Instead of converting former rail lines to multi-use trails, states and municipalities are also finding that trails can be built alongside active rail lines. This report examines the characteristics of 88 rails-with-trails in 33 states, based on a survey of trail managers and the results of ongoing study over the past 20 years.
walking
Oregon DOT promotes Drive Less Challenge
On October 21, Oregon Department of Transportation and its regional transportation partners launched the first statewide Oregon Drive Less Challenge. The immediate goal of the campaign is to reduce statewide vehicle miles traveled in single occupancy vehicles by half a million miles. The broader goal for the campaign is to raise awareness for ongoing alternative transportation programs aimed at reducing traffic congestion, environmental impacts, and other transportation system costs.
Oregon DOT promotes Drive Less Challenge
On October 21, Oregon Department of Transportation and its regional transportation partners launched the first statewide Oregon Drive Less Challenge. The immediate goal of the campaign is to reduce statewide vehicle miles traveled in single occupancy vehicles by half a million miles. The broader goal for the campaign is to raise awareness for ongoing alternative transportation programs aimed at reducing traffic congestion, environmental impacts, and other transportation system costs.
MassDOT implements policies to increase walk, bike, and transit travel
In support of its goal to triple walking, biking and transit travel by 2030, the Massachusetts DOT has issued a Healthy Transportation Policy Initiative with several implementation steps.
Walkable neighborhoods surge ahead
While many Americans are currently discouraged from walking because their neighborhoods are not built for travel by foot, communities that facilitate walking may be the future of new development. A survey by GfK Research for Kaiser Permanente shows that Americans both know walking is a healthy activity and that many neighborhood do not facilitate walking. But other studies in Atlanta and Washington, DC, show that walkable communities are attracting the majority of new investment, even in one of the most car-oriented metro areas.
Mode choice? There’s an app for that
For almost a decade, per-capita VMT has shown a flat to downward trend. But don’t be fooled; people are traveling. Transit ridership is up. Biking and walking for transportation continues to increase. Car-sharing and ride-sharing services are seeing a boom. New technologies, including smart phone applications and interactive web sites, give these intrepid travelers the tools they need to decode the mysteries of public transit and investigate the growing availability of non-motorized travel options.
VMT Inflection Point: Factors Affecting 21st Century Travel (SSTI, 2013)
For many decades, transportation planning has assumed continued increases in automobile use. Now, in a major reversal, the average American is driving considerably less. No one can predict the future with certainty, but there are many reasons to think that VMT trends will not revert to the 20th century trend. This paper lists some of those reasons, with references to supporting literature.
Tools for Estimating VMT Reductions from Built Environment Changes (Anne Vernez Moudon and Orion Stewart , University of Washington, 2013)
This report reviews the built environment characteristics associated with travel and the tools available that utilize these built environment characteristics to estimate travel and related outcomes such as vehicle emissions and health co-benefits. Tools ranged from simple to complex, and a number of factors should be considered when applying a tool to a planning effort.
How MPOs Are Handling TAP and SRTS (National Center for Safe Routes to School, 2013)
This white paper from the National Center for Safe Routes to School is based on in-depth interviews with a selection of MPO managers and state SRTS coordinators, conducted as they were setting up and launching their programs after the changes in the program with MAP-21.
Cell phone distraction: It’s not just for drivers anymore
While incidents of distracted driving crashes involving cell phones are down, pedestrian injuries due to cell phone distraction while walking—primarily involving talking while walking—are up . What can be done to turn this trend around?