Walk and Roll: WSDOT Active Transportation Update Nov. 22, 2022: Job opening, award-winning plan

Washington State Department of Transportation sent this bulletin at 11/22/2022 06:58 PM PST

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ACTIVE TRANSPORTATION NEWS FROM WSDOT AND PARTNERS

Connectivity -- Safety -- Opportunity -- Participation -- Partnership

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Join Our Active Team!

WSDOT's Active Transportation Division is recruiting a transportation planning specialist to join our highly collaborative multidisciplinary team. Apply by Dec. 18, 2022, to be considered.

This position is critical to advancing WSDOT’s support to local agencies and tribes for safety, equity, mobility, and accessibility. Your work will contribute to the goals in the state active transportation plan and will help our partners grow in their understanding and application of practices in planning and engagement that support accessible active transportation.

If you're not applying, we invite you to share the application through your networks to help us recruit a highly qualified pool of candidates. On social media we appreciate it if you include the #WSDOTActive hashtag. On Twitter, follow @WSDOTjobs for other openings.

Experience for both required and preferred qualifications can be gained through formal professional employment, volunteer experience, or lived experience. Applicants are encouraged to explain how their combination of education and experience meets the requirements of the position. Positions offer flexible/hybrid remote work options. Positions do not require candidates to hold a driver's license; you must have the ability to fulfill travel requirements to carry out the responsibilities.

Other positions in planning, engineering, and other disciplines are open around the state. Go to the WSDOT job listings page and search on keywords.

Active Transportation Plan receives multiple awards

If you were one of the voters who responded to our many reminders, thank you — it worked! Washington state's Active Transportation Plan has been named the winner of the People's Choice Award in the national 2022 America's Transportation Awards. The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, AAA, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce sponsor the annual contest. This represents the first time ever in the competition's 15-year history that an active transportation plan has won the honor.

The ATP became eligible for the finalist round when the Western Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials named it a regional winner in June, which moved it on to the national competition. As the People's Choice Awards voting was under way, the Washington state chapter of the American Planning Association also recognized it with an award for transportation planning at their annual conference.

Read more on the WSDOT blog

World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims

Each year advocates for safer streets hold vigils, walks, and other events around the globe on the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims. As organizers say, we don’t want more victims to remember—we want to spend our lives together with those we love.

On Monday, Nov. 21, a coalition of bike and pedestrian safety advocates, elected officials, and family members held three press conferences organized by Washington Bikes highlighting the need for state and local action to address the growing public health crisis of deaths on our roadways. Events in Seattle, Everett, and Tacoma highlighted the losses and the actions that will contribute to safer roads for all. Steve Roark, Regional Administrator for the Olympic Region that includes the Tacoma area, and Barb Chamberlain, Active Transportation Division Director, spoke at the Tacoma event.

People walking, rolling, and cycling represent a disproportionate share of these deaths, well above their share of miles traveled statewide. As noted in the state Active Transportation Plan, these deaths are more frequent in neighborhoods with higher rates of poverty and with higher rates of people who are Black, Indigenous, or otherwise categorized as racialized under the US Census.

The Active Transportation Annual Safety Report in WSDOT’s Gray Notebook calls out additional statewide figures, all of them representing individual losses.

  • Combined pedestrian and bicyclist traffic fatalities increased by 26.0% from 123 deaths in 2020 to 155* deaths in 2021.
  • The 155 deaths represent a 154.1% increase in pedestrian and bicyclist fatal crashes compared to the 10-year low of 61 pedestrian and bicyclist fatal crashes that occurred in 2013.
  • This number of deaths is the highest in Washington state since at least the early 1990s.
  • Even though only 2.5% of all traffic crashes in 2021 involved people who walk or bike, they represented approximately 26.2% (155) of all fatal traffic crashes (592) for the year.
  • Serious injuries to people walking and bicycling increased 28.2% from 397 in 2020 to 509 in 2021.

*WSDOT updates the figures when additional information comes in concerning a serious injury or fatality. 2021 data were considered preliminary at the time WSDOT published the June 2022 Gray Notebook.

Transportation Professionals Forum Dec. 7

The next Washington Transportation Professionals Forum and Peer Exchange will be held Wednesday, December 7 via webinar, 9am-12:30pm. The forum is free and open to people interested in the topics being presented as well as to professionals.

