Data & Demographics

This research report is designed to stimulate new understanding and thinking that will lead to better streets for all Americans.

This field survey attempts to identify the number and location of "regional-serving" walkable urban places in the 30 largest American metropolitan areas in the U.S, where 138 million, or 46 percent, of the US population lives. This field survey determines where these walkable urban places are most prevalent on a per capita basis, where they are generally located within the metro area, and the extent to which rail transit service is associated with walkable urban development. The first section defines the key concepts used in the survey, providing relevant background information for those who have not read The Option of Urbanism. The second section outlines the methodology. The third section, which is the heart of the report, outlines the findings and conclusions of the survey.

BTS published data to show that availabilities of sidewalks coincided with increased rates of walking.

"Smart Mobility 2010: A Call to Action for the New Decade" responds to today's transportation challenges with new concepts and tools, presented with a program for putting them into action.

Studying transporation trends, the City of Boulder attempt to document a change in the use of modes in their city using gathered data and surveys.

The corridor analysis advocated by the Neighborhood Horizons Plan looked at redesign opportunities to create a
pedestrian and bicycle friendly community-oriented
commercial corridor in a safe, quiet neighborhood.

Designing accessible pedestrian signals, including key features, location, placement, policies

Pedestrians have a right to cross roads safely, and, therefore, planners and engineers have a professional responsibility to plan, design, and install safe crossing facilities." —Zegeer, et al., 2001 FHWA Crosswalk Study

Key Statistics And Facts:

1. For the first time in decades, surveys are showing a preference for expanding existing public transportation and building new bikeways and sidewalks over expanding existing highways and building new highways.
2. There are an estimated 35.3 billion walking trips nationwide every year in the U.S.
3. Walking is not just for recreation. Over 50% of all walking trips serve a functional purpose other than exercise and recreation.
4. Nearly a third of Americans do not drive, and the non-driving senior population will grow even larger in the near future with the aging Boomer generation.
5. 55% of Americans say they would rather drive less and walk more.
6. The top pedestrian complaint is simply that there are too few sidewalks.
7. The top bicyclist complaint is simply that there are too few bikeways.
8. While pedestrian and bicycle trips account for roughly 9% of all trips, 13% of all traffic related fatalities involve pedestrians and bicyclists.

The goals of this study were to examine the differences between pedestrian and bicycle crashes in urban and rural settings in North Carolina and to identify problem areas.

This brief looks at the trends, amount, and characteristics of non-work vehicle trips during the peak periods in the United States.

A white paper that presents a thorough discussion on Complete Streets.

TCRP initiated a research study to identify the following: which factors determine the behavior and motivation of TOD residents, employees and employers in their mode choice; best practices to promote TOD-related transit ridership; and the contextual use of best practices.

Benefits of road diets for bicyclists and pedestrians?

• Provide space to add bicycle lanes
• Reduce crossing distance
• Eliminate or reduce "multiple threat" crash types
• Install crossing island to cross in 2 simple steps
• Reduce top end travel speeds
• Buffer sidewalk from travel lanes (parking or bike lane)
• Reclaim street space for "higher and better use" than moving peak hour traffic

This paper explores a methodology for assessing a neighborhood's bikeability based on its mix of infrastructure and destinations – essentially the 20-minute neighborhood for bicycles.

A look at baseline results from parent surveys and student travel tallies, including: introduction, parent survey analysis, student arrival and departure travel tally analysis, discussion.

The paper examines the role of the street network in road safety outcomes. Data on more than 130,000 crashes occurring over nine years in 24 medium-sized California cities was input into a geographic information system (GIS) and evaluated against principal measures of street network density and connectivity at the Census Block Group level. Few studies have taken this more comprehensive approach of looking at the complete street network when it comes to safety, partly because until now this kind of holistic assessment would have been very difficult without recent advances in research tools such as GIS.

The purpose of this guide on "How to Develop a Pedestrian Safety Action Plan" is to present an overview and framework for state and local agencies to develop and implement a Pedestrian Safety Action Plan tailored to their specific problems and needs. Pedestrian Safety Action Plan is a plan developed by community stakeholders that is intended to improve pedestrian safety in the community. An objective of the guide is to help state and local officials know where to begin to address pedestrian safety issues. it is also intended to assist agencies in further enhancing their existing pedestrian safety programs and activites, including identifying safety problems and selecting optimal solutions.

This study offers a method for analyzing the theory that the physical design of streets impacts safety.

As people grow older, they often become less willing or able to drive, making it necessary to depend on alternative methods of trans- portation. Unfortunately, the United States is currently ill prepared to provide adequate transportation choices for our rapidly aging population. Alternatives to driving are sparse, particularly in some regions and in rural and small town communities. As the number of older people increases, so too will their mobility needs. How the nation addresses this issue will have significant social and economic ramifications. This report presents new findings based on the National Household Transportation Survey of 2001 and places them in the context of other research on mobility in the aging population.

Complete streets can improve population health indirectly — through increased walking, biking, and transit use, Increased physical activity, Less obesity and chronic disease, Reduced respiratory conditions, deaths, other conditions related to air pollution — and Directly — through Reduced traffic injuries and deaths, and increased social interaction.

This research helps confirm what had been intuitively obvious: in the four metropolitan areas studied, transit-oriented development (TOD) housing produced considerably less traffic than what is generated by conventional development.

A telephone survey provided to evaluate the design and funding of facilities for bicycle and pedestrian users as part of the state highway network.