How can we create new infrastructure to support active transportation in a space designed for motorized vehicles? It can be challenging to envision the necessary changes to make our streets safer for those biking, walking, and rolling. A Pop-Up is a temporary demonstration that allows us to experience these changes.
Pop-Ups don’t happen overnight. There’s a process before we begin to implement temporary changes, and the community is involved from the very start.
Someone first identifies a problem in their neighborhood: dangerous intersections, cars driving too quickly, no where to walk next to the road, and brings it to the attention of someone who can help (that’s us!). Take a look at the new South Burlington Neighborhood to Schools Greenway as an example. The residents of this neighborhood had a common issue: they needed a safe route for their children to safely walk and roll to school, which is only a couple miles away.
Local Motion’s board president, Nic Anderson, is also a part of this South Burlington community and a big advocate for a new safe route for his own children. But it’s not just about the kids. When speaking with WCAX, Nic stated that “there’s a huge component of just place making, making neighborhoods for people, not for cars.”
We seek input from the community to help identify the most desirable route and design, based on their lived experience. Our staff builds on that local knowledge of the problem and its context to offer design solutions that achieve safer streets for walking, biking, and rolling.
Our Complete Streets team collaborates with towns and villages to get permission for the Pop-Up project. Sometimes the project needs approval from elected officials, and sometimes a town manager or director of public works can give the green light. Towns will often be involved in the installation process, too. They may provide traffic control during installation, and sometimes they install certain elements that are more permanent, like speed tables.
Once permissions are granted, routes are finalized, and designs are ready, it’s time to get to work! The Pop-Up is ready for installation and the community is again ready to lend a hand. Volunteers often join us as we paint new lines, add features such as flower boxes, and anything else needed to create safe infrastructure for the specific route.
We can see the significance of place-making during the Pop-Up process. Community members come out in full force to make a safe route where they live, work, and play. At the end of any Pop-Up demonstration, we seek input from the community about what worked, what needed improvement, or what was unnecessary. This feedback is given to the towns and villages as a way to fuel potential permanent changes. These permanent changes to infrastructure can take months or years, as towns wait for funding and resources. The end result is worth the wait.
Safer roads make liveable spaces, where traffic slows down, and people can comfortably exist on foot and bike. Pop-Ups show what is possible. See more Pop-Up inspiration in our reports from Greensboro and Burlington.
Do you want to see changes to the biking and walking infrastructure in your town? Do you have dreams about a better biking culture in Vermont? Tell us about it!