U.S. Department of Transportation
Federal Highway Administration
1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
Washington, DC 20590
202-366-4000
“Livability means being able to take your kids to school, go to work, see a doctor, drop by the grocery or Post Office, go out to dinner and a movie, and play with your kids at the park—all without having to get into your car.” -USDOT Secretary Ray LaHood
In 1991, Congress appropriated $1 million for the US DOT to gain a better understanding of how to increase bicycling and walking trips while also improving safety. The National Bicycling and Walking Study was published in 1994 and outlined two main goals for the future of bicycling and walking in the country:
Double the percentage of total trips made by bicycling and walking in the United States from 7.9 percent to 15.8 percent of all travel trips.
Since 1994, there has been an increase in bicycling and walking, and a decrease in pedestrian and bike fatalities and injuries across the United States. The report includes data from the 2009 National Household Travel Survey, which states walking trips accounted for 10.9 percent of all trips and one percent of all trips reported were taken by bike; together accounting for 11.9 percent of all trips. This represents an approximate 25 percent increase for both modes. In regard to safety, the nation has witnessed a 12 percent decrease in pedestrian fatalities and a 22.3 percent decrease in fatalities among bicyclists, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). NHTSA also reports a 17.8 percent and a 14.7 percent decrease in pedestrian and bicyclists injuries, respectively.
To access the report, please click here.
As mentioned in the Spring 2009 Pedestrian Forum Newlstter, USDOT Secretary Ray LaHood has stated that improving “livability” of communities is one the Administration’s top transportation priorities. Accordingly, the USDOT and the FHWA have recently unveiled livability websites. The FHWA site contains information on current departmental activities on livability, case studies, FHWA programs that support livability, and more. The USDOT site contains information about recent DOT accomplishments, current news stories and events related to livability, case studies, principles of livability, grants and programs, FAQ’s, and more.
NHTSA has developed two new resources to reach members of the Hispanic community. New Spanish language materials teach Hispanics about the basic pedestrian and bicycle rules and regulations. The mate-rials include posters, bro-chures, and radio public service announcements that can be downloaded here. Print copies can be re-quested by sending a fax to 301-386-2194 with a name, address, phone number and number of copies requested (up to 25 maximum each).
The Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety English as a Second Language (ESL) Curriculum for Adult Learners allows students at an intermediate English learning level to continue learning the lan-guage while also learning the basic principles of pedes-trian and bicycle safety. The curriculum, in English and available online, includes instructor guides, student handbooks, and audio lis-tening clips. Download the curriculum by visiting the NHTSA Pedestrian Safety Webiste.
NHTSA will soon release a beginner level ESL course for learners who are not as advanced, but still need to be educated on pedestrian and bicycle safety.
For several years now, the FHWA Ped/Bike Safety Program has been offering free techni-cal assistance to its 13 Pedestrian Focus States and 5 Focus Cities. One of the offered courses, Designing for Pedestrian Safety, will be presented as 8 FREE webinars for up to 1000 participants on the following topics:
July 20 at 2:30 EST: Introduction to Pedestrian Safety Design and Plan-ning Principles (Craig Allred and Mi-chael Ronkin). Register here.
Aug. 3 at 2:00 EST: Sidewalk Design (Peter Eun). Register here.
Aug. 17 at 2:00 EST: Treatments at Unsignalized Pedestrian Crossings (Charlie Zegeer). Register here.
Sept. 9 at 2:00 EST: Intersection Geometry (John LaPlante and Keith Sin-clair). Register here.
Date/time TBD: Interchanges and Roundabouts (Fred Ranck and Hillary Isebrands).
Date/time TBD: Signalized Intersections (Michael Moule and Fred Ranck).
Date/Time TBD: Pedestrians and Transit (Dan Nabors).
Date/Time TBD: Road Diets (Peter Lagerwey).
You may register for all, or just some of the Webinars. All of the Webinars will be re-corded for future viewing for those who can-not attend in person.
