Walk and Roll: Active Transportation News Round-up May 19, 2020

Recent editions: May 5 (news round-up), April 27 (trainings/resources), April 13, 2020 (news round-up). 

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WSDOT Webinars this Week

• May 20, 10:30-11:30am: OpenSidewalks and Resilient Cities: Pedestrian-Centric Approach
• May 21, 10:30am-noon: COVID-19 Transportation Dashboard
• For a more extensive list of webinars the rest of May, go to the April 27 edition.

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COVID-19 and Active Transportation

This round-up isn’t exhaustive, but gives you an idea of the conversation playing out. We'll adjust headings over time as themes emerge and evolve. Previous editions that included this: April 27, 2020 and April 13, 2020.

Resources for Washington State

• COVID-19 Transportation System Safety Performance Dashboard
• COVID-19 Multimodal Transportation System Performance Dashboard
• Washington State Coronavirus Response official site
• Guidance on Cloth Face Coverings from the Washington State Department of Health (PDF)
• Information on COVID19 from DOH available in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Punjabi, Russina, Somali, Spanish, Ukrainian, and Vietnamese
• State Parks COVID-19 update

Resources

• Pedestrian & Bicycle Information Center: COVID-19 Resources and Community Tracking for Walking and Bicycling
• NACTO COVID-19: Transportation Response Center
• PolicyLink: COVID-19 & Race
• APA: COVID-19 Resources

Infrastructure Responses

International

• Are we witnessing the death of the car?
• One way the coronavirus could transform Europe’s cities: More space for bikes
• European cities expand bike lanes before lockdowns end
• COVID-19 Urban transport response – Opportunities for policymaking in Africa
• Can coronavirus cure Brussels of its addiction to driving?
• Major Edinburgh roads set to be shut, have pavements widened or bus lanes added to improve active travel, council announce
• London to clear streets for walking and cycling amid fears of a post-lockdown traffic ‘avalanche’
• £2 billion package to create new era for cycling and walking
• UK councils to enforce temporary road closures for safer school runs
• Large areas of London to be made car-free as lockdown eased
• Parking Cull And Pocket Parks For England’s Finest Street As Newcastle Plans Post-Pandemic Future
• Montreal's summer plans: An extra 327 km of bike paths, pedestrian lanes

USA--General

• Absent Traffic Jams, Many Drivers Getting More Reckless
• What COVID-19 Response Can Teach Us About Roadway Safety
• The Pandemic Shows What Cars Have Done to Cities
• Cities Have a Small Window to Save Themselves From Cars
• We Shouldn’t Have To Say This: Expanding Sidewalks Does Not Spread COVID-19

USA--Cities and States

• San Diego's 'Slow Streets' program to expand city roads for pedestrians, bicyclists
• Minneapolis extends closure of parkways past June
• ‘Active Streets’ to provide more safe spaces for residents to walk, bike, and run in Milwaukee County
• Walsh hints at a street makeover for Boston — by taking away space from cars
• Boston Sidewalks Extended To Help Pedestrians With Social Distancing
• Austin Transportation proposes slowing some city streets to 25 mph limit
• Op-Ed: ‘Open Streets’ Must Lead to Permanent Changes in Our City (NYC)
• More miles of NYC streets open only for pedestrians
• Carpocalypse Now: Driving Is On The Rise Even As Lockdown Remains in Place
• On streets emptied by coronavirus, L.A. officials crack down on speeding
• New York City breaks record: 58 straight days with no pedestrian deaths
• Photos show how cities have closed streets to cars so people have enough space to get outside during the pandemic

Washington State

• State Parks COVID-19 update
• Seattle takes new steps to fine-tune traffic signals for people walking and rolling during COVID-19 health crisis
• Seattle’s new Stay Healthy Streets keep us moving during the coronavirus pandemic
• 130 Miles of Open Streets Is Just What the Doctor Ordered
• Stay Healthy Streets Expands in Ballard, Lake City, Aurora, and Delridge for 20 Miles in All
• Roadside chat with Dongho Chang, City Traffic Engineer
• Essential bikers (West Seattle)
• Bellevue has launched its own car-light ‘Healthy Streets’ program
• State parks, trailheads fill up as Washington enters Phase 1 of re-opening

