Two recipients are statewide nonprofits that participated in the plan’s stakeholder steering committee, promoted involvement in the plan’s outreach phase and serve on the Cooper Jones Active Transportation Safety Council: Cascade Bicycle Club and Disability Rights Washington.
(Photo courtesy of Washington Department of Transportation.)
Washington state's Active Transportation Plan has been named the winner of the People's Choice Award in the national 2022 America's Transportation Awards. The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, AAA and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce sponsor the annual contest. This represents the first time ever in the competition's 15-year history that an active transportation plan has won the honor.
All 12 finalists in America's Transportation Awards were eligible to win the People's Choice Award, which is based on total votes received through online voting. The totals are weighted by the state populations, so bigger states don't have an unfair advantage over smaller states. State departments of transportation encouraged voting through a variety of means, from internal reminders to staff to playful messages on social media.
The award brings with it a $10,000 check for the charities of WSDOT's choice. One-third goes to WSDOT Memorial Foundation that preserves the memory of its workers who died on the job and provides assistance to active and retired employees and their families in times of need. The other two recipients are statewide nonprofits that participated in the plan's stakeholder steering committee, promoted involvement in the plan's outreach phase and serve on the Cooper Jones Active Transportation Safety Council: Cascade Bicycle Club and Disability Rights Washington.
The ATP became eligible for the finalist round when the Western Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials named it as a regional winner in June, which moved it on to the national competition. As the People's Choice Awards voting was under way, the Washington state chapter of the American Planning Association also recognized it with an award for transportation planning at their annual conference.
Besides being the first active transportation plan to win the national award, the ATP is also the first-ever analysis of Washington state highways that looks at how well they work for people who need to walk, bike or roll along or across them. It's the first effort to really quantify the features of the roadway, traffic volume and traffic speed that tell us we'll make it better and easier to use active transportation if we make some changes. And it's the first time the state plan has been named in legislation as a resource to identify where improvements will make a difference, in the Move Ahead Washington transportation investment package passed in 2022.
About Active Transportation Plan
The Active Transportation Plan 2020 and Beyond is a compass for creating the future of walking, biking and rolling on or across state highways in Washington. It is used in decisions to help connect people to where they want to go, whether they use active transportation for the whole trip or just a part of it, such as the walk to a bus stop, the bike ride to work or rolling home from a ferry terminal.
Plan Highlights
- Addresses factors most often associated with traffic-related fatalities and serious injuries, such as higher driving speeds and roadway crossing issues;
- Considers ways to correct for the effects of past infrastructure decisions on active transportation safety and mobility, particularly in places where those decisions affected transportation access and health;
- Provides a first-ever needs assessment of the state system for active transportation use;
- Gives a cost estimate for walk and bike improvements on the state highway in population centers;
- Introduces the concept of a statewide bikeways and trails network;
- Uses "level of traffic stress" as a quantitative tool to evaluate the state system with a focus on state routes in population centers and how they affect people's ability to use active transportation;
- Addresses the burden of out-of-direction travel for pedestrians and bicyclists, which was informed by WSDOT's Multimodal Permeability Pilot, published in August 2021;
- Sets performance metrics to monitor progress;
- Lists strategies needed for WSDOT and partners to move ahead with the work;
The Active Transportation Plan 2020 and Beyond is based on comments from public outreach. It includes both chapters published as Part 1 in May 2021 and the final chapters that received public comment as Part 2 in the fall 2021. The plan is intended to lead future policy decisions, investments and improvements.
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