• About NCST
• News & Events
• NCST Library

• Home

Planning Complete Streets for an Aging America

Free Webinar
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
1-2 p.m. Eastern Time

LIsten to the Planning Complete Streets for an Aging America audio conference -- 1 hour
Note: If you do not have Windows Media Player installed on your computer. Download Windows Media Player for free. When the Microsoft Web page opens, it will recognize what upgrade is needed and make a suggestion on what you should download.

Description

During this webinar we will review the Planning Complete Streets for an Aging America report published by AARP in May 2009. Jana Lynott and Jackie Boland will discuss what local transportation and human service providers can do to encourage Complete Street design and effect changes to increase mobility for older adults in their community.

America needs streets designed to be safe and convenient for travel by automobile, foot, bicycle and transit regardless of age or ability. Jana Lynott, strategic policy advisor in the areas of transportation and livable communities at the AARP Public Policy Institute conducted a study resulting in Complete Streets policy recommendations for planners and legislators. The report, Planning Complete Streets for an Aging America offers planning and engineering practices for older driver and pedestrian mobility and also best practices in making streets work for older travelers.

Supplemental Materials

Complete Streets Make Mobility Meaningful (AARP)
Unfortunately, older Americans are among the people most hurt by inadequate roads and transportation choices. For so many older Americans, their mobility is undermined by crosswalks that are too long, communities without sidewalks, and bus stops that are too dangerous to get to on foot.  A recent AARP poll found 47% of Americans over age 50 said they could not cross main roads near their home safely. Learn about the Complete Streets Act proposed to be included in the reauthorization of the surface transportation law which expired on September 30, 2009. 

National Complete Streets Coalition
Instituting a Complete Streets policy ensures that transportation planners and engineers consistently design and operate the entire roadway with all users in mind - including bicyclists, public transportation vehicles and riders, and pedestrians of all ages and abilities. States, cities and towns are asking their planners and engineers to build road networks that are safer, more livable, and welcoming to everyone. Find out how you can become involved in improving transportation and development policy in your neighborhood. (http://www.completestreets.org/) 

Growing Smarter, Living Healthier: A Guide to Smart Growth and Active Aging
This guidebook, developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, is intended for older adults who are interested in how our communities work and how we might help them become more ‘age-friendly.’ Age-friendly communities use Smart Growth principles (development that improves the community, environment, economy, and public health) to become healthier places to grow old in — and better places for people of all ages. 

A Blueprint for Action: Developing a Livable Community for All Ages
The guide can be used as a quick-reference kit for practitioners looking for tools, resources, and best practices to create an aging friendly community. Readers most interested in learning about particular issues on how to build livable communities for all ages can find information on common challenges and proven solutions in specific areas, such as housing, land use planning, supportive services, and transportation.

Readers will also find a broader overview of Aging in Place and community leadership through a six-step strategy to build community partnerships, which offers key elements on how to channel community energies into planning and implementing systemic change. It includes information based on community experiences in building local leadership and solving specific challenges relating to aging. Special appendices offer topic-specific lists of studies, articles, and leading organizations and the resources at the end of the guide can be used to find the information most immediately relevant to your community’s priorities and challenges.

YouTube video encourages citizen participation in transportation planning 
“Citizen’s Guide: Regional Transportation Planning” is a 6-minute 24-second video about the necessity and value of public participation in the planning process of local and regional governments working toward safe, effective and efficient public transportation. Narrator Brian Kennedy, a transportation planning consultant who contracts with the Federal Transit Administration as well as state and regional governments, also guides viewers in making their participation as meaningful as possible.

Transportation Alternatives
Transportation Alternatives is a New York City based nonprofit working to reclaim New York City’s streets from the automobile, and to advocate for bicycling, walking and public transit as the best transportation alternatives. Transportation Alternatives has several campaigns working towards this goal, including Safe Routes for Seniors as part of their Walkable Communities campaign. Funded by the New York State Department of Health's Healthy Heart program, this was the first program of its kind to address the unique needs of elderly pedestrians and consider the role of street design in maintaining good cardiovascular health in old age. (http://transalt.org/about)

Speaker Bio

Jana Lynott, AICP
Ms. Lynott joined AARP’s Public Policy Institute in Spring 2007, as a strategic policy advisor in the areas of transportation and livable communities. Her recent research and project management resulted in PPI publications under the titles Planning Complete Streets for an Aging America, Opportunities for Creating Livable Communities, and Increasing Home Access: Designing for Visitability.

Prior to her employment with AARP she was the director of transportation planning for the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission where she designed and managed a groundbreaking study on the linkage between land use and the mobility of older adults. She also initiated and managed a travel instruction program to teach seniors how to use transit services in Northern Virginia.

Ms. Lynott served on the executive board of the Virginia Chapter of the American Planning Association from 2004-2008 and continues to serve on the chapter’s legislative committee. She has made numerous presentations before local and state policy making bodies, as well as at professional association conferences including the American Planning Association, Transportation Research Board, American Public Transportation Association, and the International Conference on Aging, Disability and Independence.

Jackie Boland
Jackie Boland is the Associate State Director for AARP Hawaii in the area of community outreach. She’s worked for AARP since 1993 in a variety of capacities. One of her most recent accomplishments was co-leading a grassroots effort to pass a Complete Streets law in Hawaii (Act 54). This achievement was the culmination of four years of activity which included raising public awareness and collaborating with community partners to educate the public and key decision makers about walkable communities issues, combined with the passage of a county charter amendment and two pieces of pedestrian legislation.

The National Center on Senior Transportation is funded through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Transit Administration and with guidance from the U.S. Administration on Aging. NCST is administered by Easter Seals Inc. in partnership with the National Association of Area Agencies on Aging (n4a).