Walk and Roll: Active Transportation News Round-up Aug. 17, 2020

Recent Walk + Roll editions:

• News round-ups: June 16
• Trainings/resources: Aug. 5, July 7

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Active Transportation News

From the local to the global level, events move faster than this round-up can track. It isn’t intended to be exhaustive, but gives you an idea of the conversations playing out in Washington and around the globe about active transportation and related topics, particularly responses to COVID19. We'll continue to adjust headings over time to enable you to skim and find the articles of most interest for you.

International

• Canada: COVID-19 Gets the Wheels Turning on a National Cycling Strategy
• Canada Backs Active Transport as COVID Response
• China: Forget bike-sharing, e-bikes to become the next trend in China’s sharing economy
• Colombia: Bogotá Is Building its Future Around Bikes
• Europe: Bicycles Are Pushing Aside Cars on Europe’s City Streets
• France: Bird Two Launches in Bordeaux to Help City Meet Sustainability Goals
• London: In Covid-19 Recovery, London Bets Big on Low Traffic
• London: London Taxi Driver’s Warning About Bicycle-Based Future Backfires Spectacularly
• Scotland: Scotland Identifies Walking As Key to Post-Covid Economic Recovery
• United Kingdom: Britain Is Creating a Government Organization Devoted to Biking and Walking

USA--Cities and States

(Some city actions appear below under topical headings.)

• Top Mayors Pledge to Build 15-Minute Cities For COVID-19 Recovery
• https://smartgrowthamerica.org/cities-advance-complete-streets-policies/
• Cities Open Streets and Redefine Their Purpose and Focus
• Boston: Boston to Fast-Track Cummins Highway Road Diet With Temporary Materials
• Denver: In Denver's future street design, cars are guests
• Oregon: ODOT says new Community Paths grant program could dish out over $19 million
• Portland, OR: Going Dutch? New bicycle signal is part of a study on bike infrastructure
• Portland, OR: 1,500 electric bikes hitting Portland streets next month. Portland Tribune
  
• Washington, DC: Nearly 2 dozen miles of DC streets will soon be 15 mph zones
  

Washington State: COVID19 Streets and Active Transportation

• Bellingham: Bellingham closed some roads for restaurants to seat diners outside. Here’s the result
• Blaine: City of Blaine applies to use some parking on Peace Portal for outdoor dining, retail
• Everett: Dining in the street is now an official thing in Everett
• Everett: Barricades Go Up On Selected Streets Around Everett
• Leavenworth: Leavenworth’s Front Street closure goes from weekends to 24-7
• Seattle: The Patio Brings socially Distanced Outdoor Dining to Columbia City
• Seattle Considers Thinking About One Day Accepting Permits to Maybe Open Streets to Dining
• Seattle: Seattle Opens one of its Prettiest Waterfront Boulevards to Biking, Walking and Rolling
• Sumner: Sumner adds ‘parklets’ to try to help restaurants suffering during the COVID-19 pandemic

Washington State: Facilities, Projects, Other News

• Bellevue: Paint Is Not Enough for Bellevue Bike Network
• Bremerton: Roundabout, bike lanes considered for Bremerton's Naval Avenue
• Edmonds: Council approves bicycle lane project, will proceed with police chief recruiting process
• Kent: City of Kent studies future transportation projects
• King County: Eastside Ride: the 42-Mile Eastrail Will Transform How People Travel and Recreate in East King County 
• Marysville: Soper Hill roundabout and pedestrian trail work wraps up
• Puget Sound: People of color own fewer cars, take transit more
• Seattle presents potential improvements around light rail stations at 130th and 145th
• Seattle: Fourth Avenue Protected Bike Lane Route Fizzles Out at Southern End
• Tukwila: Trail Alert: Green River Trail closed at Tukwila Intl Blvd until December

Equity and Anti-Racism

• Opinion: Urbanism is Complicit in Infra-Structural Racism — And Reparations Have a Place in the Built Environment
• Walkability is a Health Justice Issue in Philadelphia
• A Black and White Issue: Lime Confronts the Scooter Racial Divide
• New Index Hopes to Move Forward More Conversations On Racial Equity
• VIDEO: How Car Dominance Makes Non-White Neighborhoods Hotter
• Parks combat summer heat. But not everyone has equal access.
• How Discussions of 'Neighborhood Character' Reinforce Structural Racism
• How Income Inequality Is Driving Our Post-Lockdown Carpocalypse