Resilience and Recovery

• Staying at Home Helps Us Envision a Future of Climate-Conscious Travel
• City leaders aim to shape green recovery from coronavirus crisis
• Coronavirus and the Fragility of Auto-Centric Cities
• Armed with good data, engineers wage quiet battle for cleaner air
• What Covid-19 teaches us about how to fix freeways
• The pandemic could make cities more bike-friendly—for good
• Car use decreases in U.S. cities with bike share systems, finds research
• Pandemic as prologue
• Your daily commute won't ever be the same
• How Will Americans Commute After Lockdowns End?
• Reopening Main Street
• Walking [is] our way back to economic recovery
• Public Space During a Pandemic, Part 2

Participation

• Understand the impact of the pandemic on cycling: Eco-Counter analysis by country
• More People Are Cycling During COVID-19. That Matters.
• Cycle power: Bikes emerge as a post-lockdown commuter option
• Pandemic may bring a boom in cycling as major cities add many miles of bike lanes
• Looking to buy a bike? Cascade created a map showing which shops are open and what precautions they are taking
• Creating a Body-Inclusive Cycling Community
• Cycling 'explosion': coronavirus fuels surge in US bike ridership
• Cities Are Transforming as Electric Bike Sales Skyrocket
• Lime squeezes $170 million from Uber and Alphabet as scooter-sharing plummets under COVID-19
• How the Novel Coronavirus Is Speeding the Scooter Apocalypse

Equity

• More than one million households without a car in rural America need better transit
• Numbers that Take Your Breath Away: COVID-19, Air Pollution, and Equity
• The Spaces That Make Cities Fairer and More Resilient
• You Better Run, Boy
• What do ATA’s peer organizations across the country think of open streets?
• Ahmaud Arbery’s death, mobility justice, and the open streets debate
• A Tale of Two Truths: Transportation and Nuance in the Time of COVID-19
• The System Is Broken for Us Already

Streets for Restaurants

• Victoria mayor says city looking to open up streets, sidewalks to restaurants, retailers this summer
• Lithuanian capital to be turned into vast open-air cafe
• Berkeley Will Fully Close Its Streets to Create Giant Outdoor Dining Rooms
• So small restaurants can open, some Cincinnati streets will close - and become outdoor dining spaces
• Minimum Parking Requirements Lifted to Support Outdoor Dining in Connecticut
• The ‘Al Fresco Economy’: Restaurants Want to Start NYC’s Revival — All They Need is Space
• The Problem With Just Giving Streets to Restaurants
• The Year of Car-free Streateries (Seattle)

Webinar Archives and Podcast Episodes

• COVID-19, Safer Roads, and Urban Planning: Global Alliance of NGOs for Road Safety
• What Is COVID-19 Teaching Us About Sustainable Mobility: Global Alliance of NGOs for Road Safety
• Complete Streets responses to COVID-19: National Complete Streets Coalition
• Lime Kicks Off Webinar Series Examining Micromobility In A Post-COVID Age: Lime Bike (includes Active Transportation Division Director Barb Chamberlain as a panelist)
• Coronavirus and Mobility (podcast): The Urbanist
• Have a webinar archive or podcast episode to recommend for this new section? Send to barb.chamberlain@wsdot.wa.gov or via Twitter @BarbChamberlain.

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National and Local/Regional Surveys on COVID-19 and Transportation

• Social interaction, trips, and wellbeing during confinement: Polytechnique Montreal survey
• Arizona State University survey
• The impact of COVID-19 on mobility
• Local Actions to Support Walking and Cycling During Social Distancing Dataset: Open-access dataset invites people to submit information about their communities’ efforts to rebalance streets for walking, biking, and other forms of travel while promoting social distancing.
• Smart Growth America survey Complete Streets + COVID-19 on community responses
• Rails-to-Trails Conservancy survey about trail management experiences. 
• American Trails survey to quantify the effects of the pandemic on the trails and outdoor recreation industry.
• Safe Routes During COVID-19: Resource Tracking Document for ideas to engage youth and families while schools are closed
• Cascade Bicycle Club survey Biking, Walking, and Rolling During COVID-19
• Seattle Neighborhood Greenways survey Safe Streets in an Era of Social Distancing
• Duke University teleworking survey
• Know of a survey related to active transportation inviting data from people in Washington state? Send to barb.chamberlain@wsdot.wa.gov with dates it's open and we'll share in the next Walk and Roll E-News.

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