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Conversations about Creating a Culture of Activity: Profiling the people, places, programs, and policies that help to promote a culture of activity within our communities.
Note: This transcript was exported from the video version of this episode, and it has not been copyedited
00:00:00:02 - 00:00:19:20
Sam Pearson
Now there are lots of people like I was. I had a bike trailer, you know, with kids in it. I had, you know, I was always like, oh, I see you. I saw you riding your bike and I'm like, I haven't been in town for a month. And they're like, oh, there's there's other people riding, you know, we have a slow roll, which is not really my thing, but it's great.
00:00:19:21 - 00:00:45:10
Sam Pearson
Other people do that, you know, people are just getting more in the habit. And I think it's a, it's a slow, gradual thing. But I do think it is gradually moving in that direction. We're getting to the sort of tipping point of people spending too much time indoors on computers just for their livelihoods, and people are realizing, wait, I really need to just walk more.
00:00:45:15 - 00:00:54:28
Sam Pearson
I need to just get my blood moving. I don't have to. I don't have to do a marathon, but I need to. I need to just touch grass and and be outside some.
00:00:55:00 - 00:01:16:23
John Simmerman
Hey everyone, welcome to the Active Towns Channel. My name is John Simmerman and that is Sam Pearson. The Healthy Communities program manager from the Pennsylvania Downtown Center and the Walk Works program. We're going to be talking a little bit about the initiatives that she is heading up and leading there in Pennsylvania. But before we do that, I just want to say, hey, thank you so much for tuning in or really do appreciate it.
00:01:16:23 - 00:01:39:28
John Simmerman
If you're enjoying this content here on the Active Towns Channel, please consider supporting my efforts by becoming an Active Towns Ambassador. Hey, super easy to do here on YouTube. Just click on the join button right down below, or navigate over to Active towns.org and click on the supportive at the top of the page. Okay, let's get right to it with Sam.
00:01:40:00 - 00:01:45:03
John Simmerman
Sam, thank you so much for joining me on the Active Towns podcast. Welcome.
00:01:45:06 - 00:01:53:08
Sam Pearson
It's great to be here, John. I'm honored. Feel a little bit, but like a post turtle here.
00:01:53:11 - 00:01:55:14
Sam Pearson
People know what that is.
00:01:55:16 - 00:01:57:10
John Simmerman
What is a post turtle?
00:01:57:12 - 00:02:03:13
Sam Pearson
It is someone who got somewhere that cannot get themselves off and did not get themselves there.
00:02:03:15 - 00:02:07:03
John Simmerman
It up on the post. A post turtle there, you know.
00:02:07:10 - 00:02:12:11
Sam Pearson
So I hope I can distinguish myself and and show that I actually climbed up here.
00:02:12:12 - 00:02:22:17
John Simmerman
Sure. I am sure you will. I'm sure you will. But to get us started, I love having my guest just, say a few words about who you are. So who the heck is Sam?
00:02:22:19 - 00:02:59:19
Sam Pearson
So I am a currently, I work for the Pennsylvania Downtown Center. My name is Samantha Pearson, and the Pennsylvania Downtown Center is a statewide nonprofit in the state of Pennsylvania focused on, community revitalization, using the main Street approach. I specifically work on a contract with our state Department of Health called Walk Works, where we compliment that, community revitalization work with, very, dedicated focus to active transportation planning, education and technical assistance.
00:02:59:26 - 00:03:35:02
Sam Pearson
So my role right now is sort of the active transportation statewide guru. I assist in the big cities where they've already got a lot going on. And I collaborate with with the the great organizations in those areas. And then I sort of bring, dog and pony show, e-bike and balanced bike show, wheelchairs, white cane show to different communities around the state, as in tandem with funding for the communities to help communities develop active transportation plans.
00:03:35:04 - 00:03:47:06
John Simmerman
Wow. Fantastic. Now, what's your backstory? How the heck did you get engaged and involved and interested in doing, all things active towns and active transportation?
00:03:47:09 - 00:04:14:09
Sam Pearson
Well, I, my my educational background is in architecture and planning. I have both undergraduate and graduate degrees in architecture. I've worked in architecture and planning. My I also have a certificate in American urbanism. From that's actually from University of Virginia. And I know other people have, mocked that a little bit as a certificate in American town ism, but that is my job.
00:04:14:15 - 00:04:17:25
Sam Pearson
I now work on American town ism.
00:04:17:28 - 00:04:27:05
John Simmerman
Yeah, I do interesting, interesting. And, how about your Becks, or where did you grow up and all that kind cancer sort of stuff?
00:04:27:08 - 00:04:29:24
Sam Pearson
I am originally from Miami, Florida.
00:04:29:26 - 00:04:31:28
John Simmerman
Oh. You are? Wow. Yeah.
00:04:32:01 - 00:04:47:24
Sam Pearson
I was born next to Biscayne Bay, and I, grew up there until I went off to college. In fact, biking, frequently for transportation. In fact, I grew up in a car light household.
00:04:47:27 - 00:04:48:29
John Simmerman
Okay.
00:04:49:01 - 00:05:25:06
Sam Pearson
A lot of time at the time, it was actually in unincorporated Dade. We lived in Coconut Grove for a while, then in unincorporated Dade, too, now called Pine Crest. Neighborhood Kendall, great greater Miami, Dade County. And, it's not the most walkable or bikeable place. It's not, there's not great infrastructure, but we biked a lot. We, including, two schools very early on, including crossing what was, you know, route one, a six lane highway.
00:05:25:08 - 00:05:50:05
Sam Pearson
I mean, I crossed with my mom, but, you know, so I basically been walking and biking for transportation my entire life in many places around the world and the U.S. Right. This is what my, my crossing place looks like now. It did not have the elevated. There was there were ground like grade level train tracks where the, the elevated metro rail line is now.
00:05:50:09 - 00:05:53:06
Sam Pearson
There were certainly no bike lanes.
00:05:53:09 - 00:06:01:23
John Simmerman
Yeah. And this is the bike lanes that we see right there. That's part of the underlying. Yep. Yeah.
00:06:01:25 - 00:06:10:10
Sam Pearson
So I used to ride that by bike once it was in place when I was in my 20s basically.
00:06:10:16 - 00:06:20:20
John Simmerman
Yeah. Yeah yeah yeah. Fascinating. Fascinating. Yeah. And, who do I know that lives right in that area? Victor Dover, do you know Victor?
00:06:20:22 - 00:06:43:06
Sam Pearson
I don't know Victor, but I do have some. My my father is also an architect, who for many years there no longer in Miami, but, he sort of knew the architecture scene. And so I had more connections, actually, to other people, like, players. I his players are Bergkamp and Andre story. Yeah. Not super direct, but I did.
