How to start your community on the path to official Walk Friendly Community recognition - information and resources

Walk Friendly Communities is a relatively new national program dedicated to creating and recognizing cities that are working to create a great walking environment for their citizens.

Walk Friendly Communities

The Kansas City area is taking steps to become a national leader in the Walk Friendly Communities movement, and we encourage cities all across Missouri to follow suit and work towards officially recognized Walk Friendly Community status.

Earlier this month, the Mid-America Council (MARC), KC Health Kids, and the City of Grandview organized a Walk Friendly Communities training. A large number of communities from across the Kansas City area were represented--and a few communities from across Missouri and Kansas.

Now MARC has released the materials from the training, which allow any community to start to move forward towards Walk Friendly Community recognition:

Walk Friendly Communities is a national program that recognizes communities that show commitment to improving walkability and pedestrian safety with a comprehensive set of programs, plans and policies. The program can award different levels of recognition: Bronze, Silver, Gold or Platinum.

MARC, AARP's Missouri office, KC Healthy Kids, the city of Grandview and the Highway Safety Research Center are teaming up in June to bring Walk Friendly Communities information to the Kansas City region.

On June 2 and 3, program facilitators from the University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center, the administrators of the Walk Friendly Communities program, presented two days of training for local entities interested in becoming Walk Friendly Communities.

Communities attending the June 2015 Walk Friendly Community training in Grandview

Step up! Walk Friendly Overview – June 2 

·         Introduction and Program Overview (pdf)

Step up! A pilot workshop for Walk Friendly Communities - June 2 – 3 

·         Workshop Introduction and Application Overview (pdf)

·         Data, Trends and Evaluation (pdf)

·         Planning & Policy Strategies (pdf)

·         Education and Encouragement Programs (pdf)

·         Engineering Strategies (pdf)

·         Enforcement Strategies (pdf)

 

Today we have just one Walk Friendly Community in Missouri--Lee's Summit.  Lee's Summit is also the first community in Missouri to hold a ranking in both the Bicycle Friendly and Walk Friendly Community programs.

We hope many communities across Missouri will join Lee's Summit soon in participating in this program!

Find out more about Walk Friendly Communities in Missouri--including how your community can get started in the Walk Friendly Communities program--here.

Creating more Walk Friendly Communities in Missouri is one of the goals in MoBikeFed's Vision for Bicycling and Walking in Missouri. Our goal is 5 Walk Friendly Communities by 2015 and 10 by 2018.  We'll need YOUR help to reach those ambitious goals!

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