashes happen before 9:00 am and between 2:00 and 4:00 pm (school travel); all three are short on school crossing guards; but the application is 40 pages and ask for employment history back to school; that’s changing! turnover is high in part because it’s high-risk of crashes, and also, many lack personal transportation CDC found NJ has highest incidence of obesity in low-income kids aged 2-5 years Given that 67% of kids in Newark already walk (even on cold weeks in January); emphasize improving safety instead of increasing numbers Unlikely partners: in Trenton, partnered with the tree advocates who want to see greening around the schools; in Newark, partnered with the trauma center Kids see the right problems though the wrong solutions Trenton built a suburban school in an urban context, with entrance in back by school bus zone instead of off sidewalk, which makes it harder for the majority of kids who walk Also found that wide sidewalk on busy commercial street went unused as kids walked on quieter parallel street; had to flesh out route plans for school area SRTS toolbox doesn’t necessarily have a good tool for evaluating safety and reduced crash risk/incidence

Urban programs face challenges, especially school and police supervisors getting reassigned during course of project; high priority needs can be trumped by crisis of day, so have to be flexible and persistent;

WALK 21 – THURSDAY, OCTOBER 08, 2009

Benchmarking project: Making walking count

Jim , London Traditional surveys underestimate walking; crash rates cannot be a measure of success; if a measure counts, count it “sojourning” in the public realm “wouldn’t it be great if we could give an award each year for the community that effected the greatest amount of change in walking because we knew how to measure it” Other cities can participate for ~$20,000; could be less if cities capture their own data

Lottie , Copenhagen Copenhagen delegation attended Walk21 in Barcelona last year, and got inspired to participate in the Making Walking Count Says Daniel Sauter (Switzerland) is conducting the seminars and project

Ollie Torsen, Barcelona International Federation of Pedestrians (IFP), and Walk 21 board member; coordinated Walk21 conference last year Started outlining the project in 2005 in Zurich Barcelona is taking the first steps toward a strategic pedestrian plan; also completed a general mobility plan; both forecast a drop in travel by private cars; now modal split shows that more than 50% of trips are on foot

Kulveer Ranger, Senior Transport Advisor to London’s mayor (video message) Leicester Square to Covent Garden is 5 minutes on foot or 7+ minutes by tube; says helping people make choice is about removing street clutter and improving wayfinding working to “de-stress" the streets and improve public spaces; in Great Queen Street, replaced busy four-way interchange with big plaza and traffic circle Oxford Street is not only the busiest in London but also one of the busiest in Europe; new Legible London wayfinding scheme includes maps and destinations; maps are presented in orientation that you’re facing them to be more intuitive

Sustainable cities

Moderator: Steven Winkelman, Dir Transportation at the Center for Clean Air Policy Moved from upper Manhattan to Westchester and bought a hybrid; friends were impressed, but living in a compact neighborhood with sidewalks and transit access was much more impactful Al Gore asked what the disruptive technology is; Winkelman argues in Growing Cooler that it’s our feet and sidewalks You can’t make people do this; you have to make it in their interest; integrated transportation and land use save cities money on infrastructure and save households money on transport Argues that local government has to engage the public to get bottom-up initiatives Try bold initiatives, like making Broadway pedestrian friendly; if they don’t work, you can change them back

Do  Measure  Learn

Kristina Alvendal, Vice Mayor Stockholm Stad, Sweden Law degree Struck that well-organized street grid and system of parks is urban form that most encourages [her] to walk around” Stockholm is “smaller city on other side of globe”; tallest building is ~100m; proximity to both water and nature; built on 14 islands where Baltic Sea meets XXX; 800,000 in city and 2.5 mm in metro region; both birth rates and inward migration are high; expect to grow 25% by 2050 (?); creates growth challenges “must create dense urban environment that is desirable, green, and safe” City core started as medieval walled city 750 years ago; most of urban core developed between 1880 and 1920 which shaped both urban form and architecture Planned first subway during WWII; subsequently, large parts of the city were “adapted” to the car; 750 historic properties from 3 centuries were demolished to accommodate modernization of the urban center; separation of land use, car parks, and big box stores Stockholm is now redeveloping industrial areas shoulder-to-shoulder with old city as walkable urban centers; recognize that more people and mixed uses mean more vibrancy around the clock, which means safer streets improving connections between neighborhoods both makes it easier to visit other neighborhoods and also removes dim in-between places and makes them safer More children live in the city center today than at any prior modern time, and more people want to live in the city

