Citizen Advocate

As a government employee, the first rule is to get the politicians quoted in the paper and the second rule is to avoid being quoted yourself. Well, this week I failed both maxims.

As part of my job, I commented at the meeting of the Joint Planning Board about the MN/DOT Trunk Highway 197 Access Management Plan (Paul Bunyan Drive). My comments about the lack of planning for pedestrians and bicyclists ended up in a story about the meeting in The Pioneer on Friday.

Being quoted in the paper did not surprise me--that's what reporters are supposed to do--find the alternative view and present it. What did surprise me is the number of people that called and emailed or stopped me to discuss the story. I even got a call at home and a mention in a post on the Bemidji e-democracy site.

They all wanted to say that they appreciated my comments. The feedback is great, but what would be better is if every one called or wrote to their local elected officials to say: "I want a more walkable and bikeable community!" Citizens are the best voices for influencing policy decisions and if you feel strongly about this issue, please let your voice be heard.

There is plenty of research to support your position. You can Google walkability or active living and you'll find a day's worth of sites to peruse. Here are a couple to get you started.

WalkingInfo provides research, design guidelines and advocacy resources for improving walkability in communities. More links for BicyclingInfo at the bottom of the page.

Design for Health is a project of University of Minnesota, Cornell University, and the University of Colorado that "serves to bridge the gap between the emerging research base on community design and healthy living and the everyday realities of local government planning.” Their image resources include great pictures of bicycling and walking trails, crossings, and bridges, etc. Many pictures are from the Netherlands, the world-renowned capital of bicycling.

You can also watch this blog for information about ordinance updates, active living projects and other opportunities to get involved in planning for Bemidji's future. With any luck YOU, the citizen advocate will be quoted in the paper.

Multimodal, walkable, bikeable, oh my!

A pedestrian walking near Northwest Technical College, Bemidji 1/22/09

There is a lot of talk these days of making community streets Complete Streets. This movement is meant to provide streets that are usable for ALL users--pedestrians, bicyclists, transit users, people with disabilities--and motorized users. According to the Complete Streets Coalition, studies show that complete streets encourage walking and bicycling for health:

One study found that 43 percent of people with safe places to walk within 10 minutes of home met recommended activity levels, while just 27% of those without safe places to walk were active enough. Residents are 65% more likely to walk in a neighborhood with sidewalks.

One low-cost way to create more opportunities for non-motorized users is to re-stripe existing streets. The downtown plan prepared for the City of Bemidji by RDG Planning shows how Minnesota Ave. downtown could be re-striped to accommodate parking on both sides and a bike lane painted on both sides and still have two driving lanes. Obviously, some of our streets are VERY wide.

Narrowing the streets has the added benefit of calming traffic and making intersections safer for pedestrians. I encourage you to download the plan (it is a pdf of a PowerPoint presentation they made in November) and see their great ideas for our community.

There are a lot of sections and ideas in the plan and I will likely have a few more blog entries based on the ideas in it! The final plan will be ready in February and come before the City Council for adoption. Check it out.