MethuenRailTrail

The Federal Highway Administration funds this marvelous site called www.walkinginfo.org which provides encouragement to get out and walk. Aside from basics about personal walking and its benefits, it provides terrific resources for improving walkability of one’s own community.

Walking Solutions:

• Implement Solutions
• Develop Plans and Policies
• Engineer Pedestrian Facilities
• Educate Drivers and Pedestrians
• Enforce Laws
• Improve Access to Transit
• Promote Walking and Health
• Seek Funding and Build Support

Visit the site and poke around at all the free downloadable documents, once the damn snow goes away, perhaps a few of us can get out and do a casual audit of the walkability of our community with Walkinginfo.org’s Walkability checklist (download pdf)

Tags: Federal, walking

I stumbled on this super resource for adapting for Bike-Ped transportation.
I was most interested in – Lesson 20: Restriping Existing Roads With Bike Lanes,
which gives us many options on how to work with what we have.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Lesson 1: The Need for Bicycle and Pedestrian Mobility (PDF, 269 Kb)
Lesson 2: Bicycling and Walking in the United States Today (PDF, 179 Kb)
Lesson 3: Bicycle and Pedestrian Planning Overview (PDF, 387 Kb)
Lesson 4: Pedestrian and Bicycle Crash Types (PDF, 1.65 Mb)
Lesson 5: Adapting Suburban Communities for Bicycle and Pedestrian Travel (PDF, 181 Kb)
Lesson 6: Neo-Traditional Neighborhood Design (PDF, 678 Kb)
Lesson 7: Using Land-Use Regulations to Encourage Non-Motorized Travel (PDF, 3.5 Mb)
Lesson 8: Tort Liability and Risk Management (PDF, 149 Kb)
Lesson 9: Bicycle and Pedestrian Connections to Transit (PDF, 250 Kb)
Lesson 10: Off-Road Trails (PDF, 105 Kb)
Lesson 11: Traffic Calming (PDF, 1.13 Mb)
Lesson 12: Pedestrian and Bicycle Facilities in Work Zones (PDF, 108 Kb)
Lesson 13: Walkways,Sidewalks and Public Spaces (PDF, 273 Kb)
Lesson 14: Pedestrian Signing and Pavement Markings (PDF, 195 Kb)
Lesson 15: Pedestrian Accommodations at Intersections (PDF, 327 Kb)
Lesson 16: Mid-Block Crossings (PDF, 453 Kb)
Lesson 17: Pedestrians With Disabilities (PDF, 72 Kb)
Lesson 18: Shared Roadways (PDF, 1.2 Mb)
Lesson 19: Bike Lanes (PDF, 460 Kb)
Lesson 20: Restriping Existing Roads With Bike Lanes (PDF, 341 Kb)
Lesson 21: Bicycle Facility Maintenance (PDF, 69 Kb)
Lesson 22: Bicycle Parking and Storage (PDF, 178 Kb)
Lesson 23: European Approaches to Bicycle and Pedestrian Facility Design (PDF, 212 Kb)
Lesson 24: Education,Encouragement, and Enforcement (PDF, 153 Kb)

PDF of the entire 282pages (12.4mb)

Tags: Cycling, health, walking

The city, along with the Mass Historical Commission, US Dept of the Interior, National Park Service and nameless others have gone in to produce this nice little full color map-let. This 16 page booklet with attached map goes beyond the previous incarnation of the Methuen historical place map; instead of depicting one walk around downtown, it has TWO separate routes with a write up on what’s left of our historically interesting landscape.

This heavily illustrated item is worth picking up when you find it. It should be available at the library and town offices. I got mine at the planning office in city hall.

(click the images for a closer look)

Tags: maps, Methuen, walking

Modest brain test benefit seen with brisk walking

CHICAGO (AP) — Brisk walking led to slight improvements on mental tests for older people with memory problems in what is billed as the first rigorous test of exercise on the aging brain. The results from the small Australian study were only modest. But they back up observational studies showing potential mental benefits from physical activity. (continue reading)

Tags: health, walking