Replacing suburban sprawl with urban stroll

80% of urban apartments have district heating, which is more efficient People can now share or rent cars on occasion instead of owning and depending on them; 80% commute to work by public transport; future will accommodate cars but not be dictated by them EU Commission selected Stockholm to be first environmental capital in 2010 Investing $143 mm in existing public housing driven by climate change; building new environmental district, supported by Clinton Climate Initiative, with 20,000 residential units and 30,000 workspaces Stockholm has goal to be fossil fuel free by 2050; “The Stockholm Plan” is all about connecting the city to make it walkable and ensure new development is built as functional urban nodes Original cable car suburbs are integrating with city center and are increasingly Stockholm’s most-popular neighborhoods

Steve Heminger, SF MPO Director of Metro Transportation Commission (MPO) for 9-county Bay Area Steve says Harvey Milk was a very good practical politician; best known in SF for pooper scooper law; says “clutter” as a barrier to walking can be a euphemism…; wants more than complete streets: clean streets Transportation is critical to a climate change solution: worldwide, transport is 14% of GHG emissions, but in the Bay Area transport accounts for 41% Technology is not sufficient: Once people concede climate change is a problem, many will look to technology for solutions rather than asking individuals to change behaviors; that has worked for criteria pollutants, but won’t for GHGs CO2 will essentially track rising VMT, with modest improvement from fleet turnover, vastly exceeding the targets Location matters: compact development results in 20-40% reduction in VMT and hence CO2; recognize that empty nesters travel less anyway, so moving back to cities Price matters more: raising the cost of driving in the urban core with parking rates and tolls can effect much more significant reductions California now has a state law requiring them to figure out and adopt GHG reduction targets for metro areas, and adopt infrastructure plans to comply with those targets; predicts that federal law will soon/eventually require similar work by all states Recognize that some new policies are already climate positive, but must quantify the benefits Setting absolute targets will be problematic because it gives cities closer to the targets an advantage; more equitable instead to set relative targets that expect every city to improve  everyone must have “skin in the game” SF is required to reduce CO2 40% below 1990 levels (90,000 tons/day) by 2035:

 trend is continuing to increase  California Air Resource Board (CARB) technology requirements for fuel efficiency and fuel composition are expected to achieve 18,000 tons  the 2035 transportation plan may buy another 2-3,000 tons  pricing and focused urban growth can buy another 8,000 tons  that still leaves another 8,000 tons of reduction on the table… Most cities are allocating more than half of transportation budget to maintenance and operations; SF is spending 81%: $178 billion; that doesn’t leave a lot for expansion, but maintenance won’t change people’s behavior; Heminger argues that money for transit/bike/ped expansion is essential to enable behavior change Without more money for expansion, cannot effect more change; which is why Heminger argues that pricing and land use planning will have to play such a significant role Converting X00-mile HOV lane system to HOT lanes to allow SOV users to pay and fund building out the rest of the 800-mile system Challenge of SF’s Sustainable Communities Strategy is to:  accommodate all growth in regional housing demand and achieve CO2 reduction targets, while  not undermining federal planning requirements for realistic demographic and revenue assumptions, or interfere with local land use authority Heminger says in California they no longer have to convince local cities to grow differently; they want to grow differently, but they lack revenue to do so NY Times editorial Oct 6, 2008: cut the sprawl, cut the warming Short term solutions: parking policy, electric vehicle infrastructure Longer term solutions: TOD Says take heart breakthroughs are possible; points to falling US cigarette consumption and rising California recycling rates

Jon Orcutt, Dir Policy for NY DOT Previously directed Tri State Transportation Campaign for 13 years; previously with Transportation Alternatives New York has advantage of getting land use right more than 100 years ago, creating incredibly intensive infrastructure to unite and tie city together; cannot have dense clusters of skyscrapers without high capacity transit Recognize that clean matters; population in NY fell from 1970 to 1980 until they figured it out; challenge is to cope with everyone who wants to be here London’s Oxford Street has 129,850 pedestrians between 8 am and 8 pm; Broadway &7th at 44th has 118,000; 8th between 33rd and 34th has 100,000+

Chart shows per capita GHG (excluding agriculture and “non local processes”) for US and major US and international cities As NY has grown in the decade since 1999, traffic volumes have stayed essentially flat, accommodating growth with walking and transit ridership instead NY also taking credit for “avoided sprawl”; by bringing a million new people to NY instead of Pennsylvania or Texas saves 15.6 mm metric tons/year of CO2 NY has Sustainable Streets strategic plan and progress report on DOT website; 34% of all trips are made by walking; 84% of middle Manhattan commute trips are by walking or transit (?) Recognizing that several parts of the city aren’t served well by subway; working with MTA to identify those areas and plan BRT corridors and other bus improvements to give them more and better travel choices Sageworks chart: from 2005 to 2008, ZipCar had more than 600% revenue growth; NYC is planning to add bike sharing as well (yellow “taxi” bike scheme) Trying car-free streets on Saturdays in 15 neighborhoods around the city German federal health campaign about walking 3,000 schritte (steps) extra ; Mitgehen am meXXX; (walk on Wednesday)

