Walking advocates push for sidewalk near school

Andrew Yawger:
"The project will help the community and help move us toward a more walkable and safe township. This is a big win for Exeter Township!"
"More than just walking to school, there will also be a walking tour of historical sites in the area of, including the Exeter Station."

To read the full Reading Eagle Article, click here.

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State Rep Mark Gillen Responds to My Letter -- Have You Written Yet?

Dear Michele,
Thank you for your email regarding House Bill 1475, which provides for convictions and points, for speed timing devices, and for specific powers of department and local authorities. Please know that HB 1475 was referred to the House Transportation Committee on May 5, 2011. I am not on the Transportation Committee and, therefore, cannot vote to bring it to the House floor. Rest assured, however, that I will keep your comments in mind if or when this legislation comes before me on the floor. Again, thank you for your email. It is always helpful to have constituent input as I seek to represent the 128th legislative district.

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Mark Gillen
State Representative
128th Legislative District
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District Office
29 Village Center Drive
Suite A-7
Reading, PA 19607
Phone: (610) 775-5130
Fax: (610) 775-3736
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Harrisburg Office
409 Irvis Office Building
PO Box 202128
Harrisburg, PA 17120
Phone: (717) 787-8550
Fax: (717) 783-7862
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My email message to Rep Gillen was:

Action I would like to see:   HB 1475:

Please consider that speed timing devices such as radar are traffic calming devices that save lives.

Traffic Calming Statistics

• Most pedestrian fatalities occur in urban areas (73%) at non intersection locations (77%) in normal weather conditions (90%) and at night (67%). (NHTSA, 2007)
• Road traffic crashes are the leading cause of death among young people (ages 10-24) in the world. (World Health Organization)
• They are also the leading cause of death among children in the United States. (United States Center for Disease Prevention)
• Speeding is the single most common traffic rule violation and contributes to one third of all road traffic crashes . (World Health Organization)
• Traffic Calming measures are a key intervention to road traffic crashes and deaths. (World Report on Road Traffic Injury Protection)
• If current trends continue, the number of people killed and injured on the world's roads will rise by more than 60% between 2000 and 2020. (World Health Organization)
• In 2005 there were nearly 3 million people injured on the roads in the United States. (US Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration)
• There were 43,443 people killed on US roads in 2005 alone (US Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration)
• There are an average of 117 fatalities per day due to traffic incidents (US Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration)
• 30% of the people killed in traffic accidents each day are under 25 (US Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration)
• Each year, 400,000 people under age 25 die in traffic accidents, averaging more than 1,000 deaths a day. (World report on Road Traffic Injury Protection)
• In 2005, traffic accidents killed an average of 4 children under the age of 14 each day and injured 556 daily. In total, 203,000 children were injured and 1,451 were killed. (National Center for Health Statistics 2006 Report)
• Two thirds of children who are hurt or killed in traffic accidents are struck and injured within several blocks (.25 miles) of their homes (American Journal of Public Health)

Imagine: ZERO ROAD TRAFFIC DEATHS

Learn More.

Allowing local police to use radar will make our communities safer

Pennsylvania is the only state in the nation that does not allow local police departments to use radar for the purpose of speed enforcement. In 2009 Pennsylvania suffered 32,669 speed-related car crashes, 538 of them fatal. According to the PennDOT Crash Facts & Statistics Report, these crash and fatality rates are higher than PAʼs rates of alcohol, careless, and distracted driver accidents combined.

HB 1041 and SB 526, both introduced this session, are similar bills that would allow accredited local police departments to use radar in speed enforcement.

Every year hundreds of motorists are killed in speeding-related accidents. Radar is a proven, effective law enforcement tool to stop drivers jeopardizing othersʼ safety by disobeying speed limits. By keeping these tools out of the hands of local police departments, law enforcement offices are limited in the tools that they have available to promote safe streets.

HB 1041 and SB 526 will make our communities safer by empowering local police departments to use a tool the Pennsylvania State Police have been using effectively since 1961. These bills will improve the safety of pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists, and all others interacting with roadways patrolled by local police enforcement agencies.

EMAIL YOUR STATE LEGISLATOR NOW: CLICK HERE.

Tell Congress: Don’t Sacrifice Safety

Americans are dying on our roads every day – and our poorly designed roads are to blame.
We can’t let Congress cut the already meager funding for pedestrian and bike safety.
Tell your lawmakers not to risk lives. Protect and increase bike & pedestrian funding.

Click Here to Take Action!

If a jumbo jet went down every month, Congress would pass laws left and right. If a consumer product injured someone every seven minutes, the feds would shut down production.

