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Stirrings of Change
It's already beginning. All across the country people are making great strides towards creating walkable and therefore, more livable communities. Their successes can give other communities the confidence to change.
| Last year, 500,000 students, parents and community leaders in cities across America joined millions of walkers worldwide to participate in International Walk to School Day. |
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| Through the Handmade America project, six small towns in western North Carolina are revitalizing, turning the focus away from the strip malls on the edges of city limits, making attractive walkable downtown districts and creating Garden and Countryside trails. |
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| In St. Petersburg, Florida, city officials have embarked on a decade long odyssey to build 170 miles of pedestrian pathways along the city's busiest streets. |
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| In Boston, Massachusetts, pedestrians organized to protest the city's plans to construct a ten-lane downtown highway. What did they get instead? A much more inviting, pedestrian-friendly, landscaped four-lane boulevard. |
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| Cities, towns, and communities are recognizing that the heart of a thriving downtown is its central marketplace, a place easily explored on foot. Although it is one of our largest and most sprawling cities, San Antonio, Texas is well known for its Paseo del Rio, the 2.5 mile River Walk that winds just below street level, attracting legions of tourists and pedestrians to explore the city's charming stretch of riverside shops, galleries, and cafes. Cities like Burlington, Vermont, Boulder, Colorado, and Corning, New York have all designed similar inviting, pedestrian-friendly areas in their downtown centers. |
And this is only part of the story. All over the country pedestrians are mobilizing. They're joining forces to reclaim their streets and communities. They're finding out who's making decisions regarding traffic in their hometowns and how they can be a part of the policy and planning process. They're lobbying city officials for traffic calming, more sidewalks, improved transit, standardized pedestrian facilities for the disabled. And, most importantly, they're walking.
Inspired by these success stories? Ready to inspire your community towards better walkability? Read on to find out about the different ways you can find strength in numbers and coalitions, how to organize an effective outreach campaign so you can get your ideas across—and generate walkable solutions.