00:06:43:06 - 00:06:48:28
Sam Pearson
Sure, sure. Yeah. I connected with them periodically, over the years.
00:06:49:00 - 00:07:11:03
John Simmerman
Yeah, yeah. Fascinating stuff. And, you know, when we look back at, you know, kind of what got us, you know, engaged and started and you and I are going to talk a little bit about some of the programs that you're currently working on. And I know that you're really passionate about, you know, creating safer environments for kids.
00:07:11:05 - 00:07:17:14
John Simmerman
And I get the sense that this photo kind of highlights why that's a of interest to you.
00:07:17:16 - 00:07:47:11
Sam Pearson
Indeed. I was you know, I said I grew up crossing route one in Miami on foot and by bike. I was sort of, a classic, you know, bold, in fact, probably crazy cyclist. I would ride pretty much anywhere. I rode all sorts of places Miami, Boston, Baltimore. And then I had kids, and and it became much more fraught.
00:07:47:13 - 00:08:21:21
Sam Pearson
You know, just it's just much more complicated. Oh. We currently live in a small town in central Pennsylvania. And for years, I mean, when we moved here, I've been pushing to, make it more bikeable and walkable. We had, there was a, basically a, recreation authority that I joined the board of shortly after we arrived here about 20 years ago that was working towards developing a rail trail.
00:08:21:23 - 00:08:40:19
Sam Pearson
This is not that trail, actually, but it's a further extension of the rail line, in the far west end of our county where this picture was taken. But, we did work on I worked on the design, and was on the board of the rec authority during the whole design process for the creation of the Buffalo Valley Rail Trail.
00:08:40:22 - 00:09:07:20
Sam Pearson
Which is it's not a long distance trail. It's basically a, nine mile trail, but it does, connect communities, a couple of different communities which are not connected by transit. Unfortunately, from the small town of Lewisburg to the to the small town of Mifflin Burg. And in fact, if you take that trail, you can then connect off into, on gravel roads to the state forest, bald Eagle State forest.
00:09:07:20 - 00:09:18:10
Sam Pearson
We now have some major races that come to our area like gravel races, because we have this little rail trail that that provides that link.
00:09:18:12 - 00:09:56:03
John Simmerman
Yeah. And that can it harkens back to, you know, the whole point of of why many of these, corridors existed. Is it connected, you know, village to village, town to town. And, and you mentioned, you know, there's there's not good transit, you know, in between there is servicing that. And. Yeah, if you can activate these abandoned rail corridors and bring them along into activity assets and ensure that there's good connectivity to the communities, it can also help in terms of revitalization of said communities.
00:09:56:03 - 00:10:07:10
John Simmerman
And you know, bringing some life into some of these downtown areas. Hey, for the the benefit of the listening only audience, why don't you describe what we're looking at here?
00:10:07:15 - 00:10:29:00
Sam Pearson
Sure. Okay. So this is a picture of of me, almost 20 years ago, on a bike with my two children. My, daughter, she's, like, two and a half is on a front seat behind the handlebars on my bike. And my son, who was about five at the time, is on a tag along attached to the back of the bike.
00:10:29:03 - 00:10:54:21
Sam Pearson
It was our, you know, we we went through many iterations of of carrying kids on bikes. My son did ride a bike on his own at that point, at that age. But, you know, for a longer trip, you know, we would we would. You said we were. I realize I only gave you things on wheels, but we were in creeks, on hiking trails and rolling around on scooters all over the place.
00:10:54:24 - 00:11:24:06
John Simmerman
And what I love about this, what I love about this, great thing, is this sort of harkens back to the original scooters. You know, now when we say scooter, in in the active transportation and urbanism world, we almost always are referring to the, the dockless, e-scooters and scooter share, programs. We're looking at little racers here, zipping around on, a ball court and I.
00:11:24:06 - 00:12:00:16
John Simmerman
And what's really interesting about this, and we might end up talking about this, is that, you know, when these became like a craze, the razors and the other types of, of of small wheeled scooters, stand up scooters, that the kids would push along with. It really helped them to develop balancing skills and their proprioception skills. And I, I feel like it's one of the reasons why, if they originally start off really, really young, zipping around on one of these, it's a really easy transition then to go from from this to a balanced bike and from a balanced bike to a regular bike.
00:12:00:18 - 00:12:18:28
Sam Pearson
You probably think what we do. Yeah. When we do balance bike rodeos, often kids in central PA will be like, oh, you're training wheels. And even my kids had training wheels. Although I was really interested in this picture and I was looking through, I have a strap attached to it so I can drag her. I can pull her if needed.
00:12:19:00 - 00:12:46:22
Sam Pearson
I was like, I don't even remember doing that, but it totally makes sense. Yeah. But yeah, you're right. With the scooters, it's definitely, you know, she both my kids were were riding this as Hazel. At for riding without training wheels already. We also had balanced bikes like, we they didn't, weren't purpose built, but we actually converted an old bike to a balanced bike, which was a it was a great toy.
00:12:46:22 - 00:13:04:10
Sam Pearson
It was in the mix with our ride on toys. We had scooters, we had balanced bikes, we had regular bikes. It depended what you wanted at a given time. You could already ride a pedal bike and you might want to. In fact, they called it the motorcycle. I do not know why, but they called the balanced bike their motorcycle.
00:13:04:13 - 00:13:29:08
Sam Pearson
And so I actually that's how I learned how to ride. I did not have training wheels. We had a teeny teeny tiny bike, and I was able to sit on it with my feet on the ground, and I just coasted in circles on our deck in Miami. I distinctly remember this. And then when I later tried, I got to try a friend's bike that had training wheels.
00:13:29:09 - 00:13:42:12
Sam Pearson
This big, tall purple bike with training wheels. It was terrifying because it was so tippy. And so I, I basically like I'm like, oh, running bikes are a thing. Balance bikes are a thing. I'm. They're all over. Yeah.
00:13:42:14 - 00:13:58:10
John Simmerman
Yeah. We'll we'll talk a little bit more about, you know, those programs and the balanced bike programs and, and, bike ed but since we're, we're looking at some, some photos from the past, why don't you, describe what we're looking at here?
00:13:58:13 - 00:14:21:01
Sam Pearson
Yeah. This is I mean, it's not labeled or anything, but this is what we call river road holiday here in Lewisburg. I think this might have been our second one back, probably in 2011. So it's a rural open streets event. So we're a rural small town. And so we closed River road, which the river is just on the other side of the railroad tracks, the Susquehanna River.