Discussion Q: compact growth Orcutt says NYC got stimulus money to put towards compact growth Heminger talks about going with a coalition of the willing; several healthy enclaves will never want to take more housing and have the money/skills to prevent it; instead, will work with Oakland and other cities who do want to pursue compact growth strategies Alvendal says it wasn’t too long ago in Stockholm that people didn’t want growth, but is changing; now benefiting from “YIMBYs” who want to promote Stockholm of the future Q Thomas Gotschi (rails to trails): pricing only works in places where there are alternatives; otherwise it only changes when people drive without decreasing GHG emissions; bike/ped projects are low-hanging fruit to increase the effectiveness of pricing schemes Heminger: agree that pricing requires alternatives; public transit will underperform if you don’t match it up with prices on roadways and better land use around stations; Bay Area has transit lines running around empty because of this issue; meanwhile, I don’t know what you do but fix it first; “if you want to see NY in the 1970s, go to Chicago right now; the transit system is falling apart”; you can’t not do maintenance, but you have to strike a balance; says our generation has lived off his parents and grandparents’ investment Q: Andy Hamilton from AmericaWalks; says NY has done well because “inmates” from TriState have taken over the “asylum” and become city employees; what is the role of nonprofits

Heminger says bikers are easily the best lobby he deals with in the Bay Area; the walkers easily have more mode share but have a lot more work to do to get in there Orcutt says bikers have easier politics of identity because everyone’s a pedestrian and no one defines themselves that way; nonetheless, walking matters for cities, aging parents, young children Winkelman concludes by saying that fighting over a pie that’s too small won’t work; says don’t fall into doubling or tripling the money; instead make a case for investment to achieve measurable targets; focus on performance outcomes; raise the money we need; make case for raising “taxes” to make meaningful investments; won’t get where we need to fighting for individual modes

Center for Clean Air Policy http://ccap.org  transportation Steven Winkelman says they have several quant-oriented resources:  guidebook  cost-effectiveness of smart growth  book: Growing Cooler  paper: Urban Leaders ask the climate question Chuck Kooshian was with El Paso MPO before joining CCAP Josh Foster

Panel: Using powerful web apps to build a livable streets movement

Moderator: Nick Grossman, The Open Planning Project (TOPP) Technology over the last decade has enabled a new kind of localism; there are lots of tools from blogs (“old”) to wikis to social networks (“new”); think about a heterogeneous toolkit of parts that work together Nonprofit open source tech Fixcity.org Bike Racks Have buil

Jon Froehlich, UbiGreen, Seattle UW PhD candidate Microsoft Research Fellow UW design:use:build Combines behavioral and environmental science with computer The Feetback Cycle: Leveraging everyday technologies to change the way we move GPS is a kind of sensor that monitors movement; they use more sophisticated sensors; thesis topic is about what kind of feedback you can give people to shape their behavior

Consider the Prius information display that provides real-time feedback to allow people to shape their driving behavior to more efficiently use the electric motor; some people get 100+ mpg without modifying car Persuasive technology is about using computers to change what we think and do (book by BJ Fogg) Low-level feedback: test scores on specific skill/days High-level feedback: report card analysis across performance Learning effects Goal-setting directs attention, energize action, affect persistence, and affect behavior indirectly (latham * Locke, 2002) Rewards and penalties: even nominal rewards (an asterisk that day) motivated people enough to change behavior significantly Ubifit cellphone app grows a garden based on increasing fitness; control group activity declined through holidays but experimental group sustained activity Exploring the use of cellphones as a mechanism to track and reward travel behavior MyExperience tool asks contextually necessary questions via cellphone interface to capture detail about how someone traveled after recognizing that they changed location For study, used a dedicated sensor which isn’t very scalable; but have now adapted it to be an iPhone app; value icon bar raises visibility of economic, fitness, and environmental benefits of current choice; evolving background image rewards good choices; did not tell applicants what kind of story would unfold (blooming tree, growing polar ice floe), which heightened the sense of anticipation; cleared each Sunday; prior study rewarded

Ben Berkowitz, SeeClickFix, New Haven Motivated by graffiti problem in New Haven, built a web-based tool for residents in cities across the country to identify and prioritize issues:  can use email, web, mobile web, iPhone, Twitter, API to report issues and add photo  provides data in many formats to many audiences  includes support for FaceBook etc. Agencies can easily designate “watch areas”; seems to include shape files for difference jurisdictions; and if they’re not looking, you can sign them up; Ben says they’ve gotten more brave about that because it has resulted in agencies being more accountable Clean Air Council in Philadelphia set up a watch area and encouraged their constituents to report illegally idling vehicles Explicitly allow linking by mainstream outlets: Dallas Morning News is a partner; can also embed the tool in our own site to facilitate reporting

