2018 Advocacy Accomplishments
Here is a list of 2018 projects that were only made possible by support from individual gifts and membership:
- Engaged with over 4,000 community members to determine where people most need and want biking and walking connections.
- Together with our partners, completed the Connecting St. Louis planning process, including the final maps for the project to connect neighborhoods, job centers, cultural districts, and more.
- Supported ongoing efforts to advance the Connecting St. Louis planned connections on Tucker Blvd. and Tower Grove/Sarah/Vandeventer to Cortex.
- Empowered local champions to advocate for a protected bike lane in Clayton.
- Helped push for a bike box on Tower Grove Avenue to make it safer and easier for people on bikes to navigate a busy intersection. Coming in 2019!
- Supported community organizers in Kirkwood as they campaign for a Complete Streets Ordinance.
- Offered a local Lending library of equipment available for non-profits and neighborhood organizations to model potential traffic calming measures in their communities. Click here to see our Slow Your Streets Guide on how to organize a pop-up demonstration in your community!
- Because transportation doesn’t function in a vacuum, we participated in discussions at the Affordable Housing Trust Fund regarding preserving availability of affordable housing near transportation networks like Connecting St. Louis.
- Participated in the Social Policy and Electoral Accountability Collaborative (SPEAC) to host the Mayoral Forum and plan the County Executive Forum, which was formed to respond to the Ferguson Commission Report–advancing the dialogue around racial equity.
- Urged Missouri State Parks to accept the Rock Island Trail corridor,a potential cross state trail which Missouri State Parks is continuing to contemplate.
- Supported Froebel Elementary by helping them implement Trailnet’s 2015 School Transportation Plan. Trailnet supported the local effort to install a speed hump; implement a high visibility, ADA accessible, mid-block crosswalk; and paint concrete planters that slow traffic. Click here to see the video!
- Revised policy language of the AV START ACT Senate Bill 1885.
Trailnet Policy Positions
Micromobility/Electric Scooters
Trailnet believes that providing safe places for people to walk, bike, use wheelchairs, or scoot is key to improving safety for all users. Just like crashes with people on bicycles, there is a portion of crashes that comes from needed education and practice in building better handling skills, but that still leaves a large portion that are the direct result of crashes with people in cars due to unsafe streets. If we are serious about safety we need to plan for human error in the design of our streets, and design our streets and speed limits so that when those crashes do occur, they don’t result in serious injuries or deaths.
To learn more, click here.
Automated Vehicle Technology
Trailnet believes that automated vehicle technology has the potential to make our roads safer and more accessible for all modes of transportation. We believe that legislation should provide clear standards for automated vehicles to be able to detect, recognize and respond to people bicycling, walking, using wheelchairs, and using other mobility devices. Automated vehicles should be held to the same standard as people driving; manufacturers should be required to prove their vehicles driving competence before being allowed to operate on our roads. Click here for more.
Vision Zero & Pedestrian Focus City
Trailnet is working to expand awareness and appreciation for Vision Zero, which is a philosophy, a policy, and a paradigm shift.
Traffic crashes are one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Vision Zero believes that all traffic deaths and serious injuries are unacceptable and preventable. Vision Zero is about eliminating deaths and serious injuries on our roadways. By determining the locations and root causes of traffic crashes in a systematic manner, cities can employ engineering, education and enforcement in targeted ways that save lives and limbs of all who use our streets.
Sweden enacted the first Vision Zero policy in 1997. Other European countries quickly followed suit, and traffic fatalities have dropped in that continent by almost 50 percent. In the past three years, more than a dozen cities across the U.S. have adopted and implemented Vision Zero policies.
The need for a Vision Zero policy and comprehensive plan in St. Louis to increase pedestrian safety through infrastructure, education, and training became a top priority. Since 2011 the City of St. Louis has been designated as a “Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Focus City” by the Federal Highway Administration, due to its high pedestrian fatality rate. As a partner in this effort, Trailnet is invested in implementing the Pedestrian Safety Action Plan (PSAP) the City of St. Louis implemented outlining the progress we make with Vision Zero helping to create enjoyable walking environments throughout the region. Our designation as a “Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Focus City” remains today as pedestrian safety problems persist.
According to the most recent annual statewide data — 2015 pedestrian deaths from motor vehicle crashes rose more than 30% over the previous year; bicyclist deaths rose 55%. Crash records for the city of St. Louis and St. Louis County shows 729 total crashes between motor vehicles and people on foot or bike in 2015. In those crashes, 40 people died while walking or biking and 628 were injured. There were 15 pedestrian deaths in the city of St. Louis in 2016, and 15 in St. Louis County as well. (Source: MODOT weekly fatality reports) The national average for pedestrian deaths is 1.5 per 100,000 population.
Moving forward, Trailnet will monitor the City of St. Louis’ progress in implementing the details outlined in their Pedestrian Safety Action Plan. We’ll continue to raise public awareness with events like our Annual Walk and Ride of Silence advocating that traffic deaths are preventable, not inevitable while continuing to encourage the adoption of Vision Zero policies by other cities in the metro region.
Continue to monitor the progress achieved by Vision Zero cities across the country by clicking here to learn more.
Stop for Pedestrians
Trailnet will advance pedestrian safety through passage of local Stop for Pedestrian ordinances.
Nine states require motor vehicles to stop for pedestrians in a crosswalk. Most states, including Missouri, only require vehicles to yield; some local motorists are unaware or unwilling to do even that. Based on annual pedestrian deaths and disabling injuries in our region, the need to improve pedestrian safety is clear and desperately needed.
Distracted Driving
Trailnet is advocating for a state ban on texting while driving, and a law requiring use of hands-free devices when talking on the phone while driving. Missouri is one of only four states without a ban on texting for all drivers.
Cell phone use while driving quadruples the risk of an accident, about the same as if the user were driving drunk. Text messaging creates a crash risk 23 times greater than driving without distraction. Vulnerable users of the road – pedestrians and bicyclists – are most at risk from death or serious injury by a driver who’s texting or talking on the phone.
Please contact us at advocacy@trailnet.org with any inquiries regarding our current priority campaigns.