Feet First’s look at pedestrian news for the week of August 5, 2011.
Weekly Walk Around the News
Posted by Derrick Van Kirk August 5, 2011
Local
How walkable is your neighborhood? The West Seattle Herald gives a breakdown of the walkablity of West Seattle neighborhoods.
Megan Risley of Feet First, explains how the Citizens Transportation Advocacy Committee (CTC-III) has spent the past few months discussing how the City of Seattle should spend the income generated by implementing an $80 vehicle licensing on Seattle drivers.
Alan Durning of Sightline Institute explains why he thinks cities and local governments should be allowed to lower speed limits on especially dangerous streets without first doing extensive and expensive speed and engineering studies as is currently required by Washington state law.
National
David Goldberg, communications director of Transportation for America, gives his thoughts on the Georgia mother who was convicted last week of vehicular homicide despite the fact that she doesn’t own a vehicle. He points out that the real issue in this case involves transportation officials who neglect pedestrian infrastructure in city planning.
The City of Houston, Texas is focusing on creating lively new public spaces by infusing neighborhoods with a new sense of vibrancy. According to Project for Public Spaces (PPS), city officials have taken a new approach in creating these new spaces. Instead of using a project oriented and design-led approach, the vision for a public place is now being defined by community stakeholders along with leaders and professionals helping to implement the vision.
Kaid Benfield of the National Resources Defense Council gives his take on a new study claiming people are more likely to walk when they live in a neighborhood that is perceived to be walkable. He also brings up the Walk Score city rankings from last week.
If you come across any interesting pedestrian news or stories, please send a link to derrick@feetfirst.org.
Photo of shoes courtesy of Flickr user blond avenger under the Creative Commons license.