weekly walk around the news 8/10/12
Posted by Rose Petersky
August 10, 2012
Local
Seattle has the second largest percentage of residents who walk to work among Pacific Northwest cities with more than 50,000 people only behind Corvallis, OR. An estimated 8.7% of Seattle residents walk to work.
Linden Ave N between North 128th and North 130th streets will be intermittently closed to all traffic from August 8th 2012 to early October 2012. This is due to the installation of a new storm drainage system. Between October and mid-November, one lane of northbound traffic will be open. For more information about this project, please visit: http://www.seattle.gov/transportation/linden.htm or leave a message on the project hotline: 206-462-6350. Your call will be responded to within one business day.
A pedestrian was killed Thursday night due to a fatal impact by a hit-and-run driver on Highway 99 in Lynnwood.
The Bullitt Foundation, which gave Feet First a $25,000 grant in 2011 has built what is hailed as “the greenest commercial building on earth.”
National
Last month, the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy released a report entitled Community Built – Stories of Volunteers Creating and Caring For Their Trails. Within this publication are inspiring stories of how volunteers and local groups all over the United States assisted in the construction of rail-trails. Included in this report is the story of Valley County Pathways, an Idaho organization that banded together to construct 100 miles of pathways for pedestrians.
According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), more than 145 million US adults now include walking as part of a physically active lifestyle. More than 6 in 10 people walk for transportation or for fun, relaxation, or exercise, or for activities such as walking the dog. The percentage of people who report walking at least once for 10 minutes or more in the previous week rose from 56% (2005) to 62% (2010). While this is encouraging news, less than half of US adults still get the recommended amount of physical activity of 2.5 hours a week. The CDC also says that the walkable, pedestrian-inclusive communities that Feet First advocates for are key to encouraging Americans to travel by foot.
Lower Manhattan will be getting a remake which includes more public space and pedestrian walkways known as the East River Blueway Plan.
Many cities in California are implementing ‘parklets.’ These are small spaces of approximately 120 square feet astride sidewalks in urban areas that add splashes of greenery and art as well as public space. While these are not replacements for larger public parks, they are seen as a way for cities to add more color to the monotone grays that can sometimes crowd urban streets as well as make walks more enjoyable.
More pedestrian plazas and bike lanes are being added to New York City streets. This is a cause of concern for NYC’s vision-impaired community, who are finding that the changes are being done at too fast a pace for them to become aware of them and plan accordingly. About 60,000 New Yorkers are blind and another 360,000 have vision impairments.
International
Within the next month, more than 1km of the right bank of the Seine in Paris and, by Spring of 2013, 2.5km on the left bank will be car-free. The road along the river will be narrowed to make way for shops, a riverside park, flower market barges, and botanical gardens. Paris’s mayor, Bertrand Delanoë, said that this project will “give Parisians back their river”, “profoundly change” the city and provide “an opportunity for happiness” for residents.
Author Hazel Borys on why Montreal is a well-developed urban city for cyclists and pedestrians. Among Montreal’s advantages are two-laned roads for bike traffic, streets that are closed to car traffic during the summer and more.
Half of Copenhagen citizens commute to work through walking or biking. Copenhagen opened its first “bike superhighway” last April.
Other
Article by Placeshakers outlining the benefits of having your office located in a walkable area!