Montclair is named a Silver Level Walk Friendly Community (Yeah!)

Sorry this post is a little late as internet access can be hard to come by in the wilds of Idaho.

The FHWA's Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center (PBIC) located in Chapel Hill, NC has named Montclair a Walk Friendly Community and awarded it a Silver level designation.  Montclair joins New Jersey's only other Walk Friendly Community Hoboken, which was awarded an impressive Gold level two years ago.

According to the PBIC news release:

Montclair is designated as a Silver-level community due to its commitment to enforcing pedestrian laws and safety, outstanding participation in Safe Routes to School programs, and impressive traffic calming projects. The township’s density and transit-oriented design provides a great foundation for promoting walkability!

For more on why Montclair was given this award  take a look at this PBIC webpage explaining the award.  Also take a look at the page explaining Hoboken's Gold award.

Congratulations Montclair on this well deserved award!  Fortunately for New Jersey, Montclair is not so unusual as our state is blessed with many dozens of older "Main Street" communities.  There is really no reason why many more could not win this award if they would only apply.  Let's make New Jersey the Walk Friendly Community leader with more WFC's than any other state in the nation!

NEW!! - Walk Friendly Communities Program from PBIC

The other day I explored the continued failure of a New Jersey town to score a Bicycle Friendly Community. Well all is not lost. The below message comes from Peter Bilton at the Voorhees Transportation Center at Rutgers University, about a new Walk Friendly Communities program sponsored by both the FHWA and the Ped Bike Information Center (a great resource BTW).

With many old New Jersey towns built well before the advent of the automobile and with pedestrian safety a hot topic at the State and community level, it should be easy for whole bunch of New Jersey towns to score these awards. At least I hope so. Something tells me South Orange will be one of the first to score one of these (wink, wink).

Below is the message from Peter Bilton at VTC:

You might be interested in the new Walk Friendly Communities recognition program from FHWA and Ped Bike Information Center - http://www.walkfriendly.org/index.cfm. Applications are due December 15th.

"Walk Friendly Communities is a national recognition program developed to encourage towns and cities across the U.S. to establish or recommit to a high priority for supporting safer walking environments. The WFC program will recognize communities that are working to improve a wide range of conditions related to walking, including safety, mobility, access, and comfort."

Regards,
Peter

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Peter Bilton, AICP/PP
Senior Research Specialist
Alan M. Voorhees Transportation Center
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
(732) 932-6812 ext. 586; bilton@ejb.rutgers.edu