Livable Streets

Blog Post
Elizabeth Brewster


    For many Americans, getting to work or getting to school is a difficult and sometimes dangerous process. Communities across the country are failing at providing decent sidewalks, bike paths, cross walks, and many more easily accessible ways to move around a city. With the help of the Livable Streets Campaign, cities in America can improve the way they get around. If you are walking, biking, in a wheelchair or stroller, the Livable Streets Campaign is encouraging cities and communities to adopt a safe way to get about a city.
    Each community requires a unique blueprint for a Livable Streets implementation. For urban areas, this might include a new bus lane, easily accessible public bus and train stops, median islands, and wide cross walks. For more rural locations, a Livable Streets Campaign might consider large, wide, sidewalks encompassing a town and new bike lanes. With so many towns built around roads only used for cars, little thought is taken into consideration for those who want an alternative to driving a car to go somewhere.
    The Livable Streets Campaign has a huge number of benefits including improved safety, encouraging biking and walking, and easing transportation woes. “When streets are designed only for cars, they become barriers for children who cannot safely walk or bicycle along or cross them.  Unfortunately these safety fears are well founded – pedestrian injury is a leading cause of unintentional, injury related death among children, age 5 to 14,” according to the Livable Streets Campaign website.
    Improved health is one of the most important benefits from the Livable Streets Campaign. As of 2009, almost ⅓ of Missouri’s adults are considered obese. Between 1960 and 2009, the percentage of obese adults has increased from 13.4% to 30.6%.  The communities in Missouri need to become more active and vocal about their need to improve their health and their communities through the Livable Streets policy. Not only will Livable Streets improve the health of a community, it also provides economic vitality. People want to live in bikable and walkable communities. Properties located adjacent to trails sell quicker and for more money. Large businesses often look at the health of a community when deciding where to locate because of insurance costs. Businesses favor healthier employees, as they lose fewer workdays to sickness according to the Missouri Livable Streets Advocacy Training Manuel.
    In order to decide if your community needs to partake in the Livable Streets Campaign, a walkability audit must be done. Find a route to evaluate and take a Walkability Checklist with you. You will use the Walkability Checklist to rate your neighborhood’s walkability. The checklist has the following questions:
○    Did you have room to walk?
○    Was it easy to cross the street?
○    Did drivers behave well?
○    Was it easy to follow safety rules?
○    Was your walk pleasant?
    Adopting the Livable Streets Campaign requires a large number of proactive citizens dedicated to working towards changing public policy to better the community. Specifically, the Livable Streets policy is an item of legislation that has been approved by a policy making body like a city council or a county commission, and defines or recommends how streets should be designed. Livable Streets policies and resolutions differ from community to community. Some contain stronger language than others. Although most apply to new street construction, some policies also refer to existing streets. Livable Streets policies always direct planners and engineers to consider all modes of transportation when designing a street, according to the Missouri Livable Streets Advocacy Training Manual.
    The movement is sweeping the country and improving communities large and small. Encouraging community members to work with policy makers to implement a Livable Streets design will create a sustainable and healthy future for many generations to come.



Sources:
Missouri Livable Streets Advocacy Training Manual
www.cdc.com
www.completestreets.org