SmartRoutes: An Active Solution

Lately we’ve been hearing a lot about the rising cost of fuel and how it affects Americans’ pocketbooks. One thing you don’t hear much about though is how we‘ve designed our communities around the automobile and grown dependent on cars and the fuel that powers them. Our community design effectively eliminates almost all of the physical activity from our daily lives except the gym workout or recreational walking, running, or biking. Today, cars are used for 75 percent of all trips made, even short trips under a mile (Blomberg et al. 2004). But there is a nationwide movement underway to change that statistic. As an alternative to driving, the Rails To Trails Conservancy’s (RTC) ‘2010 Campaign for Active Transportation’ is seeking to double funding for non-motorized transportation in the next reauthorization of the federal transportation budget. RTC’s proposal will advocate that $2 billion of federal funding support communities with $50 million over six years to increase biking, walking, and transit for transportation to make it easier for us to get around, especially for short trips, without the car and fuel. Spokane Regional Transportation Council, Spokane Regional Health District, local political and business leaders, community activists, walking and bicycling advocates, and local planners and engineers are looking for solutions and formed a partnership earlier this year to develop and submit the ‘SmartRoutes 2010’ initiative; an application and case statement for the money RTC is campaigning for. If funded, SmartRoutes will provide a large-scale enhancement of pedestrian and bicycle facilities in the urban core and offer other benefits such as: * Reduced road wear and congestion Reduction of 91 million vehicle miles of travel per year; equivalent to nine days of vehicle traffic * Improved health 60,000 residents will become active due to the improved non-motorized system. That will result in a savings of $1.7 million in health care costs. * Economic Spokane residents could save $46 million annually in reduced fuel and personal vehicle expenses. Improved non-motorized facilities will allow Spokane to promote their trail systems and walking/biking paths to help lure more visitors and events to Spokane. * Environmental A 53.7 million ton per year reduction in pollutants from tailpipe emissions * Spokane isn’t alone in seeking money to improve non-motorized transportation facilities. More than 40 other U.S. communities also submitted their ideas and applications to RTC on how they would spend $50 million to advance walking and biking. Very soon, you will be hearing more about these ideas in the local and national media. On October 20, RTC plans to reveal which cities applied for funding and release a national statement that will make the case for greater federal investment in active transportation. The statement will use examples of proposed non-motorized projects and community needs from the cities that submitted funding requests, possibly including Spokane. There will also be an event on a local level that day, as the projects included in the Spokane SmartRoutes initiative are unveiled. So get your walking shoes out and your bike tires pumped up; we’re hitting the trail to bring better bike and pedestrian facilities to Spokane. Staci Lehman is the Public Information/Education Coordinator with the Spokane Regional Transportation Council.