00:14:21:03 - 00:14:46:26
Sam Pearson
And this was south of town. We closed river road at that time, about three quarters of a mile. The road to through traffic for cars, open it up for people walking and biking. And it was glorious, right. We we've done that. We've done it almost every year. In fact, some years, twice a year, ever since it was basically we started it right before the rail trail, was finished.
00:14:46:26 - 00:15:18:04
Sam Pearson
And we were really just really anxious for some space, that people could just ride, right, and walk and, and push strollers freely. And it really has been, you know, it's a beloved event, but it's also very complicated, like, it's the permitting is very involved and the signage is very involved. We now get donated signage, like $3,000 worth of, you know, detour signage, which is nuts, you know?
00:15:18:07 - 00:15:27:09
Sam Pearson
So, we're hoping there should be one coming up in October of this year on River road north of town. This one was on River Road South.
00:15:27:11 - 00:15:59:10
John Simmerman
Fascinating, fascinating. And what's really interesting too about this and again, for the listening audience or, you know, listening only audience, we're looking at this, this visual of a whole bunch of people rolling and strolling and skating, on this, this roadway, this rural roadway, and it's fairly wide lanes. And double yellow down the middle. And you can see the sign speed limit sign here, 40mph.
00:15:59:12 - 00:16:24:11
John Simmerman
So, I mean, this is, you know, it's not uncommon, you see, you know, a 40 mile per hour, but until you like, realize and focus on what the fatality rate would be like if a person walking or biking is hit by a motor vehicle at 40mph, it's almost a sure likelihood of of serious injury for sure. And fatality most likely.
00:16:24:13 - 00:16:44:27
John Simmerman
I think it's in upwards of 85%, likelihood of fatality at that speed. And of course, people don't drive the speed limit. They drive over the speed limit, so etc.. But what's really fascinating about this, and the pent up demand is there's no provisions for people walking and biking in this neighborhood.
00:16:45:00 - 00:17:15:26
Sam Pearson
Yeah. This is just on the edge of our town. So it's actually into the next, township adjacent township, in both directions. You sort of leave the borough, that municipal, municipal boundary. So the sidewalk stop a couple blocks prior to this, and then you have, still functioning railroad track on the left. You have a functioning farm on the right and farm house, so you can see the driveway to the farm house on the right, and you can see there's drainage structures between the, you know, on either side of the road.
00:17:15:28 - 00:17:40:08
Sam Pearson
There have been various, feasibility studies looking at whether we can do Rail West trail. You know, heading south. There's definitely interest, the rail, we have a little stretch of rail with trail in town that we, have have put in in the past few years. An extension of our of our rail trail. The original nine miles now has a little piece, in town and has about two blocks.
00:17:40:08 - 00:18:14:16
Sam Pearson
That's rail West trail, and the trail, the trail authority is interested. The rail company, the rail operator is interested because it could open up avenues to additional grant funding that could help fund maintenance that they need to do anyway. So it's a long game though, right? Like, I came in, we did our first rail trail that had been in the works before I arrived here in 2003, and I, I sort of people realized that I was coming in with a design background and construction background.
00:18:14:16 - 00:18:36:08
Sam Pearson
I sort of knew about this, and so people directed me to it towards the rec authority and, you know, suggested I join the board, and asked me to sort of take this on, but that it took years and we're not done. We have a we have one of the major trail gaps in the state is getting from our nine mile trail into our downtown.
00:18:36:10 - 00:19:00:07
Sam Pearson
We have to go across route 15, in Lewisburg. And my children, who I show them those pictures, they are now in their 20s like they're the one is just. Yeah. Into there. My son, when he we were first doing the trail, getting the trail, and he's like, when or am I going to be able to cross route 15 on the trail?
00:19:00:09 - 00:19:24:07
Sam Pearson
And at the time I was like, hopefully 2019, we're not there yet. And that was that was for him. He was nine years old and that was going to be eight years later. And he was like, I'm going to be in college. Well, he graduated from college and we still don't have it, but we do have we finally have cleared certain hurdles at the state level.
00:19:24:09 - 00:19:51:21
Sam Pearson
We for years have been running up against a, Doe, a state dot restriction that would not allow us to install what was essentially a mid-block crossing on this rural highway, even though it was the obvious solution, where the railroad used to cross, we basically want to have be able to hit some buttons. I don't think I gave you a lot of information about this, because this is sort of my previous life.
00:19:51:24 - 00:20:20:17
Sam Pearson
But, yeah, we've got renderings. We've got, you know, and we now have, transportation alternatives set aside, funding coming to the county. The county rail trail authority and the municipalities are on board the adjacent municipalities to work on this. And in fact, I'm now on our, our borough council for the, the, the borough side of things, the downtown side.
00:20:20:20 - 00:20:32:26
Sam Pearson
So I'm able to when they come to us and say, oh, well, we're going to have to, you know, make some investments in order to help make this happen. And it it's like, let's go. When do we start?
00:20:32:29 - 00:20:55:24
John Simmerman
Yeah, yeah, I hear you. So interestingly, you know, taking a look at this, this, this particular image and, again on the right, we mentioned on the left, we've got the active rail line on the right, it looks like we've got the utility lines and the utility corridor that's running parallel to the street here. And we see that it is 40mph.
00:20:55:24 - 00:20:59:22
John Simmerman
Is this a state owned, street or is this a county?
00:20:59:24 - 00:21:22:05
Sam Pearson
Good question. So. And in fact, I should totally know this. But off the top of my head, I don't. I believe this is State Road. Again, because I'm less focused on, on, the borough these days. Actually, no, this is not a state road. You know, I don't know why. Because River road, north of town is a state road.
00:21:22:05 - 00:21:49:05
Sam Pearson
And we have to do to do the, road closure there. We have to submit a T 300, you know, permit for a road closure, complete with our traffic, detour plan for the South. We don't have that, but there are more notifications we have to do because there are more abutting, houses and properties. And so we've had some more, challenges actually doing it down there.
00:21:49:12 - 00:21:52:24
Sam Pearson
And it doesn't connect us directly to our sidewalk network.
00:21:52:26 - 00:22:06:26
John Simmerman
Yeah. So yeah. And and the reason why, you know, that's, that's a fascinating thing to understand in and what's the, the distance to the next village or a town going south.
00:22:06:27 - 00:22:08:02
Sam Pearson
It's a long way.
00:22:08:04 - 00:22:08:27
John Simmerman
It's a long way.
00:22:08:27 - 00:22:25:21
Sam Pearson
Okay. Yeah. Going south. It's a long way. Going north. We are five miles. It's 5 or 6 miles from, the town of Milton. And, to be honest, we would probably do that on the other side of the river. But we'd like to have connections on both sides. Right. We need a we don't need just one route.
