The Federal Highway Administration recently flagged St. Louis as a focus city for its high rate of traffic-related deaths. Of all pedestrian-related traffic crashes in the state of Missouri, 24 percent occur in the city of St. Louis. This year, 18 pedestrians have been fatally struck in the city. This is more than those killed in the previous two years combined.
While the data is alarming, Trailnet has been working to unite St. Louis neighborhoods to improve safety for people who walk and ride bikes by organizing walk audits.
Walk audits are guided walking tours meant to bring together local stakeholders and evaluate how the built environment affects their communities. The walk audits target the neighborhoods of JeffVanderLou, The Ville/Greater Ville, Dutchtown, and Carondelet.
The primary concern voiced by participants throughout the audits was the speed of motor vehicles moving through their neighborhoods. Residents shared that people driving would often blow through stop signs and drive around curb corners at a high rate of speed.
The audits also revealed that many crosswalks did not meet requirements set forth by the Americans with Disabilities Act as they were missing curb ramps and/or markings. In addition, many existing crosswalks were fading and needed to be re-striped.
The objectives for the walk audits include:
Ensure participants know what’s working and what’s not for safe walking in their neighborhood.
Endure participants can talk confidently about what needs to be fixed and know how to report it.
Ensure participants have identified potential long and short-term projects to improve walkability.
Trailnet was recently awarded a Plan4Health grant in collaboration with the HEAL Partnership, providing resources for the organization to conduct the walk audits.
The walk audits were essential to the progress of Trailnet’s work with Plan4Health in identifying four pop-up traffic calming demonstration locations, which will take place this October and November. The demonstrations are meant to educate communities on what neighborhoods would look like with features meant to reduce traffic speeds and encourage safety.
The audits also helped Trailnet in its work with the city’s Board of Public Service and Streets Department to create site plans for the demonstrations.
Here’s a sneak peak at how the site plans are coming together:
Plan4Health Traffic Calming Library Update
Trailnet has been working to compile a database of our projects related to traffic calming. The collection of projects make up what we are calling our Traffic Calming Library. These projects aim to slow traffic, increase pedestrian and bike activity, and decrease accidents in the area. While the library has been coming together quite well, we are continually brainstorming creative ways to create more traffic calming demonstrations.
Additionally, in aiming for sustainability, Trailnet pursues traffic calming demonstrations that can be installed with reusable materials. One method involves using old tires to create narrow areas of the street—referred to as chicanes—in order to slow traffic.
To actively engage residents and enhance the appearance of these installments, participants spent a day spray-painting tires a variety of colors. It was even more fun rolling them out to the streets on which they once carried vehicles–then repurposed to make for safer, slower roads.
The photos below provide glimpse of how things went at the Jefferson Collaborative for the South City Health Festival in Fox Park on a sunny, warm August Saturday.
Trailnet staff preps tires for pop-up traffic calming demonstration.
Spray-painted tires meant to stand out when used for curb bump-outs.
Paint set our for a temporary crosswalk in the Fox Park neighborhood.
We installed a small parking space park during our event in Fox Park in August.
We demonstrated a number of different traffic calming methods during the Fox Park event. These included a temporary crosswalk and curbside bump-outs.
The Plan4Health grant has further helped spur new projects for Trailnet to promote pop-up traffic calming demonstrations. This purple crosswalk is one of the many changes we envision and hope to occur from our pop-up traffic calming demonstrations.
For more information about Plan4Health, contact us at trailnet@trailnet.org .
Letter to St. Charles County concerning O’Fallon’s Main Street
Trailnet’s advocacy is regional in scope (as are our rides, programs, membership, and community support). This week we urged St. Charles County leadership to reconsider their recent action limiting O’Fallon’s right to re-design their own Main Street. The very mention of “road diets” is apparently not a good idea in St. Charles County.
Public Hearing on Des Peres Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan
Trailnet has been working with the City of Des Peres, Missouri, to develop a Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan. On September 14, Trailnet and the City of Des Peres will hold a public hearing on the contents of the Master Plan Draft. This event will begin at 7 p.m. at the Des Peres City Hall. For directions, click here. To view a copy of the draft Master Plan, click here.
Trailnet to Expand Advocacy with Walk/Bike Ambassadors
Over the last decade, Trailnet has played a leading role in improving biking and walking in the St. Louis region. Our successes include working with over 40 communities to create plans and policies for improved biking and walking, helping secure the city’s first buffered bike lanes and bicycle and pedestrian coordinator, and collaborating with seven municipalities, including St. Louis City and County, to pass Complete Streets policies that assure streets are designed for all users. In pursuit of our goal to make St. Louis one of the best places to walk and bike, we will increase our advocacy capacity through the launch of a Walk/Bike Ambassadors program.