Evan Korzon, http://SCVNGR.com evan@scvngr (617) 990-6617 Scavenger is location-based mobile gaming: for scavenger hunts, tours, orientations, and other kinds of interactive experiences “Builder” tool they sell to museums, conferences, shopping malls, universities, etc.; “it’s so easy, even someone over 30 can do it” “Race for the rock” promotion partners with jewelry stores to hide an engagement ring in a city and engage people looking for it; great way to break into the 22-34 year old demographic, all of whom text Rochester has built an 8-week learn-about-Rochester scavenger initiative: one week about coffee houses; one about art; one about civic history; etc. City / Tourism 2.0 is working to build out permanent layer of “XPLR” is free for non commercial use

Aaron Ogle, Avencia, lead developer of WalkShed.org Humans have been creating maps to convey knowledge of surroundings – where to find food/water – since prehistoric cave times Map tools to impart our knowledge of our community to others can be really powerful Launched WalkShed on Monday; operates on the same premise as WalkScore but tackles larger areas, addresses physical boundaries, and more accurate walking distances Conceptualize a 5 meter x 5 meter grid then calculate “friction” that pedestrians encounter based on land use; treats highways as “sticky” Also defines more types of walking “amenities” than WalkScore, especially transit stations, car share locations, parks, etc. User can adjust importance of different amenity/destination types to identify locations  Home seekers/renters can vet neighborhoods  Business owners can identify possible location sites  Identify areas that lack access to greenspace, healthy food, or…

Discussion Q: what demographics are using this technology? Ben doesn’t think the digital divide exists as much as the participatory divide (!) Jon argues that behavior change is one of the toughest things in psych/soci; models are often built on addiction and other behaviors that have a high personal cost; but Jon is more interested in social behaviors that have external “costs”; providing information can be cataclysmic in driving behavior; textbooks are decontextalized; now providing info of the current activity in the immediate context at the time of decision making;

Robin Holzer revised 4/5/18 page 22 of 34 Walk 21 – NYC Conference opportunities to provide caloric benefit of route options at same time tracking energy expenditure Q: concern about Google maps given ownership of map data SeeClickFix keeps their map data open so it can go to any platform Aaron says Google maps are pretty good for US, but it can be hard to get good data from Google; for example, Google categorizes 7-11 as a grocery store rather than a convenience store; Nick says Open Cities conference addressed technology for cities; says WalkScore is now being linked in real estate listings; think about what kind of information will be persuasive? Calories? Fuel costs? CO2 Q: WalkScore misses environmental attributes that could be recorded in SeeClickFix; could you integrate them? Ben says they’re open platform precisely so that it can be integrated with other data within the mission Aaron acknowledges that WalkShed has improved weighting and routing, but not yet addressing surface attributes; key limitation is getting the dataset; have considered using speed limit as a proxy; may need volunteers to capture qualitative data Q: international access to SCVNGR? Evan says they’re provisioned in north America; hope to push international by March Aaron says WalkShed is not yet supported on mobile devices, and it’s only for Philadelphia so far Ben says SeeClickFix is available in England and Australia; they are in the process of translating it for other venues Q: how have agencies generally reacted to SeeClickFix? Ben says he mostly sees their public responses which seem appropriate; so far one council member and one agency have opted out, with thousands of watch areas; it’s safer and easier to fix a problem than to opt out; Austin cycling and PW both use it; working on a dashboard to better present the info A Detroit 311 operator said it will be hard to get potholes fixed, given their more pressing challenges; but the tool makes the democracy of the challenges obvious Q: asks about moderation Ben says they have problems when people invent issues to make trouble for others, they do remove them; fortunately the Communications Decency Act places responsibility on poster, not tool Q: asks what brings people back Ben says supporting RSS, Twitter, FaceBook, etc. is really important; but more, empowering people to empower their own networks is essential to drive viral behavior

