Creating Walkable Communities

●  Pedestrian Transportation Resources to View/Download

●  Key Internet Links

●  Walkable Communities Workshops - May 2003

• National Center for Bicycling & Walking, established in 1977, works at the local, state, and national levels to create bicycle-friendly and walkable communities.

• Pedestrian and Bicycling Information Center is a national clearinghouse for information about health and safety, engineering, advocacy, education, enforcement and access and mobility. The PBIC also houses an Image Library of thousands of digital photos on walking, bicycling, traffic calming, and related topics.

• The Federal Highway Administration's (FHWA) Bicycle and Pedestrian Program Office is responsible for promoting bicycle and pedestrian transportation use and safety.

• National Highway Traffic Safety Administration provides a community walkability checklist and other child pedestrian safety resources. 

• The U.S. Access Board is an independent Federal agency devoted to accessibility for people with disabilities, including developing and maintaining accessibility requirements for the built environment, providing technical assistance and training on these guidelines and standards, and enforcing accessibility standards for federally-funded facilities.

• The Partnership for a Walkable America promotes the benefits of walking and supports efforts to make communities more pedestrian friendly.  The Partnership also supports a comprehensive Walk to School Day resource web site.

• Active Living by Design is a national program of The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and part of the University of North Carolina’s School of Public Health. The program works to establish and evaluate innovative approaches to increasing physical activity through community design, public policies, and communications-based strategies.

• Centers for Disease Control’s Nutrition and Physical Activity Center provides information and data on current health trends and related resources, including the impacts of walking on health improvement and disease prevention.

• America WALKs is a national coalition of walking advocacy groups dedicated to “promoting livable communities where people walk because it is a real choice”.

• Walkable Communities, Inc. helps whole communities, or parts of communities, i.e. neighborhoods, business districts, parks, school districts, subdivisions, specific roadway corridors, etc., become more walkable and pedestrian friendly.

In May 2003, GTC hosted eight “Walkable Communities” workshops throughout the nine-county GTC planning region. The workshops were designed to train community leaders; planning and design professionals; law enforcement; education, recreation, and public health professionals; and citizens in the building blocks of Walkable Communities and how they can create safe, attractive, and functional walking environments. Over 200 people participated in the eight workshops, which were held in Avon, Batavia, Brockport, Canandaigua, Rochester, Newark, Seneca Falls, and Mount Morris. 

Two nationally recognized pedestrian experts, Mark Fenton and Charles Gandy, gave dynamic and information-rich presentations on the “building blocks” of Walkable Communities and steps to achieve them in communities in our region. Each workshop also included a “Walking and Learning Tour” where the workshop instructors utilized the local host community as an outdoor classroom, bringing participants out in the field to examine pedestrian accommodations and issues.  The goal was to teach the participants to see a community from the perspective of a pedestrian. 

The workshops were sponsored by the National Center for Bicycling & Walking (NCBW) in partnership with GTC, and were made possible in part by a generous grant to NCBW from The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. GTC was one of only nine Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) from across the country to be awarded the Walkable Communities workshop grant. 

The instructors were gracious enough to share some of their presentation materials with us. So if you were unable to attend one of the workshops or you did attend and would like to share some of the ideas and examples you picked up, you can view or download the available materials here:

[Back to Top] 

x

Directions to GTC

GENESEE TRANSPORTATION COUNCIL

City Place, 50 West Main Street, Suite 8112

Rochester, NY 14614-1227

Phone:  (585) 232-6240      Fax:  (585) 262-3106

www.gtcmpo.org

E-mail Us 

Copyright © 2008 Genesee Transportation Council