Walk/Bike Ambassador programs are a national best practice for doing effective, broad-based advocacy. For the past two years, Trailnet has been gearing up to establish a Walk/Bike Ambassador program, which involves research into other effective programs as well as meeting with Trailnet members and volunteers to inform program design.
Thanks to a grant from the William A. Kerr Foundation, Trailnet will begin working to create a Walk/Bike Ambassadors program this fall. Trailnet will recruit and train up to ten Walk/Bike Ambassadors who will work at the grassroots level to ensure alignment between unique neighborhood needs and Trailnet’s advocacy campaigns. Walk/Bike Ambassadors will raise awareness, increase knowledge, organize residents, and facilitate communication between all parties.
Take the September Challenge!
The September Challenge is here! Ride your bike to work, walk, or take public transit and log your car-free miles on Shift Your Commute. This free, web-based program automatically calculates calories burned and carbon emissions saved. Every trip makes a difference – for your health, for the environment, and for regional planning. Trailnet uses data generated from Shift Your Commute to plan projects that improve opportunities for active transportation throughout the region. Prizes will be awarded for individuals and teams who log the most car-free miles during the month of September.
Volunteers will be needed for general event set-up, bike valet, the Trailnet table, the beer table, dance-walk course guides, and event tear-down. Volunteers will receive a $5 ticket for food and one complimentary beverage. Beer and pizza will be provided during a brief volunteer orientation September 16 at 6 p.m.
If you’re interested in hanging out with a crew of cool folks as music drifts into your ears and century riders flow across the finish line, register here. You can also contact Marcia Quint at marcia@trailnet.org for more information.
Trailnet constituent survey results
The results of our 2015 constituent survey are in! Thank you to all who participated. Your feedback will help us build the region for better biking and walking.
The community arts space known as “The Pink House” really is pink and is a hive of activity welcoming Pagedale residents of all ages to participate in a variety of activities. On five recent Friday evenings, it became the site of a Trailnet Spokes for Folks class. On each of those nights, bike parts and tools, air pumps and tubes could be found sprinkled on the lawn of the little house as fourteen class members learned about the anatomy of a bike, how to make basic repairs, rules of the road for bicyclists, and strategies for safely navigating city streets.
By successfully completing the class, each student received a brand new bicycle from the Ferguson Bicycle Shop, individually-fitted and with life-time free tune-ups courtesy of owner Gerry Noll. Participants also received a properly-fitted helmet, a bike lock, tools and patch kit, and front and rear blinking lights.
The new bicycles arrived on Friday, August 7, and most of the students hopped on and took a spin on the St. Vincent Greenway with a Trailnet instructor. Two novice cyclists stayed back with a Trailnet staff member and veteran resident cyclist Curtis Lomax, who helped the newcomers get a feel for rolling on two wheels.
Curtis Lomax is “looking forward to more adventures with Trailnet!”
When asked what plans they had for using their new bikes, participants, who ranged in age from 13 to 64, gave a variety of responses: “I want to bike with my kids, and use it to go to the grocery store – it will be more fun than taking the bus.” “I don’t have a car and I don’t see myself getting one soon. I’ll be going to college next year and can use it to ride to class.” “I need it to motivate me to move my body.” All of the new bike owners clearly look forward to the benefits of bicycling as a means of transportation, as a way of increasing fitness, and a source of sharing fun with friends and family. Participant Leonard Dixon summed it all up with his comment “Ride to live; live to ride!”
Trailnet thanks all of the “Spokes” folks for their enthusiastic participation and wishes them many miles of safe and fun riding. Thanks also to Gerry Noll of the Ferguson Bicycle Shop for custom fitting the bikes and to Gina Martinez, Director of the Pink House, for her weekly warm welcome. Trailnet’s adult bike education programs are funded by Beyond Housing, the Trio Foundation, and Cardinals Care. For information about the September 19 Spokes for Folks class, contact Taylor March at taylor@trailnet.org. To learn more about Trailnet’s bicycle education programs, click here.
The Federal Highway Administration recently flagged St. Louis as a focus city for its high rate of traffic-related deaths. Of all pedestrian-related traffic crashes in the state of Missouri, 24 percent occur in the city of St. Louis. This year, 18 pedestrians have been fatally struck in the city. This is more than those killed in the previous two years combined.
Trailnet was recently awarded a Plan4Health grant in collaboration with the HEAL Partnership, providing resources for the organization to conduct the walk audits.
