This article called FIA Calls On Organisations and Companie To Assess Their Safety Footprint At The Vision Zero Conference talks about the FIA’s conference in Stockholm and the work they are completing as an organization. The article shares what information and resources the organizations offer groups that are working through Vision Zero. One thing they did was create an index which allows companies and organizations globally to have a frame of reference for their goal specific to their situation. The articles, at times, seems to be an advertisement for the FIA’s index, all while giving very reasonable explanations of how it can be implemented and why it should be.

National Walk and Bike to School Day is May 4th and it's a great time to get people to commute without cars. The scale of the event can even make people who would never forsake their car walk. Specifically, this article gives lots of resources for event planners including, planning ideas, registration resources, and goals of the event. 

Bike Rodeos can be a very daunting prospect, but this PowerPoint presentation can help out. It breaks down different parts of the process and crucially provides sources to present to cities for why they should hold these 

This article is much like other introductions to Bike Rodeos but with one key addition; marketing. Having a sponsor can enhance community engagement and enable giveaways to better engage the kids participating. Really having local companies get involved is good all around, but it takes either having an established event and/or club presence behind it. 

This article gives a great overarching idea and outline for Bike Rodeos. They vary in many different ways but they always have the "rider check, bicycle check, and skills check." In other words, a safe helmet, a maintained bike, and basic handling skills.

My only personal disagreement comes from a part of the bike fitment section. This article claims that a proper saddle height should have both feet flat on the ground while sitting on the saddle. While this is great when starting to ride, it is far too low for a confident rider and is very uncomfortable on the rider's legs. The higher the saddle the easier the pedaling (up till your feet can't reach the pedals anymore)

This article is a very in-depth dive into what a Bike Rodeo involves and takes to run. Beginning with the target audience it states a range of Kindergarten to 14-year-olds. It then outlines a timeline (45 minutes in all is ideal), how to keep stations and activities flowing and interesting, registration and templates, bike inspection checklist (ABCF), road rules, proper equipment fitment, and community booths. It also describes on and off-road courses and addresses the question do these events actually work?

This article details different activities to do during bike rodeos. Specifically, it focuses on on the bike games. These games are much more fun than lectures and keep kids much more engaged. It is missing at least one station for safety and maintenance but that's easy enough to draft up. The point system is also a great idea if the kids are super engaged. Otherwise, it's probably an unnecessary extra step.

Yonah Freemark asserts through this blog post that the area in which transit stops were located determined how much transit declined during the pandemic at these stops. His team studied five rail transit systems in some of the nations largest urban centers and found significant results. Areas of lower-income lost 55% of their riders while areas of highest income lost 70% of riders. Areas of larger Black population lost on average 57% of riders, while areas of the least Black population lost 63% of riders. Areas that are common employment centers, like office districts and downtowns, also lost more riders on average as white collar workers were more likely to be able to work from home. The pandemic affected certain groups disproportionately, and this continues to show in public transit, but several transit systems are working to change their structure to help core riders in areas that retained more people.

In 2019 the City of Tega Cay hosted its first bike rodeo. By collaborating with local clubs (specifically the Tarheel Trailblazers and Catawba Ridge Riders) the city was able to pull its local base to help plan and staff the event. With this new help, the clubs were left to the fine details of the event.

When the day finally arrived it was a roaring success! More than 20 families showed up and everyone came home having learned something new (even the people who taught it).

Creating Safer Road through Policy, written by Keith Meisel, shares Natalie Draisin’s story and more about who she is. The opening talks about how Ms. Draisin first started getting involved in road safety. Meisel then goes on to explain what steps Ms. Draisin takes towards allowing others to have the right that she believes they are entitled to, the right to safe roads. Understanding not only Ms. Draisin motivation, but also her work is an important part of knowing who she is. Her work led to her, “her current position as director of the North American Office and United Nations Representative for the London-based FIA.” Her role is a massively impactful job, and the FIA is at the forefront of the road safety movement and policy making. One statement that Ms. Draisin says in this article and our interview with her is “The public health community avoids using the term ‘accident.’ That implies tragedies could not have been prevented. We use ‘crash’ because we know serious injuries and fatalities are preventable and therefore unacceptable,” Her perspective makes the reader look at the world of road safety in a new way. Meisel goes on to explain more about Ms. Draisin’s accomplishments like “interning with the WHO, working with the National Transportation Safety Board in graduate school, and her opportunities to work globally”. Meisel’s article's goal is to explain who Natalie Draisin is, how she got to where she is, why she is important and a leader in road safety.

Hillary Richard discusses urban beekeeping, a little known phenomena in cities around the world. She starts talking about the effects of the pandemic on urban beekeeping in New York City, where many prominent buildings on which bees are stored were closed and without access, so they were rescued and relocated. There are over 350 registered hives in New York City, but Andrew Coté, the president of the NYC Beekeepers Association estimates there could be over 600 accounting for those unregistered. These hives host honeybees, that contribute to the wildlife in the city and generate honey for their proprietors as a steady source of supplemental income; many restaurants and bakeries operate their own hives to use in their kitchens. However, honeybees are an invasive species and many groups advocate for using local bees instead to protect local bee species and make truly local honey. Overall, urban beekeeping could have positive and negative effects on local wildlife, and while bees contribute greatly to the green space of a city, they can be dangerous to local species if implemented wrongly.

The authors of this article write about how accommodating for people who are alone in public can lead to a reduction in feeling loneliness. They talk about how things like benches and square tables can hint at how it is socially normative to be in public with other people, leading to increased feelings of aloneness. The article goes on to propose solutions like park chairs instead of benches, round instead of square tables, plants/shelves/bushes to reduce feelings of exposure, and more. It also goes on to mention how interactive spaces, like street gardening and open spaces to graffiti, can add belongingness. The goal of the article is to educate on how to create a more inviting space for everyone by including spaces to be alone. This is a form of accommodation that most won’t think of, but we need to keep in mind that there are people who would rather be alone than forced into social situations. We should accommodate everyone.

This article addresses how efforts to increase physical activity have both short-term and long-term improvements. The researchers assess the amount of moderate-vigorous physical activity for 811 grade 7-8 students in London, Ontario, Canada. Through surveys sent out to parents, they found that students with two or more recreational facilities had the highest physical activity levels. Land use mix and park size were not significant factors influencing physical activity. The study did have several limitations. For one, the cross-sectional design prevents causal inferences. They also did not take the quality of facilities, parks, and green spaces into account. The information was also self-reported so accuracy is not totally reliable. Lastly, the sample of kids was not completely random since the parents had to give consent and only 49% of the original 1666 agreed to participate.

This article called Road Safety is a Human Rights Issue shares how the FIA along with many other leaders including the Mayor of Paris and the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Road Safety are working to promote road safety. These leaders spoke at the Geneva Motor Show about the current road safety issues. the FIA’s conference in Stockholm and the work they are completing as an organization. The article shares details about the joint press conference that took place explaining the content and action during it. The contributions of each of the leaders involved to the event are stated. In the summary, it becomes clear that like the title states “road safety is a human rights issue” and must be protected by law