featured community spotlights
Albuquerque, NM
about
The Albuquerque Alliance for Active Living is led by the 1000 Friends of New Mexico. The partnership strives to change public attitudes and behavior, improve public policies, and develop projects that make it easy, safe, and pleasant to walk, bicycle, and enjoy other outdoor activities. The Alliance advocates changing city and school district planning and development policies to support walking, bicycling, and transit use. The focus is on increasing funding for pedestrian improvements at the city and regional level, and raising standards for street design to allow for safe and comfortable pedestrian movement.
The Alliance is a diverse group that respects partners' strengths and interests. The most active partners include Albuquerque Public Schools, the City of Albuquerque's Planning Department and City Council Services, the National Park Service, Vecinos del Bosque Neighborhood Association, Walk Albuquerque, the New Mexico Department of Health, the University of New Mexico and others.
The Alliance works with the predominantly Hispanic Atrisco neighborhood on targeted promotions, programs, and physical projects. The first in a series of messages to raise awareness about physical activity, bilingual versions of "Take a Friend for a Walk, for Your Health," are imprinted on refrigerator magnets. The Vecinos Bike Recycle Program has fixed and given approximately 100 used bicycles to neighborhood children and adults. The city has donated space at a vacant library for the bike repair shop, where used bikes and an office are housed. The Alliance also is helping to create a network of walking paths through the Ditches with Trails program. Vecinos del Bosque, a neighborhood within Atrisco, is one of two pilot project areas that will improve neglected irrigation ditch right-of-ways to support pedestrian trails. Publicizing access to and improving the trails along the ditches, as well as on the streets, will greatly enhance walking routes to schools.
Alliance members created "Town Design and Public Health," a new graduate-level course in the Public Health and Community and Regional Planning programs at UNM. The first group of students produced three reports assessing target neighborhoods and recommended policy changes and physical improvements. These reports have informed the partnership's ongoing work.
our story
Students walking to Valle Vista Elementary School in the Atrisco neighborhood must deal with speeding traffic on major streets, poorly maintained trails along irrigation ditches, and streets without sidewalks. The few stretches of street with sidewalks are constantly interrupted by driveways. Not surprisingly, most kids don't walk or bike to school at all, but instead take short car rides.
A Safe Routes to School team, including a trails planner from the National Park Service, an active neighborhood association, the school nurse, and University of New Mexico (UNM) students from a Town Design and Public Health class are working with Valle Vista Elementary School students and their neighborhood to address these challenges to active living. The team visited third, fourth, and fifth grade classrooms to map walking routes and gather responses to a detailed physical activity survey. The UNM students compiled the maps, evaluated walking routes, and are developing detailed recommendations for physical improvements. As a result, a "Walking School Bus" program will be initiated in 2006.
opportunities
Situated at an elevation of 5,000 feet with a population of 448,607, Albuquerque is New Mexico's largest city. Atrisco is located in both the city and Bernalillo County, and has several jurisdictional issues related to streets, trails, and community development. Atrisco residents continue to celebrate the cultural and historical significance of the area, which was first established as a Spanish Land Grant over 300 years ago. Despite its cultural and historic importance, Atrisco has experienced divestment and blight from sprawling development over the past several decades. The neighborhood is 77% Hispanic and 20% of residents are below poverty level. Seventy- three percent of commuters drive alone to work, and fewer than 1% walk.
Albuquerque faces a common health challenge - a high incidence of diabetes - as well as more unique ones, such as unintentional injury caused by vehicle and bicycle accidents. In 2000-2001, 22.4% of all traffic deaths were pedestrians, a rate that is much higher than the national average. Adolescents and young adults accounted for 23% of bicycle collisions in the last three years.
In the future, the Alliance will focus its efforts on a Safe Routes to School program in the Atrisco neighborhood, as well as a city-wide Great Streets initiative. For Safe Routes to School, activities will be held at the Valle Vista Elementary School to encourage walking and biking. The Alliance also is creating a list of physical improvements and priorities around the school and for the Ditches with Trails project. For the Great Streets initiative, Alliance partners will catalyze local residents to build support for policy and funding measures to redevelop areas into pedestrian- and mass-transit-friendly corridors. With input from trails and healthbased partners, the partnership also will develop and implement a strategy to connect neighborhood walking tour guides and open space trails to medical providers and their clients.
accomplishments
In Action
