Category: Safe Streets for Biking and Walking

TAKE ACTION: Tell VDOT to prioritize walkable, transit-friendly communities in its climate strategy

Your feedback is critical to ensure that VDOT prioritizes fostering walkable, transit-friendly communities connected by clean, convenient intercity rail and bus systems rather than continuing to pave over Virginia and making communities more car-dependent and less safe to walk and bike.  

RELEASE: Prince George’s County Safer Streets Legislation Hailed by Community Advocates

The Walkable Urban Streets Act will require county officials to apply its own urban street design standards and update the standards to keep abreast with national best practices. Better street designs will make urban centers safer and foster transit-oriented economic development. 

TAKE ACTION: Ask Alexandria City Council to support Duke St bus lanes, safer walking & biking 

The project Advisory Group, representing a diverse mix of corridor stakeholders, last month voted overwhelmingly to recommend dedicated center-running bus lanes and improved walking and biking facilities as the best option to improve Duke St for all users. Council needs to hear from you, that you support this recommendation for a safer and truly multimodal Duke Street.

CSG in the News: Virginia Reduces Speed Limit On Stretch Of Route 1 In Fairfax County

May 22, 2023 | DCist | Jenny Gathright

Sonya Breehey, the northern Virginia advocacy manager for the Coalition for Smarter Growth, says the speed limit reduction is a “win for a safer Richmond highway and the communities along the corridor.”

“The Richmond Highway corridor is just dangerous, and routinely sees higher than average crashes and fatalities,” Breehey tells DCist/WAMU. “So this is certainly a step in the right direction that will help make the roads safer for everybody no matter how you travel — but most especially for our vulnerable road users: those who are walking and biking.”

Breehey added that additional improvements are still needed.

“Dropping the speed limit along won’t be enough,” she says. “It’s one tool in the toolbox.”

Read the full story!

Opinion: The answer to a more vibrant downtown D.C.? Not more cars.

Ultimately, this is about quality of life and attractive, competitive communities for residents of D.C. and the region, enhanced by having alternatives to hours spent driving and sitting in traffic and reducing the air pollution harming us — life and work enhanced by a green, sustainable and people-oriented downtown.

Bike bike baby: How Greater Washington can boost the e-bike revolution

Shifting trips to walking and biking through active transportation investments and land use planning is perhaps the most cost effective way to reduce transportation emissions. Plus, e-bikes use a tiny fraction of the limited and often environmentally costly battery minerals that go into e-cars. Many residents can’t afford an electric car (or any new car) – and already shell out a lot on cars, reducing our region’s affordability – but can afford an e-bike.

TESTIMONY: Montgomery County’s Pedestrian Master Plan

We strongly support the  Pedestrian Master Plan draft and commend the plan’s holistic approach to achieving pedestrian safety and comfort across the county. In particular, we appreciate that the plan acknowledges pedestrian planning as a critical tool to meet our goals around health, equity, accessibility, climate, and land use, and that we need to think about these policies as interconnected.