{"80601":{"#nid":"80601","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Pedestrian-Friendly Education Program Wins Award","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EFor the second consecutive year, efforts led by the Georgia Institute of Technology have earned a coveted Golden Shoe Award from Atlanta\u0027s Pedestrians Educating Drivers on Safety (PEDS).\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EFor the past five years, PEDS has presented Golden Shoe Awards to people, projects and agencies that contribute significantly during the year toward making metro Atlanta safer and more accessible to pedestrians. \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EThis year, Georgia Tech\u0027s Center for Quality Growth and Regional Development earned a Golden Shoe for Pedestrian-Friendly Education. The Aug. 14 ceremony was held at the Margaret Mitchell House, near the site where, in 1949, the \u003Cem\u003EGone With the Wind \u003C\/em\u003Eauthor sustained fatal injuries after being hit by a taxi while crossing Peachtree Street.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022We\u0027re out to recognize pedestrian-friendly accomplishments that serve as models for the region,\u0022 PEDS President Sally Flocks said.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EThe Center for Quality Growth and Regional Development -- a unit of Georgia Tech\u0027s College of Architecture based at Technology Square -- was praised by PEDS officials for holding a May symposium on context sensitive design (CSD) that helped state transportation engineers better understand the promises and challenges of street designs that meet transportation needs while supporting community goals and surroundings.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022The center is honored to have received the Golden Shoe Award,\u0022 Director Catherine Ross said. \u0022We are all pedestrians, and increasing the safety and walkability of our neighborhoods and cities is vitally important to our health and the overall quality of our living environment. We are fortunate to have PEDS working to improve life for pedestrians throughout the metro region.\u0022\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EGeorgia Tech\u0027s work in the area of CSD focuses on a collaborative approach to transportation facility design, construction and operation. Using the CSD approach, stakeholders -- including citizens, elected officials, public-works professionals, and natural resource managers -- are included in the planning, design and implementation of transportation systems.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022Context sensitive solutions create safe, attractive transportation facilities that respond to the needs and desires of residents and respect the unique environmental, cultural, and historic characteristics of a place,\u0022 said Ross, Georgia Tech\u0027s Harry West Chair in Quality Growth and Regional Development. \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022More importantly, it is a primary requirement for mixed-use development, quality-growth initiatives, sustainability, and economic vitality,\u0022 she said. \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003ECollege of Architecture Dean Thomas Galloway, a noted city and regional planner, was an attendee of this year\u0027s CSD symposium.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022At this year\u0027s session, I stressed our hope that this inaugural conference would be an important beginning of a new wave of design ideas for Georgia communities that marries more effectively our places and our transportation systems,\u0022 Dean Galloway said. \u0022Hopefully, through this award from PEDS, this new wave of ideas will gain even broader public recognition and support.\u0022\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003ERoss said those who attended Georgia Tech\u0027s 2004 Context Sensitive Design Symposium are to be commended for embracing a new approach to the design of cities and streets.  \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022They represent a better informed and trained cross-section of persons who now are better prepared to develop solutions that will find greater receptivity from citizens,\u0022 Ross said. \u0022The Georgia Department of Transportation has also taken an important step forward in convening the symposium. It is through efforts like this one that we began to set a course that will improve the quality of life in the region and state.\u0022\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EThis year\u0027s Golden Shoe Award wasn\u0027t the first for the Institute. In August 2003, Georgia Tech\u0027s Technology Square and Kim King Associates\u0027 Centergy projects earned a Golden Shoe for being the most pedestrian-friendly developments in metro Atlanta. \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EIn addition, Georgia Tech alumnus Ryan Gravel garnered a 2003 Golden Shoe for his research on the Belt Line Transit Project, which he began as a Tech graduate student. He has proposed that the city should use existing railroad tracks to provide mass transit throughout 40 central Atlanta neighborhoods. His proposal continues to generate interest and supporters throughout the metropolitan area.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EPEDS is a member-based advocacy organization dedicated to making metro Atlanta safe and accessible for all pedestrians. \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EGolden Shoe 2004 Award Winners  \u003C\/strong\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EGeorgia Tech Center for Quality Growth and Regional Development\u003C\/strong\u003E: Pedestrian-friendly Education; for holding a symposium on Context-Sensitive Design that helped state transportation engineers better understand the promises and challenges of street design that meets transportation needs while supporting the community\u0027s goals and surroundings.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EGeorgia Department of Transportation\u003C\/strong\u003E: Pedestrian-friendly Street Design; for developing a Pedestrian and Streetscape Guide and for adopting new practices on sidewalk width, buffers, and location of street trees that accord with the guidelines.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EMetropolis\u003C\/strong\u003E: Pedestrian-friendly Development; for providing a compact, mixed-use development that enlivens Peachtree Street with people and pedestrian-friendly retail.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EMidtown Alliance\u003C\/strong\u003E: Pedestrian-friendly Streetscape; for providing new sidewalks, trees and street lights on 10th Street and Piedmont Avenue that are accessible to all users.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ETrees Atlanta\u003C\/strong\u003E: Pedestrian-friendly Streetscape Program; for planting thousand of trees that shade walkers, calm traffic, and separate sidewalks from surface parking lots.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EMetro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce\u003C\/strong\u003E: Pedestrian-friendly Organizational Activism; for developing a public-private partnership on growth strategies that recommended increased linkage of transportation spending decisions with land use decisions. \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ESue Olszewski\u003C\/strong\u003E: Pedestrian-friendly Individual Activism; for collaborating with neighbors, developers, city and state officials, and other neighborhoods that will provide federal funds for in-town traffic calming.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EMorningside Elementary School\u003C\/strong\u003E: Pedestrian-friendly School; for providing support and enthusiasm that has attracted hundreds of children and parents to walk to school.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ECentral Atlanta Progress\u003C\/strong\u003E: Pedestrian-friendly Media; for its \u0022Walk There Challenge\u0022 which distributed maps and pedometers that attracted diverse media attention encouraging and challenging people to walk to destinations in downtown Atlanta.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EAtlanta Regional Commission\u003C\/strong\u003E: Pedestrian-friendly Research; for an inventory of sidewalks, curb ramps, and crossings within a half-mile of all MARTA stations.\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"For the second consecutive year, efforts led by the Georgia Institute of Technology have earned a coveted Golden Shoe Award from Atlanta\u0027s Pedestrians Educating Drivers on Safety (PEDS).","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Tech earns a Golden Shoe for its efforts."}],"uid":"27304","created_gmt":"2004-08-27 00:00:00","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:01:58","author":"Matthew Nagel","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2004-08-27T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2004-08-27T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"80611":{"id":"80611","type":"image","title":"Pedestrains at Tech Square","body":null,"created":"1449178079","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:27:59","changed":"1475894696","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:44:56"}},"media_ids":["80611"],"related_links":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.peds.org\/","title":"Pedestrians Educating Drivers on Safety"},{"url":"http:\/\/www.coa.gatech.edu\/cqgrd\/","title":"Center for Quality Growth and Regional Development"}],"groups":[{"id":"1214","name":"News Room"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EGeorgia Tech Media Relations\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ELaura Diamond\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:laura.diamond@comm.gatech.edu\u0022\u003Elaura.diamond@comm.gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E404-894-6016\u003Cbr \/\u003EJason Maderer\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:maderer@gatech.edu\u0022\u003Emaderer@gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E404-660-2926\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["matthew.nagel@comm.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}