How safe is your city for pedestrians?

Transportation for America has released its list of the 52 largest American metro regions, ranked according to their safety for pedestrians. Our own St. Louis ranked 21st most dangerous, one slot behind Kansas City (Missouri must be proud) and ahead of such luminous bastions of safety as New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Washington DC. This also throws into relief The League of American Bicyclist's ranking of St. Louis as a (of 125) Bicycle-Friendly city.

I was as intrigued by the rankings as I was by the revelation that, while 1.7% of the population in St. Louis walks to work (I've made the three-mile trek myself when it was way too rainy to ride), a whopping 6% of those in the NYC metro region hoof their commute. That's owed, I'm sure, in large part to population density. But it's also something of a mindset. When you last moved to a new home, did you consider the walkability of your commute a determining factor?

Dangerous By Design

(via GOOD)

Google taking suggestions for walkable/bikable routes

One of the handiest tools I regularly use for planning my cycling routes around the city (I'm always looking for a route to work with less traffic) is Google Maps and Street View. It's nice to see what I can expect along the way in terms of bike lanes, gutters, railroad crossings, etc. (though it never shows me where the hostile drivers will be).

The obvious shortcoming of Street View is that, since the images are all captured with a specially-equipped car, it is limited to routes where cars drive. And, as the astute among you may have already learned, bikes and and pedestrians are able to go places where cars cannot.

Though it doesn't appear that the project will be as extensive as Street View for cars, Google has begun taking suggestions for where to gather images with their new Street View Trike. Perhaps this will begin to fill in some of those bike route gaps (like the pedestrian/bike tunnel from Oakland Avenue to Forest Park in St. Louis) that you don't normally discover until you happen upon them.

I'm nominating Forest Park in St. Louis along with the Katy Trail for the Google Street View Trike. Jump in and vote for them as well, or nominate your own favorite walking/cycling route. While you're at it, go to Google Maps and use Street View to preview that walking/cycling commute you know you should try out.

Sandbagged.

This post comes from our friend Ashby.

It was observed in St. Louis City.

I didn't measure the width of the opening between these rusty sign uprights, but I'd be surprised if there was enough room for a wheelchair. This just seems lazy. What other reason could the city have for leaving this stuff on the sidewalk when it's not in use?