Vision

The Vision of the PedNet Coalition is a healthy and active community.

Mission

The Mission of the PedNet Coalition of Columbia, MO is to encourage active travel such as walking, bicycling, and rolling a wheelchair, and to promote the creation of a safe and attractive network of paths, trails and multi-modal streets that provides health, environmental, quality-of-life, and economic benefits to the community.

Background

Why do we need the PedNet Coalition?

Since the middle of the twentieth century, the use of motor cars for personal transportation has become widespread in the United States and other parts of the developed world.  Advances in technology such as the development of production line manufacturing have driven down the cost of cars, ready availability of bank loans has brought car ownership within the reach of almost everyone, and national policies have provided massive public subsidies for the creation of automobile infrastructure.  As a result, Americans currently own a total of 250,000,000 vehicles - substantially more than the number of legal drivers (200,000,000).

While motorized transportation has brought great benefits in terms of individuals' freedom to travel, the distribution and goods and services, and economic development, these behavioral and environmental changes have also caused serious negative consequences:

• Health - Walking or bicycling makes up less than 10% of all journeys now, a fraction of its level 50 years ago, and more than two-thirds of American adults are now overweight or obese.
• Health of children - In the span of just one generation, the number of American children walking or biking to school has plummeted from 50% to 15%, while obesity rates have soared such that one third of all children and adolescents (25 million individuals) are now overweight or obese.
• Infrastructure costs - Driving children to school is responsible for 30% of morning traffic congestion in many cities, and the cost of congestion mitigation efforts focused on road construction are rapidly becoming unsustainable for city, state, and national governments.
• Environment - Discovery of crude oil is declining, air pollution (especially in cities designed specifically for the automobile such as Los Angeles) is increasing, and automobile emissions are now threatening to change the global climate.
• Community - Vandalism and crime are higher in urban areas that have been designed to be convenient for drivers but hostile for pedestrians, because there are no "eyes on the street."

These problems have resulted from an excessive dependence on motorized transportation, and they can be substantially improved by restoring balance to local and national transportation policies.  The PedNet Coalition believes in transportation choice: in addition to the private motor vehicle, everyone should be able to choose to walk or roll a wheelchair for short journeys, to bike or take mass transit for longer ones.

In order to achieve our vision of a healthy and active community, the PedNet Coalition applies two distinct but related methods:

1. PROGRAMS that encourage behavior change, such as the Walking School Bus and Bike, Walk, and Wheel Week, and social marketing campaigns promoting active travel.
2. ADVOCACY for policies that result in improved infrastructure, by educating policymakers about the benefits of a walkable community, and building grass-roots support for the construction of sidewalks and trails.

These two methods are mutually reinforcing.  Programs such as Bike, Walk & Wheel Week change people's travel behavior in parts of town where walking and biking are safe.  At the same time, these programs build public advocacy for policies that improve the infrastructure throughout the city.  As new sidewalks and trails are built, more places become available where citizens can walk and ride a bike.