00:22:25:21 - 00:22:52:03
Sam Pearson
We need many routes. We need a network. There are initiatives I'm involved in and other people are working on to hopefully, get across the river. I don't think I gave you, like we have renderings. My dad, also an architect I mentioned, did of the rail trail crossing the railroad bridge across Haskell. Hanna River, which is it's it's a non navigable river, so.
00:22:52:06 - 00:22:54:10
Sam Pearson
But it's still 1200 feet wide.
00:22:54:12 - 00:23:14:23
John Simmerman
Yeah. Yeah. Well, you and I have had the chance to meet in person. A couple of years ago when, I delivered a keynote address at the Pennsylvania, Greenways and Trails Somewhere summit, which is coming up again this, this fall. Are you going to be able to make it?
00:23:14:25 - 00:23:26:05
Sam Pearson
Oh, yeah, I will be there. They do the statewide summit every other year, and then they do regional ones in between. So we were in Scranton, I believe, when you when you came. That is.
00:23:26:05 - 00:23:26:27
John Simmerman
Correct. Yeah.
00:23:27:03 - 00:23:52:13
Sam Pearson
Yeah. It was great to have you there. And you got to see some of the, the trails. I believe we rode, on the Lackawanna Heritage Trail. Yeah. From Carbondale or to Carbondale, from north of Carbondale. And then we sort of had to get bused because the we still need the connection. There's on road connections, but it's very challenging from Carbondale into, Scranton.
00:23:52:15 - 00:24:00:01
Sam Pearson
Yeah. Scranton is, all of Pennsylvania is sort of a an opportunity waiting to happen.
00:24:00:03 - 00:24:11:12
John Simmerman
Yeah. And again, this year is going to be September 21st. And through the 23rd there in Harrisburg. It looks like it's going to be fun.
00:24:11:14 - 00:24:27:17
Sam Pearson
Yes. There's going to be a tour of the capital area Greenbelt. There's going to be I'm participating on a walking tour of downtown, where we're going to look at active transportation infrastructure and historic historic elements. So that's going to be really good, too.
00:24:27:19 - 00:24:34:02
John Simmerman
Okay, a couple more, photos from memory lane. Walk us through what we're looking at here.
00:24:34:05 - 00:25:06:23
Sam Pearson
Sure. This is the Buffalo Valley Rail Trail. Basically the spring after it. What finally went in it. Oh, it was finished in, November of 2011. So. And there what you're looking at is a, gravel trail heading off into the distance. There's a, a minor driveway crossing with yield signs for the trail. People on the trail, kids in the foreground, people walking in the background, some, railings, a bridge you can see in the distance, and a lot of vegetation.
00:25:06:26 - 00:25:39:00
Sam Pearson
The two kids in the foreground are my own. So this is them adventures again, riding. Riding bikes. And this is just sort of an iconic image of this trail. It is very heavily used. For a rural trail, even though it doesn't really connect much. Right. Like, it is that said, it does connect some, employment opportunities, especially since we have, our county actually has a large, Mennonite presence, horse and buggy Mennonite presence.
00:25:39:00 - 00:25:46:01
Sam Pearson
So there are definitely people who commute or use this as their highway.
00:25:46:04 - 00:25:48:20
John Simmerman
Interesting, interesting.
00:25:48:22 - 00:25:51:26
Sam Pearson
Although you can't ride buggies on it, much to their chagrin.
00:25:51:28 - 00:25:58:25
John Simmerman
Right? Right. And this this, image was fascinating to me. Why don't you walk us through this one?
00:25:58:27 - 00:26:25:02
Sam Pearson
Sure. So this is another leafy, green image in the countryside, this time in the Netherlands. A couple of years ago, right before the pandemic, my family and I got to do a five day bike tour as part of a longer trip, over in Europe. And we rode from, Haarlem, to Utrecht, basically, you know, 30 mile routes each day.
00:26:25:05 - 00:26:50:07
Sam Pearson
I believe this was leaving Leiden, in the morning. And so you're in a countryside, going on a it's basically a double track lane. Each of the lanes at this point were paved, but it's it's it's still just a single lane road. And the, center of the road is not paved at all. There is, a very, weedy canal off to the right.
00:26:50:10 - 00:27:00:25
Sam Pearson
And then, like I said, vegetation. And we're heading into the countryside. So you have my two kids now, teenagers in this picture, and actually, I'm in the foreground. I believe my husband took this picture.
00:27:00:27 - 00:27:34:01
John Simmerman
Yeah. Fabulous. And so it's great you had that opportunity, and the family had that opportunity to get over to the Netherlands and dive deep into that. And what I absolutely cherish about that experience is doing just that is being able to ride from city to city, town to town, and almost always having, you know, high quality, comfortable off street network of, of pathways that can get you, you know, from, from location to location.
00:27:34:01 - 00:28:01:04
John Simmerman
It's is sort of like if we were to have a vision, you know, for, you know, connecting communities throughout Pennsylvania, rural Pennsylvania, rural North America, it would be that is, find a way to be able to cobble together, you know, the connectivity between the cities and the villages, etc.. And that's kind of what we're doing with these abandoned railway corridors and abandoned, or not abandoned.
00:28:01:04 - 00:28:13:16
John Simmerman
But, you know, you railway utility corridors, the, the underlying, you know, putting, you know, just space that we are being creative about turning into activity assets.
00:28:13:18 - 00:28:39:19
Sam Pearson
It is challenging. I, I like to say I drive an incredible amount in order to make it safer to walk and bike, because I, I do travel around the state, whether for events or I. Also, we have grantees that are working on active transportation plans every year around ten different municipalities. And so I have to make sure I visit them so that I can give them useful input when as their consultants develop their plans.
00:28:39:21 - 00:29:22:07
Sam Pearson
And as I'm traveling around, I always have this split screen in my head of what would I do in an ideal world with this particular road? My my least favorite are the 55 mile an hour roads with people's house driveways leading out to them, you know? Yeah. Although many of them are so wide, you could potentially redevelop them as, like, having a frontage lane potentially, or just, narrowing the lanes rear or reallocating the, the, the cross section to give some of the shoulder instead to, a continuous cycle track down one side, two way cycle track down one side with, you know, crossings as needed.
00:29:22:09 - 00:29:46:14
Sam Pearson
We do have a lot of high speed two lane roads in Pennsylvania, some of them with big shoulders that could be reallocated. But we also have a lot of high speed truck traffic on them. And I do know that for these municipal officials, especially township supervisors and these small, remote rural townships, they are terrified of having a crash that obstructs the road.
00:29:46:16 - 00:30:11:23
Sam Pearson
So they don't just need the space or see themselves as needing the space for the vehicles to pass and to get through. They see it as they need to also have space to get through. If there's a crash and a disabled vehicle, which from my standpoint, I'm like, let's make the road safer and fewer crashes. And you know, and really and let's make them safer in part by making them narrower.
