The Safe Routes Partnership is proud to announce Nora Cody as the winner of the 2016 Hubsmith Safe Routes Champion Award. Nora exemplifies the same qualities that marked Deb’s career as a leader of the Safe Routes to School movement. Like Deb, Nora is deeply committed to ensuring that kids can walk and bike to school safely and leading the movement for a true culture shift.
The City of Pryor Creek, Oklahoma recently became the first city in the state to approve a Complete Streets ordinance with the unanimous approval of Ordinance No. 2016-01.
At a recent grantmaking conference, one of the speakers emphasized the role of evaluation by saying that if you can’t measure something, it doesn’t matter. Thanks to a new rule from the US Department of Transportation, all states will now be required to measure and be held accountable for bicycle and pedestrian safety.
The Alliance for Biking and Walking recently released its 2016 Benchmarking Report, a biennial update on walking and biking across the United States intended to promote access to data, measure progress, support policy and advocacy efforts, and connect to health initiatives. More than half of member organizations in the Alliance for Biking and Walking are involved in Safe Routes to School efforts.
This guest blog post was written by Nancy Pullen Seufert, Director of the National Center for Safe Routes to School.
While Congress passed the new transportation law, the FAST Act, back in December, it takes time for US Department of Transportation to update their complicated formulas for how much states and localities get for various programs. Fortunately, that work is done and we now know the state-by-state breakdown of funding available for Safe Routes to School, bicycling and walking projects.
Snow has been in the news lately, and communities, Safe Routes to School Programs, and walking advocates are stepping up and sharing solutions and tips for students and residents to walk safely in the snow. Personal preparation and community education and engagement are the best solutions to walking during the winter months.
We are now six weeks out from when Congress passed the FAST Act, securing funding for Safe Routes to School and the Transportation Alternatives Program (TAP) for five more years. Here at the Safe Routes Partnership, we've been spending a lot of time educating advocates about what changed and what didn't in the FAST Act, and gathering as much information as we can to help you access the funding.
We have been advocating together for three years for a new transportation bill that supports Safe Routes to School, walking and bicycling. Now that Congress has passed the FAST Act and locked in funding for the Transportation Alternatives Program (or as it is now also known the STP Setaside), what should advocates be focusing on?
Today, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act (FAST Act), which is the final transportation agreement negotiated between the House and Senate. Once the Senate passes the agreement, expected by early next week, a new five-year transportation law will be in effect.