Posted by Kerry Dirk
Local
The Lindon Avenue North Complete Street Project celebration will take place this Saturday, July 13, from 10:00 am – noon, in front of the Bitter Lake Community Center. The celebration will include a ribbon cutting event and an artwork installation honoring Playland amusement park.
Check out the progress of the 2013 Walk Bike Ride Challenge, which at the time of this posting was already 64 percent of the way to the goal of 30,000 trips.
The nonprofit group Seattle Subway is working toward efficient public transportation for all residents. They recently teamed up with Sound Transit and hope to eventually put a ballot measure on the 2016 ballot to raise money for a subway.
National
A proposed pedestrian bridge in Spokane would add height to the skyline east of downtown in the University District. The bridge concept is a 120-foot tall cable-stayed arch bridge, which would make the bridge the only cable-stayed one in the U.S. supported by an arch.
Going for a walk in flip flops? The research on the dangers of these shoes is worth reading, as well as the suggestions for choosing a better pair.
Walk Score has now added two new features: social neighborhood tags, which show what people in your neighborhood are talking about, and crime reports, to allow for crime comparison among neighborhoods.
A new study found that how you walk is affected by what’s on your playlist. The study asked 18 adults to walk to 52 different genres of music and found that most people synchronized their walking to the tempo.
After the New York Police Department pledged to take pedestrian deaths more seriously, their first test comes after a police officer struck a teacher, who had the pedestrian light, in a crosswalk. Witnesses have claimed the officer was talking on a cell phone when the accident happened.
Delaware’s new pedestrian safety campaign enlists the walking dead, with the slogan “Don’t Join the Walking Dead: Cross at Marked Crosswalks. The ads are featured at bus stations and crosswalks and will soon be added to the exterior and interior of buses.
Older pedestrians in New Jersey are killed at much higher rate than younger ones, with people 75 or older making up 13 percent of pedestrian deaths in the state from 2009 to 2011. That number equals a rate of about 3 older pedestrians killed each week on New Jersey roads.
The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation has released new YouTube videos that teach pedestrian safety. The videos target a variety of audiences, including parents, children, and young drivers.
International
Transportation officials in Prague are considering the use of singles only metro cars. Each week, one car per train would be set aside for single people to meet. A recent poll showed that 51 percent of the city’s population is in favor of the idea.
A newspaper in India has launched a Right to Walk campaign in an attempt to regain sidewalks for pedestrians. With many businesses taking up residence on sidewalks, those on foot are often forced into the street.
A unique visualization shows the activity on a sidewalk in Tokyo over the course of five minutes. The pedestrians, who are plotted on the chart as if on a timeline, illustrate the various demographics passing through a particular area, as well as the speed of each pedestrian.
If you come across any interesting pedestrian news or stories, please send a link to info@feetfirst.org.
Photo courtesy of Atlantic Cities.