Infrastructure

I got a lot of response to a tweeted link to a video about a program in Bologna, Italy that rewards people for using active transit.

My fellow campaigner for accessibility and active transit, Sonja Boon, sent a thought-provoking response: She says she is “not a fan of ‘good behaviour’ rewards because what constitutes good behaviour? And what if you can’t access any ‘good behaviour’? Build a good system, shift focus away from cars, and people will come. The Dutch, for example, got their enviable network of cycle paths because of deliberate political decisions. The infrastructure was central. St. John’s has a series of fantastic walking trails because of similar deliberate decisions. It could make similar choices today.”

I agree, absolutely. Infrastructure and political decision making are central. Funnily enough, the article in which I read about the rewards program also made this exact point. The author, Sandy James, says that Britain’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has drafted guidelines that prioritize pedestrians, cyclists and transit over cars. Britain’s Department for Transport says in response to NICE that its own guidelines are also “crystal clear that street design should explicitly consider pedestrians and cyclists first”. James contrasts these policies with Vancouver, where there is no pedestrian plan. That made me wonder what we have here in St. John’s so I looked it up.

St. John’s Transportation plan actually has quite a lot about pedestrians, for example: “…creating walkable streets … and ensuring that neighbourhoods are connected to these areas by the network of local streets, sidewalks, pathways and trails.” It also talks about increasing mobility options, community building and place making. And they’re working on a new cycling plan. It even has a very sweet ad.

I didn’t find a lot of details on the Transportation Plan though so I’ll look into it and write another post later. Publicly espousing these values is already a good start. Anything that gets positive attention for accessibility and active transit can contribute to building a culture that sees pedestrians as having the same rights of access as vehicles (or perhaps even greater rights, as proposed in Britain — after all, they are helping to lower health care costs and reduce pollution, traffic congestion and parking problems). That might include rewards and cute ads. But, far more importantly, it includes the decisions and the infrastructure that make it all possible.