00:30:11:25 - 00:30:36:15
Sam Pearson
But that's a really it's a really tall order to start to communicate that, you know, there are so many different ways of seeing the world. Like you said, you go to the Netherlands. I mean, I knew I was I'd already done in bike infrastructure focused tours elsewhere. So I knew I was going to I wasn't really dropping the scales from my eyes, I was just going to revel in it.
00:30:36:18 - 00:31:06:11
Sam Pearson
But it all it takes is getting a little bit of that exposure and then suddenly you can start having these conversations. But the people who are in charge of running our systems, of developing and maintaining, designing, maintaining, building all of that are our transportation system, are not plugged into that. So it becomes a really tall order. I'm also involved in some, like, there's one thing called the interagency, Active Transportation Working Group.
00:31:06:18 - 00:31:34:23
Sam Pearson
And so that A has multiple state agencies that are trying to incorporate the value and the importance of active transportation into their own agency policies. It has great promise, but it's also really challenging. Just even we had one meeting two months ago with, you know, we have a couple representatives from the DoD as part of it, but we brought in some additional people who have different roles.
00:31:34:25 - 00:32:02:21
Sam Pearson
And they explained, you know, our our great plans for having trainings for, state employees about active transportation and inviting them to learn about it and then figure out how to apply it to what they do, that there are literally, structural, bureaucratic barriers that make it almost impossible to have D.O.T. employees participate. And it's just like, what?
00:32:02:24 - 00:32:06:14
Sam Pearson
You know, that's the whole point.
00:32:06:17 - 00:32:09:06
John Simmerman
So, yeah. Yeah.
00:32:09:09 - 00:32:12:26
Sam Pearson
Yeah. So I want to get there. Yeah. But it's it's hard.
00:32:12:28 - 00:32:49:27
John Simmerman
Yeah, yeah. And everything is so interconnected and interlaced, you know, you know, from a public health perspective to transportation to land use planning, all of this stuff is inter interweaves and intertwined and, yeah. So I'm not surprised that you're striving to try to have this inter agency sort of connectivity to be able to have these discussions because of the fact that you don't have to go very far, pardon the pun, before you like or like, oh, we should be partnering with these organizations and agencies and institutions.
00:32:50:00 - 00:32:51:21
John Simmerman
So yeah.
00:32:51:24 - 00:33:15:22
Sam Pearson
I mean, we, I meet with people. So my official title for my job is Healthy Communities Program Manager. And then I work on the Walk Works program on active transportation. So that's sort of a mouthful. Lots of different things pulling together. I have met other people with my same title, from other states like Arizona and different places, and they're like, oh, do you work with the state Department of Transportation?
00:33:15:22 - 00:33:17:06
Sam Pearson
I'm like, sort of.
00:33:17:09 - 00:33:18:12
John Simmerman
00:33:18:15 - 00:33:25:01
Sam Pearson
We're funded by the state Department of Health. Yeah, right. That's that's where the funding for this is coming from.
00:33:25:04 - 00:33:37:00
John Simmerman
Yeah. Yeah. Fabulous. Okay. We we made that transition. We are ready to talk a little bit about, walk, work. So walk us through.
00:33:37:02 - 00:34:09:05
Sam Pearson
Sure. So walk works is a I've mentioned we provide funding to municipalities for the development of active transportation plans, and we're really, you know, we we will find updates to active transportation plans. But the reality is, most places just need to get started with active transportation planning. We have funding, through our state Department of Health. And that is sort of backing up comes from a, preventive health and health Services block grant from the centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
00:34:09:05 - 00:34:35:22
Sam Pearson
If alarm bells are not going off yet, they should be. So this is, a little bit challenging. But, you know, and to be honest, originally the program as a pilot about ten years ago started under the State Physical Activity and Nutrition program, and Pennsylvania is still, ambassador, as part of that CDC program. But we don't even get funding from span anymore.
00:34:35:24 - 00:34:59:15
Sam Pearson
So we've been instead, we shifted to the Preventive Health and Health Services Block grant, and now we're trying to further diversify our funding. We, we also get and all along have gotten a little bit of matching funds from our Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. So that's another state agency. And then we have brought in this year's diabetes prevention funding.
00:34:59:15 - 00:35:46:15
Sam Pearson
And also, something called our Public Health Infrastructure Grant, which is related to our state health improvement plan. But still, it's very health oriented. The whole point is to make people healthier. And so we want to both make them healthier by, reducing injuries, and, and deaths in crashes. And we also want to make them healthier by providing opportunities for that great incidental physical activity through getting yourself from point A to point B, that reduces a whole host of chronic conditions, whether it's, you know, that sort of heart disease, you know, stroke, those sort of top line diabetes, being overweight or having having obesity or, you know, those things all the way through
00:35:46:15 - 00:36:07:27
Sam Pearson
mental health improvements. You know, there's as you know, there is literally a litany. In fact, I give a presentation about the benefits of active transportation. And I have one slide where I have 130 things scroll by at once. I'm like, okay, those are all the things that those are all the benefits, right?
00:36:08:00 - 00:36:38:13
John Simmerman
Yeah, yeah. What's interesting too, and you know, this about me is my background, of course, is in public health and, in health care cost containment and, disease prevention strategies. And one of the things that that I learned after I transitioned away from actively working in that field and focusing more on the intersection of the built environment and health and well-being, is that it?
00:36:38:13 - 00:37:15:11
John Simmerman
It really sunk in for me that talking about these things is people. It doesn't really resonate so much. It doesn't it resonates to a level of of understanding and acceptance, but it doesn't necessarily translate directly into societal inspiration and motivation. What really ends up, I think making a difference is that when we can get all of these benefits and it's just tremendous number of benefits, like you said, hundreds of things that are the benefits.
00:37:15:13 - 00:37:49:29
John Simmerman
By coupling that with a few other things from a behavior perspective is is it convenient, is it comfortable? Is it safe? You know, it is it is it something where my peers and my friends are doing it? In other words. So, you know, the a cultural thing where it, you know, it's like everybody's doing it. The whole reason I named active towns, what I did was I had done an experiment back in, in 20, not experiment, but a survey and a focus, a group of focus interviews.
00:37:50:02 - 00:38:15:15
John Simmerman
Back in 2012, interviewing people who lived extremely active lifestyles and talking about why they chose to move, where they did. And they kept saying, we chose to move here. Boulder, Colorado. We chose to move here, bend, Oregon. We chose to move here, Austin, Texas, because there was just this sense of activity there. It was an active community. It was an active city.
