Active Towns Safer Streets Research w/ Wes Marshall
In this episode, I connect with University of Colorado Denver Professor Dr. Wes Marshall for a fun and fascinating discussion about some of the safer streets research that he and his students have conducted over the past decade.
Wes Marshall, Ph.D., is a Professor of Civil Engineering and an affiliate faculty member in Planning and Design at the University of Colorado Denver. Wes focuses on transportation research and teaching dedicated to creating more sustainable, equitable, and resilient transportation systems, particularly in terms of road safety, active transportation, and transit.
He has a vast body of work and we discuss several of his most notable studies that have gained attention over the past few years, including his 2019 research paper that highlighted enhanced safety of protected bikeways for all roadways users, not just people cycling.
Additional Helpful Links:
Active Towns Landing Page for this Episode
Professor Norman Garrick
Active Towns Landing Page for Peter Norton's Episode
Active Towns Landing Page for Fietsstraat/Bicycle Priority Street Episode
Active Towns Landing Page for Jonathan Fertig's Episode
Central Park Community (formerly Denver's main airport)
Street Network 101 Explains Grided street network versus Tree-like street network as seen in most suburban communities
Links to the research papers we hit on:
- Why cities with high bicycling rates are safer for all road users
- Does street network design affect traffic safety?
- Effect of Street Network Design on Walking and Biking
- Community design, street networks, and public health
- Scofflaw bicycling: Illegal but rational
- Advancing healthy cities through safer cycling: An examination of shared lane markings
- Understanding the impacts of integrating New Urbanist neighborhood and street design ideals with conventional traffic engineering standards: the case of Stapleton
Here are a few YouTube explainer videos made about Wes' research:
- Why Cities with High Bicycling Rates are Safer for all Road Users
- A Proactive Approach to Redefining Child Road Safety - and Vision Zero
- The Impacts of Uber & Lyft on Transportation
Complete list of Wes' Research
Denver Streetsblog Interview
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Credits:
All video and audio production by John Simmerman
Music:
Various mixes also by John Simmerman
Resources used during the production of this episode:
- My awesome recording platform is Ecamm
For more information about my Active Towns effort or to follow along, please visit my links below:
- Website
- Podcast landing pages
Background:
Hi Everyone, my name is John Simmerman.
I’m a health promotion professional with over 30 years of experience and my area of concentration has evolved into a specialization of how the built environment influences human behavior related to active living and especially active mobility.
In 2012 I launched the non-profit Advocates for Healthy Communities as an effort to help promote and create healthy, active places.
Since that time, I've been exploring, documenting, and profiling established, emerging, and aspiring Active Towns wherever they might be, in order to produce high-quality multimedia content to help inspire the creation of more safe and inviting, environments that promote a "Culture of Activity" for "All Ages & Abilities."
My Active Towns suite of channels feature my original video and audio content and reflections, including a selection of podcast episodes and short films profiling the positive and inspiring efforts happening around the world as I am able to experience and document them.
Thanks for tuning in; I hope you have found this content helpful.
Creative Commons License: Attributions, Non-Commercial, No Derivatives, 2021
Advocates for Healthy Communities, Inc. is a nonprofit 501c3 organization (EIN 45-3802508) dedicated to helping communities create a Culture of Activity. To donate, click here.