Jon adds that his colleague created http://onebusaway.org in Seattle as a hobby; but the phone number got busier and busier; he added a web app, iPhone support, etc. and he gets an incredible amount of traffic but he has never advertised or done a press release; did a survey with 500 responses, and found that people walked more because they had information telling them they had time to walk to another destination, walk to the next stop, or walk to another route altogether Q: adoption by companies and sharing information with employers Jon says that GPS data is one-way and doesn’t leave the phone/tool; travel data is innately personal; but interfacing to enable competitions between work or student groups; Ubigreen is owned by Intel Research and has technological limitations that won’t bring it to the iPhone anytime soon Q: asks about government 2.0 and technology to make cities more open Nick says they spent the whole OpenCities conference talking to people from governments around the world who want to employ these technologies Ben adds that they used to be the main speakers at these conferences but the last few months, federal employees have been hogging the mics because they know the stuff Nick adds that the support of the Obama administration is really helping the issue percolate down Govloop is a social network for government employees Q: participating in an “urban orienteering” event changed his perspective; other participants were buzzing afterward, not just from physical effort but city experience Jon says he focuses on changing personal awareness, and wants more perspective Evan says that he sees people get motivated by seeing new parts of the city Nick talks about the “windshield” perspective Q: Nick asks about using WalkShed to simulate possible future projects Aaron says they can absolutely model how different options would affect walkability; says Philly recently rebuilt the Ben Franklin parkway as a boulevard Q: asks about longevity of these tools and splitting of efforts? Ben says that’s why open data is critical; noticed recently that all of their issues have already been catalogued as pinpoints in Google Aaron recognizes that Walkscore is the reference experience for Walkshed; the guys at Walkscore are trying to get ordinary people to think better about walkability at the one time they are most likely to be open to considering it: when they’re choosing a home location; that means that their data has to be uniform and the algorithm has to be simple enough to be scalable across the country; Walkshed wants to provide a much more robust analysis to power advocacy Q: asks whether Walkshed can capture user perceptions of safety/crime? Aaron says they can aggregate actual reported crime data, but user perception is really difficult to quantify

Nick points also to AmISafe iPhone app Q: how to get reuse and not just one visit? Aaron says they’ve only been live for four days, so they don’t know where users will want it to go next or how; so far, people have asked for it in other cities Evan says they get millions of clicks Jon says UbiGreen isn’t publicly available

+ talk about “influentials” as why we target “walkability is the shorthand for how to be green in a city”

Panel: how advocates are using internet

Moderator: Aaron Naparstek, editor Streetsblog Aaron started Streetsblog 3 ½ years ago; wanted to change NYC; were seeing ideas from other cities to reallocate space to pedestrians and bicycles, and wanted that to happen here; wanted to do more than beat up on agencies; rather wanted to highlight best practices from other places; blog format is great to do that He was working on an article for New York magazine; realized there was a ton of untapped content; set out to interview a local hedge fund manager who gets it, and decided to ask him to fund a blog Streetsblog set out to find every blogger who was doing livable streets from a local perspective; found lots of urban design and architecture blogs, but not many streets; like FortWorthology guy dedicated to making downtown Fort Worth walkable; now have network of 250 bloggers around the country; sees this as spear tip of an important new movement

David Alpert: editor of the Greater Greater Washington blog [email protected] Google tech background, Harvard BA compsci 9:18 – 9:29 Currently redesigning site; engage a team of writers who cover an array of topics: traffic, design, zoning, demographics Inspire: fantasy maps of what could be; more rail, interfaced with streetcars, linked by commuter rail to Baltimore; vision 270 proposes transit Inform: share and critique plans for bus reroutes, roadway changes, praising good plans and fostering architectural debate, identifying needed pedestrian improvements

Organize: mobilize readers to participate  advocacy; participate in parking minimums battle; proponents of reduced requirements outnumbered neighborhood opponents by 6:1 Coordinate: introduce cyclists to environmentalists to architects to transit advocates to agency engineers and elected officials Critique: blog can say things that more orthodox nonprofits may be reluctant to say: Eric Weiss, Washinton Post framed pro-pedestrian policies as a “war against workers who drive”; even though less than half of area residents drive; Sarah Krouse talked about ped improvements put “you” in a “driving tizzy” without recognizing pedestrians in a walking tizzy; broaden the frame; crash reporting language that blames the car rather than the driver: people killed after the car they were in swerved to avoid a goose” Readers report changing their attitudes Q: David says all of their folks are volunteers and he’s working on it full-time; in the process of becoming an advocacy organization; he reviews all the posts before they go up

Mark Abraham, Design New Haven, Aaron says New Haven was slaughtered by highways New Haven Safe Streets is a coalition of 200,000 residents advocating http://twitter.com/urbandata Mark recommends a Knight report about open data and new media; includes recommendations for how organizations can use internet to be more open works full-time urban planner; does this project in his spare time ACS says New Haven has the highest share of walking and biking of any eastern city New Haven Independent (http://newhavenindependent.org) is hyper-local newspaper and website with 10,000+ local readers; nonprofit contributions fund reporting Design New Haven (blogspot) allows reposting and discussion of development issues Used gopetition.com to circulate a petition for safe streets New Haven Safe Streets Coalition aggregates safe streets articles http://livablestreets.com is part of Streetsblog network; asserts that two-way communication is really important Describes SeeClickFix as a venue that enables self-organizing and two-way communication; “we provide the technology, but engaged communities do the hard work of collaborating to get stuff done” Post about ATVs running rampant galvanized people to snap photos, vote to deal with it, became front-page story in paper, and resulted in a police unit being created (?)