00:38:15:15 - 00:38:53:28
John Simmerman
It was an active towns, active towns, by the way, it was the only URL still available. So I snagged it. And that's how active towns got named. But people said they were self-selecting active communities because that's what they wanted to do. And so one of the things that I tried to, you know, advise people on is, yeah, there's a whole bunch of things and benefits, co benefits that come from active transportation and active living, including, you know, as we're talking about improved health and well-being, you know, from a physical perspective and emotional perspective and a mental health perspective.
00:38:54:00 - 00:39:10:28
John Simmerman
And there's also the benefits of you know, climate and, you know, potential congestion traffic mitigation, enhanced economics and all of that. But if you lead with any one thing in terms of that, it's like,
00:39:11:01 - 00:39:42:03
Sam Pearson
It's true through people. I mean, it's almost I mean, to be honest, I have also I started like a, sustainability nonprofit, all volunteer group in like the mid 2000, the aughts. And it was actually two broad based, right. We would talk about local food, local economy, local, energy. We talk about green building. You know, we were and people had they just wanted to talk about their one thing.
00:39:42:06 - 00:40:07:01
Sam Pearson
Right. They're like, well, I'm interested in safely getting to school or, you know, or I'm interested in, you know, the local grass fed meat, area. And so it was almost like, I think that's similar with active transportation. We solved too many problems. And that's actually a problem because it doesn't it doesn't crystallize things until you've made that, until you've realized you made this realization.
00:40:07:01 - 00:40:34:15
Sam Pearson
And so that's where we try to do presentations. We participate in, in, coalitions with other entities, like statewide organizations where we're just we've for a couple of years been working with, a group that has just named itself the coalition for Active Mobility in Pennsylvania. Camp. And so we're, you know, these groups from around the state that are very focused on active mobility.
00:40:34:15 - 00:41:04:24
Sam Pearson
We're looking for ways that we can work together to promote, this bigger picture, right? This economic benefit, it includes our organization. So the Pennsylvania Downtown Center, that sort of economic development and also includes 10,000 Friends of Pennsylvania, which is our land use, you know, and planning, proponent. And then it includes, you know, a bicycle coalition of greater Philadelphia, by Pittsburgh, you know, these, these different and then transit entities.
00:41:04:24 - 00:41:28:23
Sam Pearson
So like people not individual transit, operators, but mobility of southwest PA, for example, that is promoting, making sure people can get the longer distances or have some things to connect to. Right? Like where I am in this rural area, you know, people, there is no way to get to and from here, you know, without a motor vehicle, it's incredibly limited.
00:41:28:25 - 00:41:52:17
John Simmerman
That's that's the that's kind of the point I'm making to here is that, I, I, I talk about this a lot, and, you know, this this is a part of my, my keynote presentation, slide deck is I see the world through activity assets. And we we were looking earlier at these wonderful trails and, and pathways, and I'm labeling those activity assets.
00:41:52:17 - 00:42:21:19
John Simmerman
These are the hardware activity assets. You can put a pin in a map and say, hey over here we have this delightful, you know, rail trail over here. We have a wonderful partnership and a and a rail with trail. Fantastic. We've got that. And over here down in Miami, we've got the underlying, which is, you know, activating, previously unused or underutilized space, even car parking, you know, and making, making that happen.
00:42:21:21 - 00:42:53:10
John Simmerman
That's the hardware. The software is all of these encouragement and awareness and education activities that need to really activate and keep it going and in and really make it easier, take down the friction points, because we are talking about a pretty major cultural shift from a drive everywhere, for everything, mentality. And, you know, it that evolved over just about a hundred years.
00:42:53:10 - 00:43:17:05
John Simmerman
I mean, it's now hasn't been that long. But it is a challenge. And so that's what I love about the types of work that you are working on. And, and many of your peers around, around the world is working on these incentive types of programs and awareness types of programs and education, types of program and empowering folks.
00:43:17:05 - 00:43:29:04
John Simmerman
And if you can empower a specific group, if you can empower the younger Sam, the mom, the parents. Huge talk a little bit about this program.
00:43:29:06 - 00:43:54:18
Sam Pearson
Sure. So, I have we have something called a micro fleet where we have a bunch of different micromobility devices that we can cart around. One of the biggest parts of that is our balanced bike fleet. We have balanced bikes, which are what you're showing right now is an image of a flier that we have, that we developed along with the Early Childhood Mobility Coalition crew, which is nationwide.
00:43:54:18 - 00:44:09:22
Sam Pearson
People working on early childhood mobility, as it sounds like. So you have a picture of a kid, riding a balanced bike in winter through a pedal on a wooden balance bike. It's fun, you know, with a green background. And the title would.
00:44:09:25 - 00:44:12:10
John Simmerman
That would totally be me. Yes.
00:44:12:12 - 00:44:39:05
Sam Pearson
Yes. No, that you can understand looking at it, why kids think that my kids thought it was a motorcycle. Right. So the title is Babies on Bikes. The Early Childhood Mobility Coalition says let's Roll. So we put together this intro. That's an article that was actually published on, a Penn State. And it's a Penn State has, an international education platform, better kid care.
00:44:39:11 - 00:45:02:05
Sam Pearson
And so we got this article published on there. And so it gives this basic intro to what balance bikes are, why they're useful. And our push is we want people more people to know that they exist. What they are, we want people to also be comfortable deploying them, like, not being like, I can't teach a kid to ride.
00:45:02:05 - 00:45:25:07
Sam Pearson
I don't know, you know, like a balanced bike. We'll teach the kid itself, you know, on its own. Even if you don't have a lot of facility with that. But we're also helping people gain facility with that. And we want more kids to have access to balanced bikes where you don't. Not every family has to buy yet another fairly expensive ride on toy.
00:45:25:09 - 00:45:53:25
Sam Pearson
So we're looking to see if we can get more of these into settings at daycares, summer camps, schools, where children will have access to, use of a balanced bike. And then, you know, be able to graduate, sort of get the initial feeling of that, of that bike joy that we know about, and the family and the child can sort of understand this as a, as an avenue to, to future transportation and self-confidence.
00:45:53:28 - 00:46:26:14
John Simmerman
Yeah. Yeah. And, and again, we had mentioned it earlier, I mean, to me, there's absolutely no better way to, you know, teach a child how to ride than, than a balanced bike. I mean, it's just, you know, again, I thought I felt like it was a, a natural transition, you know, seeing the number of kids. And I was teaching bike education, programs for fourth graders in Hawaii, over a decade ago.
