How To Get Involved

The Alliance for Biking & Walking's Benchmarking Project is an ongoing effort to collect and analyze data on bicycling and walking in all 50 states and at least the 50 largest cities. This is the second biennial Benchmarking Report.

School districts/COEs can begin developing Safe Routes to School programs by establishing a multidisciplinary team with parent organizations, students, school administrators and staff, local law enforcement, city planners, health officials and other stakeholders. The group can assist with realizing a community vision, developing project proposals and implementing those projects if selected for funding.

The following optional administrative regulation should be revised to reflect district practice. The strategies listed below are organized around the "five E's" (education, encouragement, enforcement, engineering, and evaluation) recommended for inclusion in all local programs by the U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Highway Administration and the National Center for Safe Routes to School's online resource guide, the Safe Routes to School Guide.

Introduction to Safe Routes to School: the Health, Safety and Transportation Nexus, including: Overview, History of Safe Routes to School, The Decline of Walking and Bicycling, Health Risks, Safe Routes to School Programs are Part of the Solution, Elements of Safe Routes to School Programs, Take Action Now, Promising Examples and Community Success Stories

Some communities are more bikeable than others:
how does yours rate? Read over the questions in
this checklist and then take a ride in your
community, perhaps to the local shops, to visit a
friend, or even to work. See if you can get where
you want to go by bicycle, even if you are just
riding around the neighborhood to get some
exercise.

Everyone benefits from walking. These benefits include: improved fitness, cleaner air, reduced risks of certain health problems, and a greater sense of community. But walking needs to be safe and easy. Take a walk with your child and use this checklist to decide if your neighborhood is a friendly place to walk. Take heart if you find problems, there are ways you can make things better.

Complete streets improve safety. A Federal Highways Administration safety review found that designing the street with pedestrians in mind- sidewalks, raised medians, better bus stop placement, traffic-calming measures, and treatments for disabled travelers-all improve pedestrian safety.

Complete streets are designed and operated to enable safe access for all users. Complete streets policies direct transportation planners and engineers to consistently design with all users in mind. They have been adopted by a few states (OR, VA, SC), and a number of regions and cities. Places that adopt complete streets policies are making sure that their streets and roads work for drivers, transit riders, pedestrians, and bicyclists, as well as for older people, children, and people with disabilities.

The streets of our cities and towns ought to be for everyone, whether young or old, motorist or bicyclist, walker or wheelchair user, bus rider or shopkeeper. But too many of our streets are designed only for speeding cars, or worse, creeping traffic jams. These streets are unsafe for people on foot or bike and unpleasant for everybody. Schedule a workshop! To help communities successfully adopt complete streets policies, the National Complete Streets Coalition offers interactive, full-day workshops led by national experts on policy development.

Complete Streets policies can end the project-by-project struggle for better facilities

Streets are key public spaces that often make up much of the land in a town or city. But across America, streets are frequently built for cars, with few features like sidewalks to make them safe and pleasant places to walk or bike. Conventional street design promotes traffic congestion, pollution, and collision injuries and discourages physical activity.

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 Citizen’s Guide is intended to show people who are passionate about creating better streets and walkable communities how they can influence highway professionals to address transportation in ways that place the most value on people and on places.

These chapters cover many of the basic elements that can help create good places and enhance community life, including traffic calming, an innovative approach to the design and management of streets that redistributes street space more equitably for all users and, in doing so, acts as a Placemaking catalyst.

Incomplete streets a problem for older Americans—Even when roads have basic pedestrian facilities, they often do not consider the needs of the growing population of older Americans. The U.S. Census Bureau projects that by 2025, the portion of American

For jurisdictions looking to update or revise their development codes into a more graphic-oriented document, SACOG has made publicly available its Form-Based Codes Handbook for download. Form-based codes are becoming a more commonly used way of communicating the type of development that a jurisdiction wants and what is allowed.

Graphic illustrating Funding Sources for Safe Routes to School Program Support, and SACOG Tools and Services For Safe Routes to School Program Support.

Graphic illustrating How Local Projects are Planned and Funded, including community input and various funding sources

Apply to become a member of the Sacramento Complete Streets Coalition

The Collaborative's Transportation Team has been particularly focused on practices that will assist the Sacramento countywide area achieve the vision of at least at 10% shift in travel mode from automobiles to walking, cycling, and transit. Transit use is forecasted to increase from 1.3% of trips to 4% or 5% or more, in the Sacramento countywide area.

A diverse group of more than 100 citizens from all walks of life came together in 2001 as the Sacramento Transportation and Air Quality Collaborative. These participants represented businesses, the environment, public agencies, community groups, underserved populations and local neighborhood areas. For five years, these community leaders and agency staff contributed countless hours to education, dialogue, deliberation and consensus building in this civic engagement effort.