Walk and Roll: WSDOT Active Transportation Update - December 27, 2024

Washington State Department of Transportation sent this bulletin at 12/27/2024 02:13 PM PST

    Active Transportation Division News From WSDOT and Partners

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

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    cyclists overhead bridge

    Scroll down to learn more about this Big Bridge Event!

    The Mobili-Tea Around ATD

    What a Year It Was! Highlights From Our Legislative Report

    Like many of you this time of year, our division has been doing a lot of self-reflection. We’re thinking about how far we’ve come, and what more we still want to do.

    December also coincides with the publication of our annual report to the legislature. The report covers how WSDOT and its partners are implementing state legislative and budget direction through the grant programs we steward, and how Washingtonians around the state benefit from them.

    In transportation, marking milestones like this publication matters: WSDOT employees work on such big projects, processes and programs with so many people and moving parts that from the outside, it can feel hard to track what's happened. It's important to identify the narratives that help everyone recognize and celebrate progress, and that keep everyone who uses and cares about our roads engaged. It's also a huge deal when we help our partners turn plans into reality: These grant programs literally change the shape and function of the world around us, and help millions of people travel more safely with better multimodal options.

    Suffice to say, I wanted to highlight our legislative report and the updates we are privileged to include in it.

    The report is a BIG team lift, not least because there’s so many updates to cover! It describes much of what’s happening across the state in active transportation. We’re making moves with the support and vision of our state legislature, as well as hundreds of partners at WSDOT, cities, counties, regions, tribal governments, and more. We’re making a lot of progress towards the goals outlined in our Active Transportation Plan (which, if you’ve been following along for a few months, you will be familiar with!).

    We won’t lose sight of how much work there is left to do — but looking at all we’ve been able to accomplish together this past year, we’re eager to share more wins with you soon.

    Here are just a few of the things you’ll find in the report that deserve some extra celebration:

    • We’re keeping and increasing commitments to environmental justice and equity. More than half of active transportation projects and programs benefitted overburdened communities and vulnerable populations in this past funding cycle, and will again in the coming one. We prioritize funding this way for many reasons (which you can read about in the report and elsewhere on our website), but studies reveal how members of these communities are disproportionately severely and fatally injured while walking, riding and rolling.
    • We’re bringing funding to more communities. Between our Safe Routes to School and Pedestrian/Bicyclist Programs, more than 1 in 6 projects we recommended for funding come from partners who have either not applied or haven’t been awarded funds within the past decade.
    • We’re getting more kids safely in the saddle. Only in its second year, the Statewide School-Based Bicycle Education Program is already available to schools in 13 counties. Cascade Bicycle Club has helped us educate more than 12,000 students and equip more than 1,000 of them with bicycles and safety equipment – and we’re just getting started.
    • We’re making funds more accessible to more partners. WSDOT’s new Active Transportation Assistance Program (ATAP) is helping small towns, rural areas and tribal governments deliver high-quality projects. The program is already increasing the geographic diversity of projects awarded within the Safe Routes to School and Pedestrian/Bicyclist Programs.
    • We're taking more direction from community leaders. The Sandy Williams Connecting Communities Program launched a 12-person Community Advisory Council to inform how we engaged and benefit communities. This includes a new approach to evaluating projects.

    Learn more about the ways everyday Washingtonians are benefiting personally from this work by reading their stories in the report. 

    kids bicycle education

    Students celebrate participating in the Statewide School-Based Bicycle Education Program.

    ICYMI: We're the Bike Friendliest State in the U.S. — Again!

    There is no state more supportive of people who travel by bike than Washington, according to one of the nation’s largest bicycle advocacy organizations.

    Washington leads U.S. states in fostering bicycling and systems that support it, earning it the top spot in the League of American Bicyclists’ Bicycle Friendly State rankings for 2024. The competitive ranking program evaluates states based on their commitments to bicycling across five categories: infrastructure and funding, education and encouragement, traffic laws and practices, policies and programs, and evaluation and planning. Each state gets a report card, and Washington's is the kind you put on the fridge.

    “Making it easier for more people to cycle safely to work, school or for fun has been an important part of our transportation planning,” said Gov. Jay Inslee. “Many of these efforts are supported by our Climate Commitment Act* which is paving the way for more riders and educating them so they can ride confidently. I appreciate the work of our Bicycle Friendly communities, businesses and universities that have all contributed to building active, healthy transportation options.”

    “It’s great to once again lead the nation in recognizing that bicycling is an important part of a multimodal transportation system,” said Secretary of Transportation Roger Millar. “We’re committed to providing transportation choices for all users of the system — including people who bike, walk and roll. We have more work to do, but this ranking affirms that we’re on the right path.”