00:46:26:16 - 00:46:48:01
John Simmerman
And, I could just tell, you know, the kids that that, you know, maybe they didn't know how to ride a bike yet by fourth grade. But the ones that were skateboarders or, zipping around on razors, scooters, etc., they picked it up right away. They give the glide. Boom. We've got it. It's great. I do see that we have a,
00:46:48:03 - 00:47:04:05
John Simmerman
A website here resource to the kids walk, bike.com, website. And so, folks, if you're interested in learning a little bit more. Yeah, I mean, pop on over to kids Walk bike.com, and there's some pretty cool stuff out on the website there.
00:47:04:07 - 00:47:33:14
Sam Pearson
Yeah, that includes a big focus on balance bikes themselves. Their benefits, traffic gardens, whether it's pop up or installed, traffic gardens, like built places where you can learn to ride, learn about rules of the road, and bike busses, which of course you've covered as well. So just giving kids, you know, the, the autonomy or the, the option to use cycling for something meaningful in their life, right.
00:47:33:14 - 00:47:35:14
Sam Pearson
Getting to and from school.
00:47:35:16 - 00:48:05:00
John Simmerman
And that's, and and this is huge. I mean, because this is again, what we're talking about, we've got to have both the hardware and the software. We've got to have the hardware of building out the safe and inviting environment within our communities, whether they're large cities or small, you know, communities, rural communities that has to be able to save it has to be safe to be able to, get to our meaningful destinations, whether it's the corner store or school or the park, wherever.
00:48:05:03 - 00:48:23:13
Sam Pearson
And so that's one of the things we do have a lot of resources being developed all the time in different states, different different organizations. One of the things I do is I respond to need, right? Like people, you know, come to me and they're like, oh, you know, we're looking for information about bike share or, you know, we're looking for.
00:48:23:13 - 00:48:43:02
Sam Pearson
And so I can try to marry them with, other resources that I know about, try to bring those in at the same time, there are also like in, like, currently insurmountable problems, like, people will be like, what do we do about ECS? And, you know, we really want to have parking protected bike lanes in this particular stretch.
00:48:43:02 - 00:48:47:24
Sam Pearson
And it's like, well, in Pennsylvania they're illegal, you know? No.
00:48:47:26 - 00:48:50:12
John Simmerman
I thought you guys were going to get that fixed.
00:48:50:14 - 00:49:22:02
Sam Pearson
We've been working on that for now for like eight years. It it has it there are multiple bills that have gone through and to the legislature, though only to, you know, finally get passed, but with a poison pill in them. And so then the governor has to, you know, veto it. It is it is agonizing. So officially, according to the Pennsylvania motor Vehicle Code, cars have to be parked within 12in of the car.
00:49:22:05 - 00:49:33:07
Sam Pearson
And so therefore, you can't just move the cars away from the curb and then put this other thing there. The workaround is there are a couple workarounds. Number one is you can build another curb right.
00:49:33:07 - 00:49:35:13
John Simmerman
Yeah I was just thinking that.
00:49:35:15 - 00:50:01:26
Sam Pearson
Right. But that's much more expensive than one of the advantages of the parking protected bike lane is the relative ease of, of implementation. And suddenly you have a protected bike lane protected by these big hunks of metal. And so where if you also have to build a curb, which also entails a lot of drainage and, you know, re-engineering of the road more than paint does or flex posts, it's just a huge challenge.
00:50:01:27 - 00:50:29:02
Sam Pearson
It puts it out of out of reach for a lot of communities. We also did have we did have like a brief, there was a moratorium where Philadelphia was allowed to install, I think, I can't remember as 10 or 15 miles of protected parking, protected bike lanes. And they did. We now have the data, huge improvements right in safety and for everyone, not just for for the people on the bikes.
00:50:29:02 - 00:50:35:23
Sam Pearson
Huge increases in number of people riding. But that's one of the things that.
00:50:35:25 - 00:51:08:27
Sam Pearson
We can't get, a waiver to do more. Some other communities Lancaster is Lancaster, Pennsylvania and, southern Pennsylvania between Philadelphia and, Harrisburg is they have a parking they have a couple of parking protected bike lanes. They just sort of did. And, you know, ask for forgiveness afterwards. It's a real challenge. We just updated the state design manual for the dot, DM to, pub 13, for PennDOT.
00:51:08:27 - 00:51:33:18
Sam Pearson
And we are just gave comments on the The Bicycle chapter, and it was agonizing because it has now included a lot of new stuff from the NAC and, Astro updated bicycle design guides. But, you know, it's just like there were pages where it was just like, really? What we need here is a parking protected bike lane.
00:51:33:20 - 00:51:47:14
Sam Pearson
Like, that's clearly what would address what was in the in the design manual. Just it's it's hard. At least we get to give comments on, on those documents.
00:51:47:16 - 00:52:17:28
John Simmerman
I want to show you a quick video. The that I shot earlier this year in Pennsylvania. And, and this this could actually be part of how, Pittsburgh was able to do this. So this is clearly a parking protected, bike lane. But you'll see that they, they strategically used, some creative curbs here. I wonder if this is if this is part of the copacetic or the work around or I don't know.
00:52:17:28 - 00:52:18:08
John Simmerman
Yeah.
00:52:18:13 - 00:52:43:22
Sam Pearson
So this is this is challenging. And, and I would say that the, because the design manual hadn't been updated, it was a little bit of a vague area. The cities definitely. They literally are classified differently in our state municipal code. Philadelphia is a class by itself, and Pittsburgh are a class by themselves. So that is probably not a state road number one and number.
00:52:43:22 - 00:52:46:24
John Simmerman
Oh, so it's just on state roads.
00:52:46:26 - 00:53:09:28
Sam Pearson
Well, no. So that's just it. PennDOT claims that if you're not allowed to do it on a state road, if you start doing it on a local road, they will pull funding from you. So that has a chilling effect for any of the smaller places, right, that want to do these things. I think I also shared with you like a video that we did, last year about tactical urbanism in Pennsylvania.
00:53:10:00 - 00:53:38:11
Sam Pearson
And that is it's a similar situation there where we know the tactical urbanism. We know that all sorts of pop up, you know, bike lanes pop up, you know, bump outs, painted bump outs, you know, narrowing streets, doing a pop up chicane, all sorts of things like that could be an amazing resource for a community, but it is almost impossible to do it in Pennsylvania.
00:53:38:11 - 00:54:01:06
Sam Pearson
You can get yourself in a situation where you're asking or you're talking to the the city and the city's like, yes, we'll do this. And then the city talks to the the Metropolitan Planning Organization. And they're like, well, let's check with the PennDOT district. And the PennDOT district is like, no, you can't do it. And then you're like, okay, well, what if I go through PennDOT?