Americans with Disabilities Act 30th Anniversary

• COVID Times & ADA
• How the ADA Changed the Built World (video)
• ADA 30: No Justice for Disabled Native People
• On the ADA’s 30th Anniversary, Remember: Bikes are a Mobility Assistive Device, too
• The Forgotten History of How Accessible Design Reshaped the Streets
• USDOT Unveils Accessibility Plan as Part of ADA’s 30th Anniversary

Safety

• Bellevue: Want to Stop Car Crashes? Study the Near-Misses
• Bellevue uses AI technology to identify problem intersections and make them safer
• Seattle receives national recognition for preventing crashes with lower speed limits. Nearly half of Seattle’s major streets now have a 25 MPH speed limit
• SDOT touts pedestrian-first intersections completed early
• Award: Empathic Design Process Aims to Identify Successful Environments Through Data
• Oakland’s Quick-Build Protected Intersections are Safer
• Motor Vehicle Fatality Rates Rose 23.5% in May, Despite Quarantines
• Highway deaths spike for third-straight month as drivers take advantage of empty roads

Resilience and Recovery

• The “New Normal” of Places & Placemaking
• Talking Headways Podcast: The Social Determinants of Health
• How and why systemic racism harms the environment

Participation

• It's the Summer of the Bicycle And Women Are Leading the Charge
• The pandemic is giving e-bikes a boost
• California: Electric Bike-share in the Sacramento Region is Replacing Car Trips and Supporting More Favorable Attitudes Towards Bicycling
• Lime adds more JUMP bikes in Seattle but says long-term viability hinges on city allowing scooters
• New scholarship program expands access to League-Certified Instructor seminars
• Google Maps now shows cycling routes using docked bike-sharing schemes
• Canada: Inside Calgary’s plan to count each skateboard and scooter on the cycle track
• Portland, OR: Bikes Sales Have Exploded During the Pandemic—and for Portland Cycling Advocates, That Spells Opportunity
• STUDY: COVID-19 Might Finally Get City Planners Out of Their Cars
• Cycling Most Talked About Mode Of Transport During Pandemic, Finds Social Media Monitor Brandwatch

Streets and Public Spaces for Restaurants, Entertainment, Other Activities

• Cars Are Uninvited Guests When Americans Dine in Parking Lots
• What Happens to Public Space When Everything Moves Outside
• Parklets Become Places for 'StrEateries'
• Chicago: Cafe Streets are helping out local businesses in the ‘burbs
• Restaurants are taking over parking spaces. Here are 6 ways to make them better

Technology

• Kiwibot delivery robots head to San Jose with new partners Shopify and Ordermark

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Resources

COVID-19 Resources for Washington State

• COVID-19 Transportation System Safety Performance Dashboard
• COVID-19 Multimodal Transportation System Performance Dashboard
• Washington State Coronavirus Response official site
• Information on COVID19 from DOH available in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Punjabi, Russina, Somali, Spanish, Ukrainian, and Vietnamese
• State Parks COVID-19 update

Other COVID-19 and Related Resources

New items listed at the top the first edition in which they appear. Others in alphabetical order based on organization name.

• NEW--AARP: Open Streets--Commercial District Design: COVID-19 Response and Management
• NEW--ChangeLab Solutions: COVID-19 Response & Recovery
• NEW--Global Designing Cities Initiative: Designing Streets for Kids
• NEW--Main Street America: Main Street Forward 
• NEW--Team Better Block: Pop-Up Placemaking Tool Kit
• NEW--WA DOH/Seattle-King County Public Healthy: Healthy Business Streets Guide
• APA: COVID-19 Resources
• NACTO: Streets for Pandemic Response & Recovery
• NACTO COVID-19: Transportation Response Center
• Pedestrian & Bicycle Information Center: COVID-19 Resources and Community Tracking for Walking and Bicycling
• PolicyLink: COVID-19 & Race
• Rails-to-Trails Conservancy COVID-19 Resources
• RWJ: Health Equity Principles for State and Local Leaders in Responding to, Reopening and Recovering from COVID-19
• Salud America: Coronavirus and Latino Health Equity
• Transformative Urban Mobility Initiative: Fighting Corona in Transport
• TRB: Paths to biking, walking improvements supported by wealth of research 
• Untokening: Open for Whom? A Mobility Justice-Centered Approach to Open Streets
• Untokening: Mobility Justice and COVID-19
• Example COVID-19 Transportation Problems & Solutions: Slide deck created by SpokAT founder Jessica Engelman of Spokane

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

• 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. 
• 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
• Social interaction, trips, and wellbeing during confinement: Polytechnique Montreal survey
• Arizona State University survey on COVID19 and mobility
• 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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