Citizen-driven content: means we determine what is front-page news; New Haven Independent is now enabling locals to create content; Mark describes this as “hyper local media 2.0” Crowd-sourced design competitions for planning/design charrettes Community open indicators and quality of life surves (eg PPS) to increase engagement around neighborhood-specific data 9:44

Robin 10:00

Lisa Peterson Bender, Twin Cities Streets for People blog [email protected] [email protected] moved from (NY to) SF to Minneapolis in May 2009 now works for Hennapin (?) county as an active living planner Minneapolis has the second-highest mode share of bike commuters in the country; they want more transparency and accountability; Have 10-12 advocacy orgs (state/local) working on bike/ped issues in the area; multiplicity creates confusion about how/where to get involved Streets for People is trying to create coordination between orgs; becoming a clearinghouse for Use droople (?) to power a blog; 7 core bloggers and no editors; try to include video as well as photos Smaller orgs are using their tool to post agendas, meeting minutes, etc.; trying to promoted citizen-led advocacy both in neighborhoods and college campus; Support community planning, neighborhood traffic calming, design guidelines and development standards Grappling with who they want to be and how they want to function:  Reporting vs advocacy  Outsider vs insider  Open forum vs controlled messaging  Relationship to other advocates All of their volunteers have relationships inside, either as government employees or as consultants, which constrains what they feel they can do

Walking and Public Health

Claudia Adriazola, EMBARQ WRI Center for Sustainable Transport Arequipa, a moderate city in Peru, closed five blocks of a major commercial street – Paseo Mercaderes – to cars More people window shop, then really shop, boosting sales Mayor Simón Bala People complain of pollution and too many cars; likerestricting cars and taxis from some areas; fumes and pollution have decreased dramatically Walking is basic but challenging, not only because of poor urban design but also pollution Crashes: asserts that half of fatalities worldwide are to vulnerable road users When public transportation is a crowded old minivan, it’s not surprising that people choose other options like car ownership as soon as they can afford it Suburban sprawl is an attractive sign of financial achievement, but creates more auto dependency Today in Arequipa, 63% use bus and 17% walk; only 5% use private cars; so the opportunity is to improve pedestrian infrastructure and the quality of public transport now, to retain or even improve that mode split The Development Finance Corporation is trying to address the pollution problem by giving people new cars at competitive interest rates; but increases crashes and congestion In contrast, Bogota, Colombia has great BRT and sidewalks; difference of political leadership For four years, Embarq has supported the Active Cities, Healthy Cities with CDC and others, which aims to recognize political and community leadership for  Physical activity and recreation  Sustainable transportation  Public spaces XXX, Brazil closes street to cars on Sundays Tulancingo, Mexico converted 19km of old rail to shared use path Londrina, Brazil has “Sidewalk for All” initiative Partnering with World Health Organization for World Health Day on Wednesday, April 7, 2010; this year will focus on “urban health matters” Seeking 1,000 cities to close off portions of streets to traffic for activities promoting better health

Dr. William Bird, GP, Natural England, Strategic Health Advisor http://naturalengland.org.uk http://whi.org.uk Without people, cities wouldn’t exist; makes sense to take space back for people “remarkable bodies that convert energy into walking very, very easily”; incredibly efficient system, with mitochondria converting fuel into energy; mitochondria make up 20% of our body weight; Asserts that the body is designed to be active at a constant rate all the time; when you stop using it, the “chemical battery” overflows and you age “Julie” isn’t outside playing because our cities aren’t designed to meet her needs; “Julie’s dad” is obese with diabetes Physical inactivity and obesity, social isolation, reduced access to greenspace, social inequality/environmental injustice  chronic stress  raised inflammatory markers All the main western diseases are direct outcomes of this inflammation: depression, diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular disease, lung disease Obesity  arthritis, breast cancer, hear disease, colorectal cancer, diabetes, … Direct effects: temperature extremes, shelter from UV, noise, wind, carbon offset, air quality Indirect effects: Mitchel R, Popham F: Effect of exposure to natural environment Nov 8 2008 pages 1655-1660 volume 372 issue 9650; Mortality is inversely related to access to greenspace; but the benefits of greenspace are greatest among low-income people who are 7 times more likely to live in worst places with least access to greenspace; so park/public space initiatives can have the greatest health benefits in the lowest income neighborhoods Ellaway Macintyre BMJ 2005: also showed that obesity is inversely related to access to greenspace The cost of an obese Medicare recipient is $1,486 more annually than a nonobese recipient 20.8 million in US have diagnosed diabetes and further 54 mm have pre diabetes Costs the US at least $174 billion a year; people with diabetes cost 2.3 times more than nondiabetics; 284,000 deaths were attributed to diabetes in 2007 Estimate that costs of treating/accommodating this illness will sink states; justifies investment in a better urban form Bell et al 2008: Neighborhod greenness and 2-year changes in BMI; found that children in poor areas were less obese and put on less weight in areas of accessible green space, independent of residential density; density modeled without greenness had no effect on BMI z-scores