To register for upcoming Webinars and find out about future Webinars, please visit here.
NHTSA has launched a new web-based resource for law enforcement officers called “Safe Routes to School (SRTS) for Law Enforcement.” It is designed to aid officers and law enforcement agencies and officers in their local SRTS efforts. The Resource contains a wide variety of tools including:
Activities for children. Involvement and participation by law enforcement agencies in SRTS provides both law enforcement professionals and agencies a number of benefits, including:
The Resource can be found at: www.saferoutesinfo.org/lawenforcement/
The USDOT and the Department of Housing and Urban Development are teaming up to foster planning for more livable, sustainable communities. In this important collaboration, they will coordinate up to $75 million in funding (with $35 million from USDOT and $40 million from HUD) for planning activities leading to projects that integrate transportation, housing, and economic development.
The joint Notice of Funding Availability can be viewed here. Projects that apply for funding will be evaluated by a dual-agency process. Rather than have applicants proceed through two separate grant application procedures that might be on different timelines with different requirements they are steamlined with one point of entry.
Grants for transportation planning projects of successful projects will be fiunded through DOT’s Tiger II Discretionary Program and HUD’s Sustainable Communities Challenge Program.
“We’re breaking down needless barriers between complementary Federal programs. . .Barriers between agencies can be a considerable obstacle to local innovation.” -USDOT Secretary Ray LaHood
Tamara Redmon, Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Team Leader
Federal Highway Administration
1200 New Jersey Avenue SE
Room E71-303
Washington, DC 20590
Phone: 202-366-4077
Fax: 202-366-3222
E-mail: tamara.redmon@dot.gov
This Pedestrian Forum is available on the Web at http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/ped_bike/pedforum/
To receive information on future newsletters, please use the e-subsciprtion service provided on this site: http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/esubscribe.cfm#ped. Scroll down to “Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety” and select “subscribe” next to “Pedestrian Forum.”
Livable communities are a high priority of the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Obama Administration. A livable community is one that provides safe and convenient transportation choices to all citizens, whether it’s by walking, bicycling, transit, or driving. Each year, unfortunately, pedestrian fatalities comprise about 12 percent of all traffic fatalities and there are approximately 4,500 pedestrian deaths. Another 70,000 pedestrians are injured in roadway crashes annually. The numbers are improving, but we still have a ways to go. Pedestrian safety improvements depend on an integrated approach that involves the 4 E’s: Engineering, Enforcement, Education, and Emergency Services. The Pedestrian Forum highlights recent pedestrian safety activities related to the 4 E’s that will help save lives
The next FHWA Pedestrian Safety Webinar will take place on Friday, August 13, from 1:00-3:00 Eastern Time.
This webinar will focus on Accommodat-ing Pedestrians with Disabilities at Roundabouts. Scott Windley, of the United States Access Board, and Janet Bar-low, of Accessible Design for the Blind, will be speakers.
To register for this FREE webconference, follow this link: https://www.nhi.fhwa.dot.gov/resources/webconference/web_conf_learner_reg.aspx?webconfid=20815
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The May FHWA Pedestrian Safety Webinar was recorded and is available for viewing here.
In the May webinar, Scott Wainwright and Bruce Friedman (of FHWA’s MUCTD Team) provided information on the major pedestrian and bicyclist provisions of the recently released 2009 Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices.
In addition, Erin Kenley (Team Leader for HSIP at FHWA) discussed the Highway Safety Improvement Program and answered questions regarding funding eligibility for Ped/Bike projects
To receive information on future webinars, please use the e-subsciprtion service provided on this site:
http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/esubscribe.cfm#ped. Scroll down to “Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety” and select “subscribe” next to “Pedestrian Webinar.”
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The Easter Seals Project ACTION (ESPA) presented an Online Con-ference on Pedestrian Access, a part of the ESPA’s series of Promising Practices and Solutions in Accessible Transportation, from May 18–20, 2010.
