Tour of Missouri

Columbia's PedNet welcomes new Executive Director, Annette Triplett

Columbia's PedNet has been going through an important transition over the past several months, as founding Executive Director and powerhouse of Missouri's bicycle and pedestrian advocacy scene, Ian Thomas, is stepping aside and a new Executive Director, Annette Triplett, has been named to take Ian's place. Thomas wrote:

I am absolutely thrilled to introduce Annette Triplett, PedNet's new Executive Director, to you.

Annette is an icon of active living in her personal life, and has been managing statewide local food, farm-to-school, and school garden programs for University of Missouri Extension for the last several years.

This month's PedNet Coalition news letter gives more information about Triplett's background:

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Traffic fatalities and air pollution from automobiles identified among top causes of premature death worldwide

A study by the World Health Organization (WHO) has identified traffic fatalities, particularly those affecting vulnerable road users like pedestrians and cyclists and young people, as has a huge, overlooked, and largely preventable health problem.

A separate study recently published in the Lancet identifies air pollution from automobiles as the world's fastest-growing cause of death. 

The Washington Post summarizes the WHO study:

Traffic injuries are the leading cause of death in people ages 10 to 24 around the world -- a huge, overlooked and largely preventable public health problem, the World Health Organization said yesterday.

In a new report, the organization promoted a long list of suggestions to developing countries, where most of the deaths and disabling injuries occur. The improvements include safer roads and vehicles, better urban planning, helmet laws, prosecution of speeders and drunken drivers, better education of the driving and walking public, and simple interventions such as putting reflective tape on backpacks.

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Save the Riverside Bridge effort moves forward with Christian County Commission meeting

Kris Dyer, director of Save the Riverside Bridge, recently attended a meeting of the Christian County Commission about the bridge issue. Dyer's report is below.

The Save the Riverside Bridge effort is interesting in itself and deserves our support.  The vision is to renovate the Riverside Bridge, near Ozark, Missouri, for pedestrian/bicycle use to connect with the Ozark trail system.  But in addition, this effort is a great example of how local neighbors can work together to bring input to local government agencies, affect decisions, and improve the local environment for bicycling and walking.

Our governmental leaders are often very willing to find ways to support bicycling and walking.  But they need to know that people--voters, community members, community leaders--support them in their efforts.

Find out how to make your local advocacy efforts more effective in our Advocacy 101 section.

Dyer's report:

Christian County Commission Meeting Thurs Dec 13th 2012
Written by Kris Dyer, Save Riverside Bridge Director

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What has MoBikeFed done for you lately?

What has MoBikeFed been doing for you lately? Here is a partial list:

Federation: $13.5 million in bike/ped funding, Complete Streets, Bicycle Missouri license plate, legislative success

  • Bike/Ped Priority Projects List, organized by MoBikeFed, brought $13.5 million in new bike/ped funding.
     
  • The number of Complete Streets policies in Missouri has quadrupled over the past two years.
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Missouri General Election Tues, Nov 6th: Election Results, Voter guide - Find your polling place, ballots, candidates, issues

POST-ELECTION UPDATE:

Missouri's general elections are being held across the state on Tuesday, November 6th, 2012. 

"I bicycle/I walk/I run and I vote" is one of the most powerful statement we can make to any elected leader, in our work to make Missouri a better, safer place to walk and bicycle. 

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MAP-21 set federal transportation funding and policy for two years - now FHWA starts to release detailed guidance

This summer, after many years of work and gridlock in Congress, the multi-year federal highway bill, MAP-21, was signed into law.

Thanks to the advocacy of many of you, MAP-21 included many bicycle friendly elements--a significant victory at a time when many leaders in Congress were calling for the complete elimination of bicycle and pedestrian funding. 

MAP-21 is a new law that sets many new policies.  That creates a lot of new questions--most of which will be answered as the Federal Highway Administration issues its guidance and regulations related to MAP-21.  

Local and national bicycle and pedestrian organizations have been working with FHWA to ensure that regulations are as true to the law the Congress passed and as friendly to bicycling and walking, as possible.

Recently FHWA released its first round of guidance related to MAP-21.  Here is the League of American Bicyclists' summary of the guidance:

 

Good news:

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Edward Payson Weston - the Star of Pedestrianism

Brian Phillips of Grantland has written a fascinating story about Edward Payson Weston, who became a major sports figure in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by dint of his pedestrianism--taking astonishingly long walks, often in competition with others:

In his 20s and 30s, he somehow became one of the most celebrated athletes in the English-speaking world despite the fact that he was physically unprepossessing — 5-foot-7, 130 pounds, with a body resembling "a baked potato stuck with two toothpicks," as one journalist wrote — and that his one athletic talent was walking. Just straight-up walking made Weston, for a while, probably the biggest sports star on earth. . . .

Weston's athletic career started with two things: an insane bet, and the election of Abraham Lincoln as president of the United States. During the 1860 campaign, Weston bet his friend George Eddy that Lincoln would never win the White House. If he lost the bet, Weston would have to walk the 478 miles from the Massachusetts State House in Boston to Washington, D.C., to watch the inauguration. . . .

 

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Action 2020 Workshops a big hit in Missouri - download the presentations & materials

Last week the Missouri Association of Councils of Government, the Pioneer Trails Regional Planning Commission, and MoBikeFed teamed up to host two Action 2020 workshops in Missouri.

The workshops, presented by Advocacy Advance, brought elected officials, city and agency staff, and advocates together to learn about federal transportation funding, the recently passed MAP-21 federal transportation bill, and how to build bicycling and walking into Missouri cities and towns.

Today the Matt Wempe of the League of American Bicyclists (who along with the Alliance for Biking and Walking make up the Advocacy Advance partnership) wrote a blog post about the Action 2020 Workshops in Missouri:

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Anti-harassment laws for bicyclists and pedestrians - sample language

Several cities across Missouri, and cities and states across the U.S., have passed laws banning the harassment of bicyclists, pedestrians, and people with disabilities. 

Passing such a law is one of the strongest steps a city can take to improve conditions for bicycling and walking.  Bicyclists, particularly, are often intimidated by repeated incidents of harassment, sometimes leading them to stop bicycling altogether.

Motorists, motorcyclists, and other people who use the public roadways, such as horseback riders and riders in horse-drawn carts, also benefit from anti-harassment legislation.  Anti-harassment can ban harassment of these road users and also give a specific ordinance banning throwing items from or at moving vehicles--a specific prohibition missing from many Missouri city codes. These steps ensure that the anti-harassment ordinance protects all roads users equally and that the law becomes a tool to help promote civility and reduce road rage among all classes of road users.

Passing a statewide anti-harassment law was identified as one of the very top priorities by our members and supporters and passing a statewide anti-harassment law is one of the very top priorities in MoBikeFed's Legislative Platform.  Passing anti-harassment laws in several cities around Missouri is our initial goal.

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