Posted by Kerry Dirk
Local
How safe do you feel as a pedestrian in Seattle? Although Seattle is one of the ten safest metro areas for pedestrians, there were still 4,824 pedestrian-involved collisions between 2001 and 2011. Vote for how safe you feel from cars when walking in Seattle and see the current results.
SDOT will soon install a marked crosswalk on Wallingford Ave N. at N 41st St., complete with curb ramps and curb bulbs. Because this area is close to Hamilton Middle School, school crosswalk signs will also be added.
The majority of the Capitol Hill community wants the streetcar to extend all the way to E. Prospect, which could add an additional $5-$10 million to the project.
National
Transportation for America has created a simple chart to help you understand how the sequestration and proposed budgets will affect transportation funding. Pay close attention to the fourth column, which shows where the cuts have been made as a part of sequestration.
Taking a walk through a park can ease brain fatigue, which may not be too surprising for those who find green spaces to be calming. Researchers in Scotland used a portable device to study brain wave patterns of pedestrians who walked in three different sections of Edinburgh, crossing through different sections of the city. As walkers moved through green spaces, their brain waves became more meditative.
The 2013 Walking Summit will take place October 1-3 in Washington, DC. The event will include roundtables, expert keynote addresses, interactive workshops, advocacy training, and policy briefings.
A study of amenities in 165 parks in the Kansas City metro region found that although low-income neighborhoods have more parks per capita, those parks are also less likely to have features such as trails, playgrounds, and decorative landscaping.
Join the free webinar, Accessing Funding for Bicycle and Pedestrian Projects under MAP-21, which will take place Tuesday, April 9 from 11:00 AM 12:30 PM. The presentations will focus on how to use MAP-21 funding programs at the state and local levels.
WSU transportation services are hoping to incorporate a bicycle and pedestrian plan into their overall transportation plan to address a five-mile radius of campus, including downtown.
Pedestrians and bicyclists in Santa Monica are in a turf war over who has the right of way on the bike paths.
A private company in Florida will be adding a passenger rail between downtown Miami and Orlando, a trip that will take three hours. Private intercity passenger rail poses an interesting study of how the private and public transport sectors can work together.
International
Even though the Lilliputian underpass was not designed for pedestrian use, as it measures only 4 feet 3 inches tall, pedestrians and bicyclists in southern China use this crossing regularly.
If you come across any interesting pedestrian news or stories, please send a link to info@feetfirst.org.