    A few things that put us on top:

    • Our comprehensive attention to issues faced by cyclists
    • Our longstanding and continued leadership moving bicycling forward
    • The early successes of our Statewide School-Based Bicycle Education Program, which is a national model for what state government, local agencies and bicycle-education organizations can accomplish together
    • Our planning work that provides safe bicycle infrastructure and design guidance and training that supports those plans
    • Our growing efforts to offer grants and training to more partners, especially those who may otherwise not have the resources to apply for or seek them
    • MUCH more!

    Washington has an extensive history of support for cyclists. We’ve taken the program’s top spot for all but one year since it launched in 2008. This year, the first-place ranking is a testament to just how much work we’re doing with your help: We were rated third in the nation in 2022, ending our 14-year run at the top the rankings. Rankings were not awarded in 2023.

    We’ve come a long way expanding support for people who bike, yet we’re motivated by how much is left to do. Despite our commitment to Target Zero (our state’s highway safety plan), data show our state is still headed in the wrong direction when it comes eliminating severe injury and death for everyone including cyclists on our roads. (You can learn more in the newest Gray Notebook, WSDOT’s quarterly performance and accountability report.) Communities facing high environmental justice burdens and historical underinvestment are most affected. Investing in safe, comfortable and connected cyclist and pedestrian infrastructure can help turn that tide. When we improve conditions for active transportation users with projects like these, we improve safety for everyone by reducing the likelihood and severity of crashes.

    * In just the last funding cycle, the CCA has already had a huge influence on our ability to deliver funding support. It is singly responsible for funding the Sandy Williams Connecting Communities Program, Statewide School-Based Bicycle Education Program and upcoming e-bike programs; and is expected to fund more than half of all projects in our Pedestrian/Bicyclist and Safe Routes to School Programs in the next funding cycle.

    An A-Bridged Bridge Recap: All-Weather Cyclists Celebrate Montlake Lid Multimodal Improvements

    Just as Washington supports cyclists, cyclists support the state when WSDOT employees put out the call. On December 14, hundreds of people (and puppies) biked, walked and rolled for a maiden voyage across the SR 520 Montlake Project’s much-awaited shared-use path bridge at the foot of the new Montlake Lid.

    WSDOT employees including Secretary Roger Millar testified to the significance of the day: The bridge makes it easier and more comfortable for people currently traveling North (from the Arboretum and Montlake), South (from the University District) to bypass vehicular traffic when riding across the state route or while accessing it. The Lid also makes the area more pleasant to ride in and even stay awhile, while creating more space for active transportation. The bridge and Montlake Lid will be gorgeous in the summer, but you bet they’re going to get use year-round: Heavy wind and rain didn’t deter Washingtonians from gathering to mark the occasion.  

    The SR 520 Team will be releasing a highlight reel in the new year, but in the meantime please enjoy these images the team captured from the event! (Friend of ATD Best Side Cycling also posted a really cool POV video from the bridge and surrounding Lid that is worth checking out.)

    group of cyclists gray day

    Secretary Roger Millar speaks to the crowd of excited people ready to bike across the new bridge crossing SR 520 on December 14, 2024. The maiden voyage attracted hundreds of people.

    people ready to cross bridgebirds eye bridgedog bridge

    Five+ Things to Read/Watch/Hear

    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 Standard Time.

    All items are webinars unless a location is noted.

    January

    February

    Save the Date

    Grants and Funding Opportunities

    Planning, Projects and Surveys

    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 WSDOTActive@wsdot.wa.gov .

    Present, Publish, Participate

     

    Calls for Papers/Abstracts: 

    Call for Applications:

    Call for Reviewers:

    Events:

    Keep track of all of the USDOT’s discretionary funding opportunities at the DOT Discretionary Grants Dashboard. Also, a full listing of pedestrian- and bicycle-related federal funding programs is available through FHWA. 

     Have any funding opportunities people should know about? Send them to WSDOTActive@wsdot.wa.gov.

    Research and Resources

    We share new papers, established databases, thoughtful essays, and even older research that was ahead of its time. Let us know if these are helpful to your existing work or spark a new project!

    If you read this far, thank you! You're finding something of value here and you know someone else who should receive this kind of news. Forward WSDOT Walk and Roll to others and share the subscription link on social media (tag it #WSDOTactive).

     

    Hannah Weinberger
    Communication Lead, WSDOT Active Transportation Division
    hannah.weinberger@wsdot.wa.gov