Archives for August 2014

The Partnership for Sustainable Communities (PSC) has compiled a list of tools to help communities assess, plan, and design sustainable communities. These tools cover a broad range of topics, including community design and planning, transportation and housing, and the environment. The list includes tools developed by the PSC partner agencies: the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as well as other Federal agencies and nongovernmental organizations. The Partnership will evaluate and update the list periodically.

Review the available tools and download at the Livable Initiative site at the Federal Highways Administration (FHWA).

According to an August Governing article, “Many cities have made pedestrian safety a priority, but their efforts rarely focus on poorer areas, which have approximately double the fatality rates of wealthier communities. Pedestrian deaths are much more common in low-income areas than in better-off parts of a city. Overall, the number of pedestrians killed nationwide has ticked up in recent years, even as vehicular traffic fatalities declined. No published national data assess income or poverty status of those killed in traffic accidents. But according to a Governing analysis of accident location coordinates for the more than 22,000 pedestrians killed nationwide between 2008 and 2012, poorer neighborhoods have disproportionately higher rates of pedestrian deaths.”

In the nation’s metro areas, the bottom third of Census tracts, in terms of per capita income, recorded pedestrian fatality rates twice that of higher income tracts. The same holds true for high-poverty communities. Download the Pedestrian Deaths in Poorer Neighborhoods Report.  You can also access an interactive map of Pedestrian Traffic Fatalities 2008-2012 .

The City Clock online magazine has published a list with what it calls “the most comprehensive lists of urban cycling mode share data ever prepared.” The table summarizes the percentage of total trips done by bicycle in urban areas across the globe; it was generated from numerous online sources. Cities are ordered based on the highest measured bicycle mode share sourced in recent history…Beyond the city name and country, both the low and high measured mode share values are included.

Access the compiled table at the City Clock site.