Transportation planning is increasingly being recognized as an important platform for population health improvement.  While air quality may be the first health issue to come to mind,  transporation planners and engineers influence how our communities are configured and determine the "walkability" &…

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The nation needs to tighten its belt.  I agree.  I am a fiscal conservative or what I guess was once called a country club Republican.  But what I cannot understand is being penny stupid and pound ignorant. I received an notice from the a colleague (it was supposed to be a joke) that conservatives in Congress are blocking funding for bike & and walking paths.  The…

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The Active Communities / Transportation (ACT) Research Group serves as a focal point of research among students, faculty, and researchers who specialize in land use-transportation policies and programs relating to "active" communities and/or "active" transportation. The group is based at the University of Colorado (Boulder and Denver). Current projects include examining the factors influencing the types of neighborhoods households choose, how individuals…

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My husband is a civil engineer so his professional organization keeps up with infrastructure legislation/projects. Walking/biking trails are not big ticket items for these firms, but he did send me an email concerning a bill in Congress introduced by a congressman from Oregon.

Apparently, the bill would provide funds for more walking, biking, hiking/running trails in cities and towns. So here is the link to the campaign.…

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The Rails to Trails Conservancy (RTC) issued an excellent report that is being used as a key advocacy document for U.S. Representative Ed Blumenaur's (OR) bill to build more federal funds to foster pedestrian/cyclist friendly projects in the nation''s communities.

http://www.railstotrails.org/ourWork/advocacy/activeTransportation/makingTheCase/index.html

The Surface Transportation Policy Partnership hosted two webinars for newcomers to transportation policy. With the tranportation bill finally making its way through the Senate's process, it may be time to get up to speed on a few transportation policy basics and history. There are two webinars available on line and a useful web page that sumarized tranportation policy highlights since the Eisenhower administration:

From the Margins to the Mainstream webinar series.…

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Today Senator Barbara Boxer, the environment committee chairperson, announced that her committee will begin work on the transportation bill, using the House version as a template. According to DC.Streetblog.org: "Boxer described today's hearing in her panel as "the kickoff" of the upper chamber's drafting of new legislation governing U.S. road, transit, bridge, port, and rail policy........But lawmakers and industry lobbies have a long way to go before they can sing from the same hymnal on…

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I see that some of you have been posting to the Transportation for America (T4A) Facebook page. Well perhaps you missed this item. William Lind, a conservative (pro-rail but not hot on buses), gives a thumbs up to investing in public transportation.

The link includes a video as well as text.

http://www.streetfilms.org/williamlind/#more-20681" target="_blank

While we are all focussed on health reform, we will be gearing up soon to keep active transportation provisions in the Transportation Bill (T-Bill). PolicyLink released an excellent report on the impact transportation policy can have on health. The link will take you to the full report.…



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Yes..this is still a vanilla site, but I could not resist this title. But seriously folks......here is an excellent example of research that demonstrates how active transportation options (walking biking) made possible by thinking of transporatation as also a chance to maintain & improve health. The piece comes from the website Obesity Panacea.



Click on the link to read the article on the Obesity Panacea website.…

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As part of an effort to promote walkable, transit-oriented places in the Twin Cities, the Center for Transit Oriented Development recently completed a study outlining an approach for transforming existing activity centers into walkable places. This study was done in partnership with the Urban Land Institute in Minnesota and the ULI/Curtis Regional Infrastructure Project and called the Connecting Transportation and Land Use Systems Initiative. The initiative was funded by the McKnight… Continue

The American Society of Landscape Architects has developed a number of policy positions that are very much in synch with what healthy community advocates consider a healthy living/built environment. Landscape architects are a little known group that champions equity and sustainable practices.



Below is a copy of the policy from ASLA's advocacy page.

http://www.asla.org/ContentDetail.aspx?id=23266"… Continue

Text from New York Times article-9/17/09

Many in the mainstream transportation community agree the next multi-year surface transportation bill needs to significantly boost federal funding for the nation's roads, rails and bridges. But the consensus soon begins to crumble when the issue turns to how to pay for the overhaul -- with lawmakers loath to tell Americans they will need to foot the bill and the rest of the transportation community agreeing that is the only option to pay for… Continue

Alcohol and the road are generally not viewed as a good combination; however, in Colorado the two are a winning combination. New Belgium Brewing Company in Fort Collins signed onto the Transportation for America (T4A) campaign as a partner, and on August 18th, they hosted a town hall meeting on the topic of transportation.



New Belgium is bucking the conventional wisdom for a business in some ways. It’s much easier for a business to keep quiet on controversial issues of policy,… Continue

The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) highlighted Safe Routes to Schools (SRTS) on their website this month. ASLA is a member of the SRTS Coaltion and is on record supporting a bill sponsored by Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) to expand SRTS to high schools and more rural communities.
http://www.asla.org/NewsListingDetails.aspx?id=23796" target="_blank

I don't know about you, but I am swamped with attending townhalls, web forums, and of course responding to action alerts from the pro-health reform camp. I am all for innovative, multi-sector, ecological, community-based, evidence-based, carbon-neutral, collaborative approaches.....you get the point. Now comes the reauthorization of the Transportation Bill. Citizen advocacy fatigue is setting in so I was very relieved to get an email alert from Transportation for America (T4A). Yes it was yet… Continue