First Sunday Parkways Event Comes to St. Louis!

Yesterday Trailnet and Live Well Ferguson!  held the first Sunday Parkways event in the St. Louis area! Since the 1970s, cities in Latin America have been closing down streets to car traffic to provide a safe and fun environment for physical activity. In recent years the concept has become popular in the United States and Live Well Ferguson! decided to bring the concept to Ferguson for the first time.

Ferguson Sunday Parkways closes a .9 mile loop of neighborhood streets to car traffic to allow people to walk, bike, rollerblade, and do a host of other physical activities care-free.   Activities such as face-painting, aerobics classes, and hula-hooping are also stationed throughout Lang-Royce Park along the route.  

At yesterday's first Sunday Parkways, over 300 people were physically active and had fun!  We hope you will join us at the next Ferguson Sunday Parkways on September 27 and October 18, 2009 from 1-4 pm.

Learn more about Ferguson Sunday Parkways and view the map

Learn more about Trailnet's partnership with Live Well Ferguson!

The Transportation RX

Caption: The document cover

“For too long now, our transportation decision-making has failed to address the impacts that our infrastructure network has on public health and equity. The asphalt poured and lane miles constructed enhanced our mobility and strengthened our economic growth; but too often, this auto-centric mindset took hold and crowded out opportunities to invest in a truly sustainable inter-modal transportation system, in particular a system that meets the needs of underserved communities.”
-Representative Jim Oberstar
Chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee

Transportation is the lifeblood of communities. It connects us to local businesses, our neighbors, jobs, grocery stores, hospitals and other essential goods and services. Well designed transportation systems allow people a number of options for travel from place to place. When we leave our homes each day we should have the ability to choose whether we will walk, bike, take public transit, or drive.

PolicyLink and Prevention Institute recently published a report titled "The Transportation Prescription: Bold New Ideas for Healthy, Equitable Transportation Reform in America" that draws on the latest research on the connections among transportation, health, and equity to present a new vision for transportation development in the 21st century. The report was commissioned by the Healthy Eating Active Living Convergence Partnership, a collaboration of major funders who have come together with the shared goal of changing policies and environments to better achieve the vision of healthy people living in healthy places.

This report shows how equitable transportation policies and investments can improve public health, expand economic opportunity, protect environmental quality and strengthen all communities.

The report draws on research from a forthcoming book, Healthy, Equitable Transportation Policy: Recommendations and Research, authored by academics and advocates from across the nation. A preview draft of the book is now available online. The final book will be available early August on this website.

With the authorization of the federal transportation bill on the horizon, it arrives at a critical time for bringing the transportation sector into discussions of public health and wellness. The report emphasizes the value of working across fields to identify effective and long-term solutions to multiple problems for community health, infrastructure, equity, and the economy.

The report was co-authored by the University of Missouri St. Louis's very own Todd Swanstrom. Well done, Todd!

Download the document here:
http://tinyurl.com/TransportationRx

And check out the HEAL Convergence Partnership here:
http://www.convergencepartnership.org/

Donut Police Fired By Donut Barons

Caption: Huh?!

Dr. Jason Newsom returned home to Panama City, FL after serving as an Army doctor in Iraq to serve as the Director of the Bay County Health Department. Dr. Newsom undertook a public campaign to discourage Bay County residents from eating unhealthy foods by posting provocative slogans on an outdoor electronic sign.

His slogans included:

"Hamburger = Spare Tire"

"French Fries = Thunder Thighs"

But when the good doctor started to rail against doughnuts, the local doughnut barons took issue and demanded his resignation. One of the County Commissioners owned a diner and a donut shop and gave the good doctor an ultimatum: resign or get canned.

You see, the good doctor was bold enough to call out specific businesses by name with such slogans as:

"Dunkin' Donuts = Death"

"America Dies on Dunkin"

Unfortunately for Dr. Newsom, the local Dunkin' Donuts was owned by a couple of lawyers who had the ear of the doughnut shop owning County Commissioner.

"Let’s get this straight: I was fired. This talk about resignation, that was all politeness," Newsom said. "If your boss ever puts two pieces of paper in front of you, and one is a resignation letter, and one is a termination letter, and you’ve got two minutes to decide, you were fired."

"My method was a little provocative and controversial,'' he says, "but there wasn't a person in Bay County who wasn't talking about health and healthy eating."

Dr. Newsom has reapplied for his old job.

To read more, visit:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32405418/

Is MODOT Bicycle Friendly?

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The Missouri Department of Transportation (MODOT) now maintains a Facebook page. In a recent post, MODOT writes about its work to "factor bicycle and pedestrian travel into its highway projects." In the post, they cite some examples of recent projects that have made special accommodations for cyclists and pedestrians.

Yet, in recent years, MODOT has fought adamantly against a Complete Streets bill brought forward in the Missouri legislature. The bill is not complicated. In fact, it's very simple. It would require MODOT to "provide full consideration for the safety and contiguous routes for bicyclists, pedestrians, disabled persons, and transit users of all ages and abilities" in plans, projects, and programs. MODOT maintains that they already do this in all their projects. The bill's sponsor, Representative Mike Sutherland, introduced the bill for a second year in a row because he felt that MODOT had not convinced him or the rest of the legislature that they are in fact committed to creating Complete Streets in Missouri. For a second year in a row, MODOT fiercely opposed this bill. If MODOT is already factoring in cyclists and pedestrians in the design of their roadways, why are they so opposed to a Complete Streets bill?

TELL US WHAT YOU THINK
How do you think MODOT is doing in your community? Post a comment and tell us what you think. Is MODOT creating streets that help or hinder pedestrian and bicycle travel?

People with Bad Aim No Longer Exempt

Caption: What kind of marketing would convince you not to throw stuff at cyclists?

News from Colorado
People with bad aim no longer exempt

Until recently, drivers could legally throw stuff at cyclists without being cited by authorities...unless they actually hit the cyclist. Thanks to a new Colorado law, people with bad aim are no longer exempt. The new law also requires drivers to give cyclists a 3-foot wide berth when passing.

The new law is being hailed by some as a major step forward. As far as we are concerned, the part about throwing stuff at cyclists is a major step forward from medieval law.

"Don't look a gift horse in the mouth."
I think this saying means that if someone gives you a horse as a gift, you're not supposed to inspect the horse's teeth to figure out if the horse is actually a gift worth receiving or an old bag of bones barely capable of standing. In that spirit, I am sure that cyclists all across Colorado are now thrilled to know that the next time a driver hurls a half-eaten Filet-O-Fish at them, misses, and is observed by the authorities, the driver can legally be cited if the authority figure wishes to enforce the law.

We are grateful for this step forward, too. However, it is a bit of a sobering reminder of how few legal protections cyclists currently have in cities and states throughout our country. It is also a sobering reminder of how horrendously some drivers behave towards cyclists. When we heard the news, we couldn't help but laugh that such a small step in the direction of common sense and decency was being hailed as a major accomplishment. Then we got to thinking: perhaps, these types of laws weren't already on the books, because it was previously unimaginable that someone would throw stuff at another person for no reason.

Check out the article:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-08-03-bikes_N.htm

Finally, in the vein of strange laws, we discovered an important law from Vermont while doing serious investigative research for this blog post. I'd like to share it with you now:

"Women must obtain written permission from their husbands to wear false teeth."