Well, that’s exactly how many Americans are being killed and injured in the act of walking pedestrian-unfriendly streets, according to our report, out today. But in the case of pedestrian safety, our federal tax dollars actually go to build streets that are designed to be perilous to children, the elderly and everyone else.

And yet, right now, some in Congress are trying to kill funding for projects to make it safer to walk and bicycle!

Join us - ask your representative and senators in Washington to show us that they take pedestrian and bike fatalities seriously.

Our Dangerous by Design research found that more than 47,700 Americans were struck and killed while walking and another 688,000 were injured from 2000 to 2009. The highways-only lobby insists that pedestrian safety is a “frill” and a local responsibility. But 67 percent of these fatalities over the last 10 years occurred on federal-aid roads — roads eligible to receive federal funding or with federal guidelines or oversight for their design.

That’s right: Federal programs have encouraged state departments of transportation to prioritize speeding traffic over the safety of people in our neighborhoods and shopping districts.

The irony is that fixing these conditions is relatively cheap: Existing funds for that purpose – now targeted for elimination -- amount to less than 1.5 percent of the current federal transportation outlay. A policy of giving federal support only to “complete streets” that are designed for the safety of people on foot or bicycle as well as in cars would cost next to nothing.

Tell Congress: it's no time to start cutting funding that helps keep pedestrians safe.

Thank you for helping fix our transportation system to make it safe, reliable, and accessible for everyone!

If you Run, Walk, or Bicycle in Berks County, Take Our Survey.

Walk Bike Berks Travel Survey: Click Here to Begin.

Mount Penn Elementary School Wins Berks County Walk to School Challenge!

Here is our letter of Congratulations to the Winner:
WalkBikeBerks ● PO Box 6795 ● Wyomissing ● PA ● 19610
February 23, 2011

Mount Penn Elementary School
Antietam School District
2310 Cumberland Ave.
Mt. Penn, PA 19606

Dear Mrs. Bleacher,

Congratulations! Your commitment to increase the number of students who use active transportation to and from your school each day is a remarkable achievement.
WalkBikeBerks would like to recognize you for the wonderful efforts you make every day to care for the health and safety of the students at Mount Penn Elementary.

WalkBikeBerks is awarding your school $500.00 to build better walking and bicycling for Mount Penn Elementary School. Please email info@walkbikeberks.org with a good time for us to present you and your students with the Walk to School Challenge Cash Prize of $500.00.

We applaud you for identifying walking and bicycling as every day activities that will help school age students maintain healthy body weights, breathe cleaner air, and prepare their bodies for a successful day of study while at school.

Please find the attached graphs which reveal the results of our Walk to School Challenge. You can see that Mount Penn is the winning school for the highest percentage of students who walk and bicycle to school for this competition! Well done! Your program is an excellent example for all of the school districts in Berks County. Your students, your staff, and your community should be proud that you are making student health and safety a priority.

We look forward to helping you continue to build on your past success. When you work to increase the number of students who walk and bicycle to school, fewer students may suffer from overweight/obesity related issues such as Type II Diabetes, asthma, heart disease, some cancers, and mental health concerns such as depression and anxiety. WalkBikeBerks remains committed to helping you increase the number of students who use active transportation to Mount Penn Elementary.

Sincerely,
Michele Barrett
Safe Routes to School Chair

Our Streets Are Dangerous By Design

Dangerous By Design

Recently, several pedestrians in various locations in Berks County have been struck while walking across our streets. Too often, the victim is found to be at fault for walking where pedestrians are not allowed to walk. Such is the case with the following story reported in the Reading Eagle Newspaper:

"A woman and her adult son were struck by a car and injured Monday night while crossing the Fifth Street Highway near the Fairgrounds Square Mall in Muhlenberg Township, police said.

The 60-year-old woman and her 25-year-old son.... were walking to the mall and crossing the road ... when they were both struck by a southbound car ... Reading, police said.
...
[Driver] was not at fault, police said, adding that the area is clearly marked with a "No pedestrian crossing" sign

...Investigators said she had a green light and did not see the pedestrians in time to stop..."

In the report released by Transportation for America:
In the last 15 years, more than 76,000 Americans have been killed while crossing or walking along a street in their community. Children, the elderly and ethnic minorities are disproportionately represented in this figure, but people of all ages and all walks of life have been struck down in the simple act of walking. These deaths typically are labeled “accidents,” and attributed to error on the part of motorist or pedestrian. In fact, however, an overwhelming proportion share a similar factor: They occurred along roadways that were dangerous by design, streets that were engineered for speeding cars and made little or no provision for people on foot, in wheelchairs or on a bicycle.

The answer: Prevent deaths and promote health with safer design!