Dear Friend,

Ask yourself this: if Prescott Alternative Transportation (PAT) wasn’t here, who would advocate for safely and conveniently accommodating the nearly 1/3 of our population who can not, or choose not to, drive a car?  

<>Who would provide safety education to children wanting to walk or bike to school? Distribute hundreds of free helmets each year? Secure funding for the City to build new sidewalks, fix broken sidewalks, improve crossings, and otherwise construct pedestrian and bicycle improvements around schools? Coordinate ways that encourage children and their parents to safely walk or bike to school, while educating them on the benefits? 

PAT is an invaluable resource and partner in our town because we believe that a bicycle and pedestrian friendly community contributes to a higher quality of life and creates a place where people want to live, work and play.

It is because of PAT’s advocacy that City staff  are pursuing four Transportation Enhancements grants in 2010:

• for bicycle and pedestrian improvements on White Spar Rd (phase 3)
• to build a nonmotorized bridge over a new road that will intersect the Peavine Trail
• to build sidewalks where none currently exist, and repair old sidewalks, on west Gurley St.
• to begin a multi-phase continuation of the nonmotorized pathway that was begun at the SR 69/SR 89  interchange south alongside SR 69 to Prescott Valley.

<>In addition to assistance with Transportation Enhancements grants, mentioned above, PAT staff and Board possess knowledge and expertise that is tapped in many ways in our community.

• PAT advocacy led to the City stating that the Transportation Coordinating Committee shall now always have a bicycle/pedestrian professional as a member; PAT’s executive director was appointed to the committee this spring.
• Prescott College awarded PAT seed money to coordinate development of a TDM (Travel Demand Management) Program on campus whose goal is to get more students and employees walking and biking to campus; this program can serve as a model for other colleges and large employers.
• Cyclists who have experienced aggressive drivers, or who have been hit, regularly call PAT for advice – or just to report the experience. This July, due the efforts of a PAT employee, a motorist who was endangering a cyclist with aggressive driving behavior was tried and sentenced with probably the harshest penalties ever meted out (in this region) to a motorist involved in an incident with a bicyclist.
• Yavapai County Health Services sought PAT’s help with developing a Safe Routes to School program in Cottonwood based on the model we established here.
• PAT’s executive direcctor was invited to sit on the Mobility Management Steering Committee (a group working to ensure progress is being made to bring public transit to the region) to represent pedestrian and bicyclist needs.

PAT seeks to educate our community on many levels:

• Spring 2009 we hosted the Complete Streets Town Hall, and late 2009 published and released the report (it is available as a PDF from our website); we are now pursuing opportunities to make a PowerPoint presentation that accompanies the Town Hall report in order to inform the larger community on the benefits of complete streets.
• Safe Routes to School is all about educating K – 5 grade students (and their teachers and parents) on the benefits of choosing to walk or bike more often, while also educating them on how to do it safely. We also provide motorist education to the adults at our partner schools.
• We distribute scores of  the ADOT pubilcation “Share the Road” each year; these booklets educate motorists on safely sharing the road with bicyclists and pedestrians, while also informing bicyclists and pedestrians of their rights and responsibilities.
• We regularly use our local media to share safety messages surrounding events like Bike Month or the annual Walk to School Day.
• Our annual Bike Month celebration raises awareness that there are lots of folks on bikes on our roadways, while also educating folks on all the benefits of biking more often.

 

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