Mental health is worsening in every country, though not as fast as diabetes; 1 in 5 children under 16 have a mental disorder Chicago study by U Illinois looked at 13 miles of high-rise flats for low-income residents; found children faced with major stress coped better in the areas with access to trees and greenery; children and mothers in the areas paved over had more major issues that lasted longer and were more severe UK Department of Health is working to get 2 million more people active by 2012 when London hosts the Olympics; creating a physical activity alliance to unite all agencies, institutions, programs, gyms that get people moving to work together; also ensuring that GPs promote physical activity and

Kathleen Elsig, Global Road Safety Partnership Hosted program of International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent societies Financial Times ranked NYC first in terms of cities with good ideas and willing to try them on the ground Working to make sure walking is a normal part of a healthy lifestyle around the world, not just in higher-income countries In the next 24 hours, about 3,000 people will die on the roads worldwide; if that were ten jumbo jets daily, it would get more attention; 1.3 million fatalities annually and 50 million injuries, 90% occur in low- and middle-income countries; in some parts of Africa, road crash victims occupy more than half the hospital beds; cost world economy $518 billion annually; Red Cross says “leave your blood in the bank and not on the road” Road crash mortality is much lower in high-income countries, ~200,000 a year expected to decrease over the next decade; compared to 1.2 million a year expected to increase to 2.0 million by 2020 US had 37,000 roadway fatalities in 2008 IFRC report: Road Safety Call for Action WHO published first global survey in June 2009: Global Status Report on Road Safety; in 2008 surveyed more than 1,000 people in 178 countries; conducted multisector consensus-building meetings; results cleared by government Kathleen spends 40% of her time working in eastern Europe and central Asia with road safety stakeholders Found that 46% of people dying in road crashes are vulnerable road users: pedestrians, cyclists, etc; however, some countries are not even tracking ped/bike crash fatalities Head injuries are an especial problem in Vietnam where 90% of the vehicle fleet is two- wheeled motorcycles; but lack helmet laws, access to good helmets, and trauma care Improving health requires increasing access to markets, education, and health care; but the resulting infrastructure is often not addressing vulnerable road users; makes sense for development agencies to require addressing safety in designs

GRSP works globally, regionally, and locally; advocacy, work with governments, and local implementation of projects to reduce drunk driving, improve helmet use, etc. [email protected] http://grsproadsafety.org

Discussion Q: Many road safety issues don’t require expensive infrastructure fixes: speeding, drunk driving, seatbelts, helmets, etc. UK has funded a new WHO report to come out summer 2010 to quantify the health benefits of increases in walking Q: road safety is related to motorization Kathleen agrees, look at what are the goals of transport; modal shift will help; developed nations must lead by example C: Otto (?) says must talk about both roads and streets; focus on children to effect generation shift; Q: asks about volunteers leading walks in England; who are they and where did they come from? Dr. Bird says the walk leaders come from the communities themselves; they’re either people motivated by their own health experience to share the experience/give something back; the Health Walks are small and very local/easy to get to; the national support just makes sure that they’re safe and tackles insurance Q: observes that disproportionate fear of kidnapping etc, rooted in television crime dramas and TV news, has led parents not to let kids out on their own; 12-14-year old kids used to join bike tour rides, but parents aren’t letting them out these days Dr. Bird slide of a Sheffield family: great grandfather could roam a 6 mi area as a boy; his son, the grandfather was allowed only 1 mi; his son, the dad was allowed to roam ½ mile; and the youngest son is scarcely allowed to go ¼ mile The mother feared she would be made a bad parent if she allowed her child to roam; but the real risk of health effects from obesity is vastly greater than the risk of kidnapping C: recognize that reducing ped crashes by discouraging walking is counterproductive in the overall life safety picture

Eight points:  Observes that Jon Orcutt was an activist who’s joined the agency to effect change; inspirational to other activists  Investment in a safe, clean, pleasant community is essential to sustain it

 Converting suburban sprawl into urban stroll, requires investing in YIMBYs and allowing agencies and advocates to work together  Set measurable hard walking and safety targets to strive for; focus on people; spend transport money for them to sit as well as move; create international index of walking  Share best practices and innovative methods; get the basics right: shorter crossings, narrower streets and wider sidewalks, safety and comfort; consider quickness of NY projects  Walking is about not only quality of life but also life itself; must address equity of improvements; can better support emerging/developing communities  “It’s easy to get to double figures; it’s quite harder to get to triple”; keep at it