Topics:

  • Local Technical Assistance Program (LTAP) Update
  • Horizontal Curve Safety Assessment— Measuring Horizontal Curve Superelevation with Your Smartphone
  • County Safety Program Update: Matthew Enders,
  • ADA Transition Plans—Your Roadmap for ADA Compliance
  • Public Right-of-Way Accessibility Guidelines (PROWAG) and the Future of ADA Compliance

AASHTO comments submitted to USDOT concerning vulnerable road user safety at intersections

The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials sent a 13-page letter to the U.S. Department of Transportation on November 15 to provide feedback on the agency’s recent federal register notice regarding ways to enhance the safety of “vulnerable road users” or VRUs at intersections. WSDOT Sec. Roger Millar is serving as AASHTO board president 2022-2023, and the letter outlines safety strategies AASHTO plans to encourage as his emphasis areas:

  • Embrace the Safe System Approach, which relies on the idea that everyone has a role in saving lives and keeping communities’ safe. AASHTO strongly supported this aspect of the NRSS when it as introduced in January;
  • Re-examine usage of the nation’s transportation infrastructure to ensure safe design, construction, operation, and maintenance for the needs of all people and modes,
  • Recognize that when modifications are made to improve or increase vehicle flow, those changes can increase driver speeds at the same time that crossing exposure for vulnerable users increases – factors that need to be explicitly considered and addressed in decision making so that vehicular mobility is not prioritized at the expense of vulnerable road user safety, and;
  • Develop and utilize technology to improve safety, while also engaging with privacy and equity advocates during this work.

The letter notes, “While states typically analyze their crash data to understand vulnerable road user safety issues, the IIJA provisions for considering demographic data of crash locations will help ensure a more comprehensive look at equity-related factors in identifying locations and potential projects. Thoughtful use of data grounded in historical understanding will enable us to more effectively address the effects of transportation project decisions—past and present—that create barriers for those who rely most on active transportation and transit access.”

Read more in the AASHTO blog post and the letter sent to USDOT.

In Washington state in 2021, 54.5% of fatal and serious injury crashes involving bicyclists were intersection-related. People crossing the street made up 51.1% of fatal and serious injury crashes involving pedestrians.

State Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan open for public comment

The Recreation and Conservation Office has released the draft State Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan . RCO encourages the public to review the draft plan, supporting documents, and provide comments for improvement. The site provides an online survey where people can type or upload public comments through December 18, 2022.

FIVE+ THINGS TO READ/WATCH/HEAR

  • Can Cities Combat ‘Green Gentrification’?: “To ward off green gentrification, experts agreed that projects must be paired with policies that focus on equity, discourage speculation, and maintain or add affordable housing.”
  • Yes Exit: A Successful Activist Campaign: “In less than half a year, we succeeded in fixing a long-standing irritant for Toronto pedestrians, making walking more visible, and encouraging people to explore the hidden corners of their neighbourhood on foot rather than discouraging them.”
  • We Built It This Way: A Primer on Transportation Inequity: "The places we live and the ways we get around are built through a series of intentional policy and funding decisions. Those decisions aren’t random; they are influenced by humans who are subject to individual and societal pressures and biases."
  • E-Bikes Gain Momentum as a Climate, Traffic Solution: "For our air quality and quality of life, we need to transition ourselves away from solo car trips when we can. We've had plenty of people tell us that [e-bikes] are absolutely replacing car trips. Some households choose to get an e-bike rather than a second car."
  • Residential speed limit of 20mph to save Wales £100m in first year: "(Research study) says the savings that will be made in the first year alone are more than three times (estimated direct costs) because so much less money will be spent on dealing with the aftermath of accidents."

TRAININGS, CONFERENCES, WEBINARS

We add new trainings as we find them so the list changes with every issue. Some of these offer continuing education credits. All times are shown in Pacific time zone.

All webinars listed are FREE unless a price is noted. All items are webinars unless a location is noted.We add new trainings as we find them so the list changes with every issue. Some of these offer continuing education credits. All times are shown in Pacific time zone.

All webinars listed are FREE unless a price is noted. All items are webinars unless a location is noted.

November

December

GRANTS AND FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES

AWARDS, COMPETITIONS, AND KUDOS

PLANNING AND PROJECTS

Have an upcoming project, open house, public comment opportunity? Construction projects people should know about as they relate to biking/walking? Compliments on a project? Send to barb.chamberlain@wsdot.wa.gov

PRESENT AND PUBLISH

  • Urbanism Next 2023 Conference to be held April 2023 in Portland: Call for proposals due by Dec. 9.
  • Washington State 2023 ITE/IMSA Annual Conference to be held Feb. 7, 2023, in Bellevue, WA: Call for abstracts due by Dec. 16. (Form shows Dec. 4 deadline but organizers announced an extended deadline)

RESEARCH AND RESOURCES

SURVEYS AND DATA COLLECTION

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