Math often gets a bad rap in schools. But what if students could count bikes and buses, and solve word problems about local bike lanes and bus routes? That is what's happening in Santa Monica, Calif. (18.1% Latino)—elementary students get "Math in My World" booklets with problems involving how people stay active and move around their community, like walking, biking, skating, scootering, and public transit. The booklets launched December 2017 by the city's Safe Routes to School program. "So instead of showing a six-year-old the somewhat-abstract idea that 2+1=3, they learn that Grace has 2 scooters and Sam has 1 scooter and together they have 3," wrote Jack Moreau, a transit official for the City of Santa Monica. All kids benefit of course, but this could help students ...
How do you feel when you walk? Most of us would walk more if we had safe places. Are you willing to commit 5-10 hours/per week for 6 months to learn how to make your community more walkable? America Walks invites you to apply for a 2018 Walking College Fellowship to gain the skills and knowledge you will need to build the walking movement in your community. UPDATE: Deadline has been extended to March 2nd at 8pm Eastern.
Why Walkability Matters
Walking is a valid way to improve your health. It is also a valid form of transportation. However, many Latino families don't have safe places to walk, thus they face disparities in health and traffic fatalities and are isolated from the places they need to go. Latinos make up 16.9% of the population, yet account for 21.5% of ...
In light of traffic deaths, traffic jams, and pollution, many U.S. cities are working to make their streets safer. However, street improvements often occur in white, wealthy neighborhoods. This does little to help the people most impacted by disparities in mobility and air quality—low-income people, Latinos and other minorities, and people older than 65. How can we tell if street projects are benefiting everyone equitably? Fortunately, the National Complete Streets Coalition of Smart Growth America grades "Complete Streets" projects—where streets are designed for drivers, transit users, people walking, and people biking, regardless of age or ability—and publishes a Best Complete Streets Policies Report. But they haven't updated their 100-point grading system since ...
Sit and wait. That's what most people do at bus stops. Robert de León, a business management analyst with the city of McAllen, thought people could be more active while waiting for buses in McAllen, Texas (85% Latino). In fact, he and other McAllen city employees wanted to turn a bus stop into a play area with swings, hopscotch, and fun for the whole family. Could they turn a sit-place into a play-place, and boost health in McAllen?
Sorry State of Health in Hidalgo
De León knows health is a problem in McAllen, the largest city in Hildalgo County (91% Latino) in South Texas, which sits next to the Mexican border. Many county residents are living in poverty (26.4%) and report poor or fair health (26.7%), with an obese population of 34.4%. In McAllen, 7.6% don't own ...
Map, track, and evaluate. These words are music in public health nerd's ears. Especially for walking nerds, America Walks is hosting a webinar to help public health advocates turn data into action to improve walkability across the United States at 2 p.m. EST Dec. 13, 2017.
Why Connect Health and Walking Advocates?
Decades of inequity in investment in streets, sidewalks and communities has disproportionately burdened Latino and many communities with health disparities, traffic fatalities, and even criminal citations for jay-walking. Many health advocates lack adequate data or the ability to use data to make the case for environmental, systems, or policy changes. Particularly when it comes to walking and walkability because, traditionally, non-health departments and ...
Eighth-grade students in Kansas City, Kan. (29.3% Latino), are conducting neighborhood audits around their middle school to see how friendly the area is for kids and families to walk. Latino kids often lack safe places to walk and play. They are less physically active than their peers and face higher rates of obesity and chronic disease. Safer routes would enable families to choose walking, thus improving children's their physical activity and health, research shows.
Why Walking Audits?
Walking audits are one way to assess factors that help or hinder safe routes for children to walk. Audits typically focus on a specific site, like a school or park, or a specific street or corridor. Audits account for things like sidewalk width and condition, street lighting, distance between ...
Salud America! Guest Blogger
Ethan Goffman of Mobility Lab In rural areas, a car is a lifeline to groceries, community, and medical care—all the basics of life. Seniors who can no longer drive, Latinos who often live without easy access to grocery stores or farmer's markets, and other people without access to a car, must depend on neighbors and whatever public transit may be available. Enter Rabbit Transit, which is striving to connect otherwise isolated individuals. The agency serves York County (7.2% Latino) and nine other rural counties in Central Pennsylvania, providing some 2.5 million trips a year, explained Richard Farr, the agency’s executive director. “Part of our mission statement is really focusing on a high quality of life for our residents,” Farr said. ...
You can share the best—or worst—places to bike in San Antonio, thanks to a new bilingual crowdsourced map. The Open Ciclismo map, launched in October 2017 in English and Spanish by the local online news source the Rivard Report and Bike San Antonio, enables people to identify biking problems, issues, and solutions across San Antonio (63.7% Latino). You can report a public dangerous intersection, suggest a bicycling improvement, or share safe places to ride. Just indicate the location, add a description, and upload or share a video. "By crowdsourcing this data and riders’ experiences, we aim to create up-to-date awareness of hotspots for cycling safety, crime, and infrastructure improvements—holding city officials accountable for safe cycling and pedestrian life in San ...
The streetcar is back along the Texas-Mexico border, thanks to a Latino man's brilliant "fake" ad campaign. Peter Svarzbein, an El Paso native, loved how a historic international streetcar system used to connect downtown El Paso, Texas (82.2% Latino) to downtown Cuidad Juárez, Mexico. But it closed in 1974. Today many in El Paso lack public transportation to reach places they need to go, which harms their health, educational, and employment opportunities, and the economy. So Svarzbein created a fictional, yet powerful ad campaign to simulate the return of El Paso's border-crossing streetcar for his graduate thesis project at New York's School for Visual Arts. Svarzbein's El Paso Transnational Trolley Project sparked enough curiosity and enthusiasm to create a real ...
