With fall in the air and back-to-school commercials in full swing, here at Blueprint America we were reminded by our colleagues at Rocky Mountain PBS in Colorado about the potential of a kids program picking up pace across the country: “Safe Routes to School.”

Safe Routes, the result of a 2005 transportation bill that set aside federal money to promote biking programs, focuses on transforming the way kids get to school — by encouraging them to get out of the backseat and onto their feet. This might mean putting in streets signs and bike lanes across communities nationwide in order to carve out safe bike and pedestrian-friendly routes. In Phoenix, schools handed out maps that denote the safest pathways. In Elmhurst, Illinois, one school created a reward system with prizes for when students walk or bike a certain number of days. Other schools have added a complementary education element, to teach kids the rules of bike safety and the language of the road.

For many, this program is about shaking up our sedentary lifestyle. As America transformed into a 2 or 3 cars-per-household country in the past half-century, the percentage of kids walking or biking to school dropped from being half in 1969 to being less than 15 percent today. In conjunction, reports show that the rate of obesity in children has become three times more prevalent in the last 30 years. Our kids today will be the first generation in 200 years to have generally poorer health and shorter life spans than their parents.

So far, bike programs have yielded some tangible success. The school in Elmhurst has a consistent 80-95 percent involvement (depending on weather). Another school in Jackson, Michigan, reported seeing the number of students walking to school double in three years.

Don’t forget, taking the kids to school by car consistently clogs up the morning commute, adding up to as much as 21 percent of congestion. If we could eliminate most of those cars every day, just imagine how great an impact it could have on our oil consumption and our exhaust output, as well as our gridlock. It may seem minuscule in the day-to-day, but those 15 minute drives to school add up. As we pile into the car each morning anxious about running late and whether everyone’s homework is in tow, it’s easy to forget the long-term effects driving everywhere has on our health, our environment and our communities.

Catch a glimpse of the program in action in Colorado:

You can “Take the ‘A’ train” in New York City, but in Denver, Minneapolis, Washington, D.C., Des Moines and a handful of other communities, you can hop on the ‘B’… for bicycle (note: the ‘B’ remains a viable subway line in New York, but a bike-share program is in the works there, too).

Bike-share is the most recent form of mass transit — funded with both private and public dollars. It offers commuters the option of renting a bike at point A and dropping it off at point B, C, D, or back at A. Minneapolis, with 1,000 bikes, currently has the largest program in the U.S., but Denver’s expanding program could soon overtake it. Then again, if you’re an American city with bike sharing, it’s not hard to be in the running for the top spot — few cities have a program, but that’s slowly starting to change.

Bike-shares are exploding in Europe: 10,000 bikes in Paris, 1,500 in Barcelona, 2,000 and an additional 3,000 to come in Copenhagen.

While some might welcome the emulation of the European model here in the U.S., Colorado Republican gubernatorial candidate Dan Maes has warned voters that Denver’s B-Cycle program is, in reality, a U.N. plot. In the spirit of fairness to the fringes, some on the left might also find reason to cry conspiracy, since the often maligned Clear Channel Inc. administers the D.C. program and launched bike-sharing programs in Rennes and Barcelona, among others. At the very least, bikers are on board.

Here’s a short video from our partners at Rocky Mountain PBS about Denver’s B-Cycle program:

Rocky Mountain PBS – As cities age across the country, there is a movement to maintain infrastructure by also changing a community’s way of life. In Denver, it is called a  ‘Living Street’ — an area that supports mobility (mass-transit to biking to walking to, even, automobiles), public interaction and economic development through the planning and repurposing of urban land near transit lines.

In a series of short videos, Rocky Mountain PBS — as a part of Blueprint America — depicts the varying aspects of the Denver Living Streets Initiative, and the rebuilding of Denver.

Rocky Mountain PBS – Colorado is growing. In 1950, Colorado’s population was just over 1.3 million. By 1980, nearly 3 million. During the 1990s, the state added over one million inhabitants, or about 275 people each day. In 2000, Colorado had 4.3 million residents. In the Denver metro area alone, some 2.8 million people live there — and by 2030, Denver’s population is expected to grow by 1 million.

At the same time, the state is trying to grow its infrastructure to meet the demands of its growing population. The Denver metro area already has an extensive public transit system, and is seeking to expand it with more light-rail in the coming years.