Next conference Walk 21 2010 “Getting communities back on their feet” will be in Hague, Netherlands Nov 17-19 st bigendorf hotel on North Sea coast Traditional shoes of the Catalon police; Jon Orcutt presented Rob XXX with “new world” gift of hip hop sneakers ; proud of shared heritage and cultural creativity Rob: Netherlands started four years ago to document all their ideas for road safety and walkability; emphasis on sojourning in public spaces Support from Pedestrian quality Needs (walkeurope.org); (ICTCT), OECD International Transport Forum, TNO Human Factors Research Says Netherlands has lowest per capita pedestrian crash rate in the world Flat terrain enables LOTS of cycling; both Rotterdam and Amsterdam airports are just 40 min away by train; Amsterdam is the nominal capitol, but the Hague is the administrative seat of government Renee Jones-Bos, ambassador to the US

APBP panel: Best practices in bike transiting, sharing, and parking “In Deutschland, where riding a bike is a notable as drinking a cup of coffee, there is no bicycling culture; there is no culture without the bike”

Colin Hughes, UC Berkeley Has developed 10 bike tours for world’s two Public use bicycle system (PUBS): has to be a system of bicycles made available to the public as a mode of personal, nonmotorized, mass transit; personal choice is important (not fixed route) Dutch anarchist group called PROVO introduced the white bicycle, a piece of public property in July 1965; only 50 bikes were put out and left unlocked, but the police impounded the bikes until people promised to lock them

Model evolved into a bicycle library: hotels, bike kitchens, etc. that users check out for a time Smart public-use bicycle system can be free roaming (no stations); park and auto lock; use your cell phone to record the bike number and unlock the bike; use RF ID tags to locate the bikes; can create Google map mashups; use web app to interface; tells how many bikes are available and whether there’s parking available; Rennes Velo was first system, but poorly used Lyon, France 1998 first fixed-station smart system to get high trip number (4,000 bikes); 9.791 people/sqkm; 340 stations; Paris Velib (20,600 bikes); 1,451 stations are 300-500 meters apart; pop is 24,754 people/sqkm Barcelona Bicing (6,000 bikes); 400 stations; pop is 16,056 people/sqkm Look at residents per bike! Lyon has 350 people per bike, averaging 5 uses per day  1 trip per 25 residents Paris has 105 people per bike, averaging 5 uses per day  1 trip per 30 residents Barcelona has 373 people per bike, averaging 6 uses per day  1 trip per 59 residents Network goal is to average 5-10 users per day to make the investment in space and capital worthwhile; typically $3,500/bike Target 100-150 people per bike and 4 stations per sqkm 90% of Velib trips are less than 30 minutes, and trips are free for the first 30 minutes; average trip is 24-28 minutes; the pricing drives the necessary turnover rate and prevents hoarding Must coordinate with other transit modes, and design station capacities around peak flows Met with bike planners from Copenhagen, etc. last week; observed what they had to do, but acknowledged that getting the changes necessary, because the US doesn’t have the bike constituency to demand the infrastructure Barcelona bike mode share jumped from 0.75% to 1.75% within a year of implementing bike sharing; doesn’t sound like a lot, but 133% gain may be the largest increase in mode share ever; demonstrating this kind of mode shift can generate the political capital to effect investment

Timothy Papandreou, SF Muni Transportation Agency [email protected] Mobility is about individualism and spontaneous freedom; sustainability is all about collectivism and sharing; sustainable mobility is paradoxical, but car and bike sharing can bridge the gap “I don’t want my VMT” Road design, land use policies, parking policies, etc. all affect VMT, and will outstrip any fuel technology benefits, to hurt climate change

Walking, car sharing, transit, van/carpool, biking are all essential Bicycling slowly is better than walking because it burns less energy and releases less CO2, even after you account for the bicycle’s production; mechanical advantage In San Francisco, bicycling has the most potential for mode growth; cars are overcapacity, and transit is really expensive SF MTA is responsible for everything in the public realm from storefront to storefront, which gives them great access to effect change Targeting eastern half of city for sustainable redevelopment SF bike coalition has 11,000 members Bicycling has surged 43% in 24 months without any new facilities Do car-free streets on Sundays San Francisco is developing a bike sharing program; starting a bike-sharing program in northeast quadrant of city and Market Street with 2,700 bikes; 50% of city’s existing bike trips occur in this area GIS weighted distribution map shows bike network + accessible roads + rapid MUNI Endeavoring to quantify the benefits in terms of GHG emissions, economic impact, public health, and cost avoidance Will issue RFEI in winter 2010 and rollout in spring of 2011 Public education is essential: loss of parking is number 1 concern driving community opposition to bikes; fear of transit degradation is number 2 Looking at mobility pricing and parking management Using TransLink card to unite fare media for all transit agencies; considering integrating parking, bike-share, car-share, and taxis with same service “If you want to take on the car, you have to act like a car” “All the mobility without the side effects” Working with Google, Apple for 3G iPhone app to build a killer app; third party can link modes, info, and payment in one application Concludes that riding in normal clothing can help motivate more riding by more people

Robin Holzer revised 4/5/18 page 34 of 34