October 2020

Georgia Walks Summit: Register now!

The Georgia Walks Summit is something you won’t want to miss. It’s less than two weeks away, and registration ends Oct 16! The Georgia Walks Summit is an annual statewide gathering of transportation and public health professionals, elected officials, and community advocates committed to making our streets and communities great places to walk.

The program is packed with exciting plenary talks and includes 24 breakout sessions presented by a diverse group of 50 speakers. The breakout sessions include four tracks: Health and equity Policy and planning Trails and pedestrian design Walking audits

Keynote Speakers:

Charles Brown is a renowned urban planner, transportation expert, and healthy, equitable communities advocate. Peter Norton is a professor of history in the Department of Engineering and Society at UVA and the author of “Fighting Traffic.”

Atlanta DOT takes big steps forward

During a recent Atlanta City Council Transportation Committee meeting, Atlanta Department of Transportation Commissioner Josh Rowan provided a quarterly update that described policies, guides and toolkits on equity, tactical urbanism, traffic calming and other issues that are nearing completion. Bravo!

The update also revealed tremendous progress on Atlanta’s sidewalk program. We’re thrilled that a comprehensive inventory of the location and condition of sidewalks and curb ramps throughout the city is close to completion. We’ve known for years that Atlanta has far few too sidewalks and that the ones we have are in terrible condition. Thanks to the inventory, we now have details: Atlanta is missing 4,320 curb ramps, and sidewalks are missing on some 600 miles of the city’s streets. Without doubt, the inventory provides a foundation for sidewalk and curb ramp management with an eye to safety, equity, and need. These are terrific steps forward, but much work remains. ADOT is currently working on prioritization, identifying potential new funding sources, and developing a 5-year sidewalk construction and repair plan. And with your help, PEDS will continue to provide input and encouragement that helps ADOT achieve these goals.

Advocates call on the US DOT to require improved vehicle design

October is the first federal National Pedestrian Safety Month. Many activists are using this as an opportunity to demand that long-overdue policy reforms be passed to help save lives. This coalition of transportation safety, public health, and consumer advocacy groups co-authored an open letter urging Department of Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao to push for laws aimed at decreasing the pedestrian death toll on America’s roadways, which last year reached a 30-year high of 6,590. “They’re taking the easy way out,” said Catherine Chase, president of The Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety. “It’s always easy to put the onus on a pedestrian, when what [US DOT] should be doing … is rulemaking on making vehicles and road users safer.” 

The coalition is calling for the USDOT to advance policy changes concerning vehicle design, including requiring vehicle hoods and bumpers to be designed so they’re more forgiving in crashes involving people on foot, enhancing headlight visibility standards, and testing of vehicles to determine how safe they are for vulnerable users.

The call for better vehicle design – especially of car hoods and bumpers – is a common sense solution that will save lives.

We’ll keep you posted on their progress – and once elections are behind us, ways that you can help to make these requirements a reality.

Your gifts help make safe sidewalks and crossings a reality.

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