Active Travel, COVID-19, and Bike & Ped Data

10/29/2020

Over the past six months, we’ve seen a number of changes throughout the U.S. due to COVID-19. One of those changes is the fact that many of us are working in different environments than usual and likely traveling to work differently as well. It is not well understood how long many of these changes will be in effect, nor how they’ve impacted communities from a long-term perspective. For non-motorized users, the demand for facilities has far outstripped the available space, especially when trying to implement social distancing. In response, some communities have enacted policies to turn streets into additional walking and bicycling space to broaden these non-motorized networks while others are implementing different strategies.

The subcommittee is interested in how many of your communities have been impacted and wanted to give you all a chance to speak about how they’ve adapted in the short-term, and how they are beginning to change and perhaps plan for the coming months and years. The upcoming Conversations with Colleagues will be on Thursday, October 29th from 2:30 – 3:30 PM EDT and will allow for anyone to talk and discuss what exactly their communities are doing and ask questions of each other. Below are a few potential discussion points:

·   How have the past six months affected your community from a non-motorized perspective?

·   If non-motorized mode usage has changed significantly in your area, have there been any calls for counting this data?

·   What are agencies in your area doing in the mid/long-term?

If there is a particular discussion point or question that you are interested in, please let us know and we can add it to the list of discussion points.