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Walking Organizations
and Advocacy

Dangerous by Design: American Transportation and Pedestrian Deaths
In the last 15 years, more than 76,000 Americans have been killed while crossing or walking along a street in their community. More than 43,000 Americans – including 3,906 children under 16 – have been killed this decade alone. This is the equivalent of a jumbo jet going down roughly every month, yet it receives nothing like the kind of attention that would surely follow such a disaster.
52 largest metro areas ranked by Pedestrian Danger Index for 2011
Pittsburgh is one of the top 5 safest cities for pedestrians!

Pittsburgh Region

  • Active Allegheny
    Active Allegheny is a county plan to integrate walking, biking, and other active, healthy travel modes into the existing transportation system.
  • Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: City slow moving in pedestrian safety
    This Thursday, December 14, 2006, article by Diana Nelson Jones states that "A Carnegie Mellon University report released yesterday shows that Pittsburgh leads many cities its size in collisions between pedestrians and vehicles and recommends that the Better Traffic Committee of old be resurrected."
  • Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission Pedestrian & Bicycle Committee
    Encouraging safe, efficient travel for pedestrians and cyclists is an important part of SPC's role as a regional transportation agency. Their website offers a form for reporting safety hazards for pedestrians and bike riders on the roads of the ten-county Southwestern Pennsylvania region.
  • Urban Hike Pittsburgh
    Urban Hike is an informal, monthly-or-so walking tour of the Pittsburgh area. They learn a little history, take in some strange and beautiful sights, get some exercise, and wrap it all up with some delectable local cuisine.
  • Walk-Challenge
    Every season, the Oakland Transportation Management Association and the Airport Corridor Transportation Association sponsor a walk challenge to get Pittsburghers walking.
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Web Sites

  • Active Living by Design
    Active Living by Design is a national program of The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and is a part of the UNC School of Public Health in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The program will establish and evaluate innovative approaches to increase physical activity through community design, public policies and communications strategies. Their website contains news and reports about creating active communities and encouraging alternative modes of transportation such as walking.
  • America on the Move
    America on the Move is an initiative to get Americans to be more active and walk an extra 2000 steps a day. After registering you can keep track of your steps with an online log.
  • America Walks
    America Walks is a national coalition of local advocacy groups dedicated to promoting walkable communities.
  • American Podiatric Medical Society
    Offers foot health information for the public, including a section called "Walking and Your Feet".
  • American Volkssport Association
    The AVA's network of 350 walking clubs organize more than 3000 walking events per year in all 50 states. A volksmarch is a non-competitive 6 mile (10 kilometer) walk.
  • Complete Streets
    The National Complete Streets Coalition advocates for "complete streets" with broad sidewalks, bicycle lanes, and landscaping as opposed to speeding cars and traffic jams. Streets that are made for people of all ages.
  • European Ramblers Association
    Founded in 1969, the European Ramblers Association is a federation, currently based in Germany, of 49 walking organisations from 26 European countries, plus 1 guest member from Israel. In addition there is a youth organisation, the European Young Ramblers Association.
  • Long Distance Walkers Association
    The LDWA is an British organization of people with the common interest of walking long distances in rural, mountainous or moorland areas. Each year they hold the annual Hundred: walking a hundred miles, non-stop, within 48 hours.
  • National Center for Bicycling and Walking
    Since 1977, the National Center for Bicycling and Walking (founded as the Bicycle Federation of America) has been working for more bicycle-friendly and walkable communities. The NCBW offers information support, training, consultation services and resources to public agencies, non-governmental organizations and advocates, maintains the Internet Support Center and organizes the biennial Pro Bike/Pro Walk Conference and other special meetings.
  • PBS: America's Walking
    The companion website to a fitness, lifestyle and travel television series produced by Connecticut Public Broadcasting that offers inspiration and information for those who want to start a daily walking habit and live a more active life. Host Mark Fenton highlights great walking destinations across the country, provides advice on food and nutrition, presents tips on the best fitness apparel, and features the inspirational stories of individuals who have seen their lives transformed by simply walking.
  • Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center
    The PBIC is a clearinghouse for information about health and safety, engineering, advocacy, education, enforcement and access and mobility. The PBIC serves anyone interested in pedestrian and bicycle issues, including planners, engineers, private citizens, advocates, educators, police enforcement and the health community.
    • Walking Info
      A website for pedestrian research and advocacy designed to create a walkable society.
  • The Ramblers Association
    This United Kingdom walking organization offers an index to paths and walking routes in the United Kingdom.
  • Safe Routes to School National Partnership
    The Safe Routes to School National Partnership is a network of more than 400 organizations working together to advance the Safe Routes to School (SRTS) movement in the United States, promoting the practice of safe bicycling and walking to and from schools throughout the United States.
  • Transportation for America
    Advocating for a more pedestrian friendly transportation infrastructure.
  • Walkable America
    The Partnership for a Walkable America (PWA) is a national coalition working to improve the conditions for walking in America and to increase the number of Americans who walk regularly.
  • Walkable Communities, Inc.
    Walkable Communities, Inc. is a non-profit corporation, established in the state of Florida in 1996, organized for the express purposes of helping whole communities, whether they are large cities or small towns, or parts of communities, i.e. neighborhoods, business districts, parks, school districts, subdivisions, specific roadway corridors, etc., become more walkable and pedestrian friendly.