Colorado State of Mind on Rocky Mountain PBS — as a part of Blueprint America — talks with Colorado’s state planners to see how the state is managing its infrastructure.

Joining Colorado State of Mind host Cynthia Hessin:

Cynthia Hessin, Colorado State of Mind

- Bill Vidal, Denver Manager of Public Works

- Margo Hatton-Wolf, Pueblo Riverwalk Foundation

- Parry Burnap, Denver Mayor’s “Greening” Director

- Trent Prall, Engineering Manager, city of Grand Junction’s public works and planning departments
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Rocky Mountain PBS is a partner station of Blueprint America

Also, the Congress of New Urbanism – of which Denver is host to – has a new video posted, it’s called “Built to Last” and it is from filmmakers First + Main Media from Julian, CA and Paget Films from Buffalo, NY (John Paget, Dr. Chris Elisara, and Drew Ward).

National Transportation Policy Project

At the same time, the National Transportation Policy Project just released its take on transportation in America: Performance Driven: A New Vision for U.S. Transportation Policy. What they say is that “U.S. transportation policy needs to be more performance-driven, more directly linked to a set of clearly articulated goals, and more accountable for results.”

Blueprint America has found that communities — big and small, urban and rural — are, for the first time, rethinking their purpose. Is a city a place where people live, a place where they go to work, or both? What about after work, between home and the grind — is it a half hour by car or an hour by bus?

Do these questions even matter given the state of the national economy?

The thing of it is that the majority of our money goes to where we live and how we get from here to there and back again. Addressing those costs is the same as addressing the Recession.

PBS stations are producing radio and television segments, hosting discussions between policy makers and their communities, and offering further content online, all as a part of Blueprint America.

Blueprint America goes to three very different American cities — Denver, New York and Portland, and their surrounding suburbs — to look at each as a microcosm of the challenges and possibilities the country faces as citizens, local and federal officials, and planners struggle to manage a growing America with innovative transportation and sustainable land use policies.

With roads clogged and congested, gas prices uncertain, smog and pollution creating health problems like asthma, cities that once built infrastructure to serve only automobiles and trucks are now looking to innovative new forms of transportation systems — like trolleys, light rail, pedestrian walkways and bike paths.

Whether it is talking to residents pushing sustainable development in the Bronx, smart growth in Denver, or a journalist in Portland whose beat is bicycling, Blueprint America finds a common theme: America’s love affair with the car may be a thing of the past, and that may be the road to economic recovery.

Downtown Denver

They say in Denver, ‘most people just got here.’ With a population of some 2.8 million people, the metro area has grown steadily in the past 10 years – averaging a 1.9 percent growth in population each year from 1998 to 2008. And by 2030, Denver’s population is expected to grow by 1 million – to over 3.8 million people.

As the city’s growth rate has consistently outpaced the national rate every decade since the 1930s, its people have spread out across the region similar to Phoenix, Arizona, or Houston, Texas.

Though all of these Western outposts grew into mega-metros and continue to spread out, there are, at the same time, new developments to at least manage their growth.

Phoenix has built light-rail. Houston has built light-rail. And, so has Denver – since 1994.

Denver light-rail near Union Station

The existing light-rail system in Denver provides transportation through the central (line opened in 1994), southwest (2000), and southeast (2006) of the metro area. With each year – and with each new line – ridership has increased.

Still, even with a rail and bus system, the population in the Denver region continues to spread out. That, however, could change with the completion of the Fas Tracks plan.

In 2004, area voters approved Fas Tracks to build out Denver’s mass transit system, even into the growing suburbs.

The Plan

By 2016, an additional 122 miles of rail will be put in place along six new lines as well as extending routes already in place and expanding the regional bus system. If completed, the Denver metro area will rank among the top five regions in the country for total miles of fixed rail.

But even with the expansion of mass transit, Colorado – as a state – has done little to manage its continued growth in terms of development. In 2000, however,  Colorado voters did have an opportunity to control regional growth, but, after initial support, the referendum was defeated – and it has not been revisited since.

As the Denver metro area continues to spread out, its mass transit system, at the same time, will also have to continue to be built even further out for it to remain effective for the region.

Fas Tracks plan, Denver Region Transportation District

Sources: Denver Region Transportation District, The New York Times