Trailnet, Metro, and MoDOT share annual "Show-Me Safety" Award

Big congratulations are due to Trailnet, Metro, and MoDOT/St Louis, who were honored at last month's Blueprint to Save More Lives Conference for their Safe Roads for All campaign.

Safe Roads for All in St. Louis - photo courtesy Trailnet

MoDOT's press release summarizes the award and the Safe Roads for All campaign:

The statewide Show-Me Safety Award was presented to the three organizations, TrailNet, MoDOT and Metro of St. Louis, for their collaboration of "Safe Roads for All," a safety campaign to build awareness regarding bicyclist, pedestrian and motorist safety. For the past three years, the three organizations have partnered to lead a safety drive, a large bicycle ride, and a walking group to MetroLink from Forest Park to the St. Louis Downtown Bicycle Station to represent the importance of sharing the road.

The Conference program gives some details about the program:

Safe Roads for All is a growing safety campaign founded by three leading transportation agencies in the St. Louis region, Trailnet/Metro/MoDOT, to build awareness regarding bicyclist, pedestrian and motorist safety. While both walking and cycling provide good health, financial, and environmental benefits, they also increase the risk of receiving serious or fatal injuries if involved in a motor vehicle crash.

For the past three years, the three organizations have partnered to kick off the Safe Roads for All safety initiative to emphasize the need for motorists, bicyclists and pedestrians to share the road and be aware of each other's safety. Leaders of these organizations have led a safety drive, a large bicycle ride and a walking group to Metro Link from Forest Park to the St. Louis Downtown Bicycle Station to represent the importance of sharing the road.

An annual kickoff event has been held every May since 2012. Both the kickoff event and safety drive/bike ride/walk have attracted mass media coverage, bicycle and transit supporters, safer driving advocates and interest from other transportation partners.

The Federal Highway Administration has identified St Louis as a pedestrian fatality hotspot--fully 36% of traffic fatalities in the city are pedestrians.  Trailnet has created a list of action items for the city and other agencies to implement.

This would be a great program for other organizations across Missouri to replicate.  You can find the share of Missouri pedestrian fatalities by city and county here.

Improving safety for all road users is one of the top goals of MoBikeFed's Vision for Bicycling and Walking in Missouri. Sharing success stories like Safe Road for All, and encouraging their adoption across the state, is part our mission. Encouraging MoDOT to spend more of the state's highway safety dollars on vitally important bicycle and pedestrian safety is one of our objectives.

Encouraging more Missourians to bicycle and walk more often while simultaneously reducing the injury rate for bicyclists and pedestrians in Missouri is among our top priorities.  Two summaries of long-term bike/ped injury trends in Missouri show that the state is moving in the right direction--but still have a lot of work to do!

Your membership and generous financial support help turn our Vision into reality!