00:54:01:08 - 00:54:19:02
Sam Pearson
Can I apply? Is there a permit I can fill out to do this? And they're like, you're filling out the wrong permit. Like if you're doing a road closure permit, that that permit doesn't apply to this. And you literally have one person telling you to fill out the permit and another person from the same agency telling you not to fill out that permanent, that is not relevant.
00:54:19:02 - 00:54:48:05
Sam Pearson
In other words, I don't know. I'm old enough to remember the movie Brazil. Right. The Terry Gilliam movie from the 80s, which was about a, a, a true like literally, pathological bureaucracy, nightmarish, right. And is sometimes what it feels like, we're sort of caught in this situation where you're not allowed to do things, you're required to keep things unsafe.
00:54:48:08 - 00:54:57:04
Sam Pearson
Right? It's more important to preserve the unsafe status quo than to try something new. Just so frustrating it is.
00:54:57:04 - 00:55:21:11
John Simmerman
And you alluded to earlier, you know, that even funding is is in question right now. And I think to closes out, we should probably just kind of address a little bit of the elephant in the room, which is my perspective is always that active towns. And what we're trying to do is, is pretty much, you know, apolitical.
00:55:21:11 - 00:55:52:01
John Simmerman
And it's, it's something that, you know, doesn't matter whether you're on the right or the left of the political spectrum, you should want to have a viable, healthy, thriving community. Versus the opposite of those things. You shouldn't want that. I mean, I think everybody, you know, would agree that, oh, no, that that's good. I want a safe environment for my children and my grandchildren, my great grandchildren.
00:55:52:03 - 00:56:24:04
John Simmerman
I want, you know, my mom to be able to be able to get to meaningful destinations under her own power, if that's what she chooses to do. But it does tend to, to divulge what's the current situation there in the state? I mean, do you do you get the sense that the work that you're doing is resonating across political lines in the political spectrum, or does it immediately you know, get into culture war issues?
00:56:24:07 - 00:56:36:14
Sam Pearson
It can very quickly get into culture wars. People like the idea of trails. But, you know, in my county, we have a county commissioners like, oh, I only like trails that already exist. In other words.
00:56:36:14 - 00:57:09:22
John Simmerman
Wouldn't you agree, though, that you wouldn't you agree, though the trails are much more likely to be supported by both sides, quote unquote. It's sad that there's really only both sides, two sides. We won't even get into that. But it from my perspective, it's usually much easier for off street networks of trails and pathways, etc. you do get resistance in specific areas, but in general they're popular, you know, by the vast majority of people.
00:57:09:24 - 00:57:13:03
John Simmerman
But when it comes to on road, yeah, yes.
00:57:13:06 - 00:57:36:22
Sam Pearson
They're they're popular to already exist and they also like that you have to drive to them. Right. Because that makes it so that the wrong people don't come when we try to say, can we have the transit connect to the trails? And in fact, Luzerne County has this amazing routes to trails for Luzerne County Transit Authority routes to trails map that shows how you can get from Wilkes-Barre by bus to all sorts of trails in the area.
00:57:36:25 - 00:57:57:07
Sam Pearson
But that's very much a rare thing. It was the result of, walking college project from the American Walks Walking College program. So I like it. They also don't like trails. They're like, how are you going to maintain it? I'm like, how do we maintain the roads? Right? Like we invest a huge amount in our roads and can we just understand that this is all for transportation?
00:57:57:10 - 00:58:21:00
Sam Pearson
Similarly, PennDOT will build you a sidewalk, but only if you are then going to take on it's maintenance, which is basically a back door veto. They can depend on the local area for the most part to reject it. So trails have the, the they have the potential, but they're scared of trails that actually do connect things, right.
00:58:21:06 - 00:58:44:26
Sam Pearson
Like trails that come into town or leave town. Transit is another one where we're really trying to push. We have a state wide coalition transit for all PA, and we are really pushing the reality that we have nine non drivers all over the state. In every district, 30% of of Pennsylvanians do not have a driver's license.
00:58:44:29 - 00:59:15:01
Sam Pearson
And we're really, doing a huge amount of outreach, to, you know, across the state. In fact, I don't know if I could point you to there on the on this page, but I think under updates, there's, a page that talks that there's a post that talks about small systems. There are more than 30, fixed route transit operators in the state of Pennsylvania that, that operate outside of Philly, in Pittsburgh.
00:59:15:03 - 00:59:35:17
Sam Pearson
And, you know, it is, not something that people are really aware of, I think. Yeah, this one, if you click on this one, small systems are in crisis. Two. I think if you scroll down, it might show a map of the state that shows that we have transit for all PA supporters all over the state. Not positive.
00:59:35:17 - 01:00:01:03
Sam Pearson
It's on there. I'm not sure where it is, but, sorry, I can't find it just off the top of my head. But we do. We have we have transit supporters. We have people who are supporting our push for adequate funding, not just, stopgap funding, which is what we're what's being proposed currently, in our overdue, it might be voted on today and then voted on in a bad way.
01:00:01:06 - 01:00:45:26
Sam Pearson
State budget. We're pushing to have real funding that comes from, the transit transportation related sources. On the one hand, where the governor has asked for a reallocation of additional allocation from the state sales tax, we also want to get a fee on Uber and Lyft, rides across the state, a, update the fees on leased car leases and on car rentals and that those will go go together to make a package that would support reestablishment of transit, levels from 2019, in our big cities and actually increasing service outside of the cities because it wasn't adequate in 2019.
01:00:45:26 - 01:01:27:22
Sam Pearson
So that's our platform. That's what we're pushing for. By the time this airs, probably something will have passed and I doubt it will be what we want. So we're we're continuing to work. We're working, we're pushing for more because we really see this. And this is our our challenge. We're trying to do a lot of outreach in our rural areas, which are, you know, more conservative trying to make the case that this is relevant, whether it's for your, your, your mother who doesn't drive or may not drive soon for your kids, whether it's for you when you drive to or near a city and don't want the million people a day who currently
01:01:27:22 - 01:01:57:14
Sam Pearson
ride transit to be disgorged onto the streets to drive more cars, right? Like, even if you never ride transit, having transit is valuable. And so that's really what we're working on. And it. I literally later today have a meeting we're involved with, some national initiatives on transit messaging with the transit center and the opportunity agenda.
01:01:57:14 - 01:02:23:18
Sam Pearson
So learning about ways of pushing for not the people who are most opposed, but for the people who could be persuaded to support this. And hopefully then also, you know, sort of nudge those lawmakers, in that direction. Because to be honest, it's the rural lawmakers that tend to be the ones who are most likely to be opposed.
01:02:23:21 - 01:02:45:01
Sam Pearson
But we must have their support. There is no way to pass meaningful transit funding without working across the aisle with people from both parties. And in fact, now in Philly, all parties, because we do have multiple parties. Working Families Party is really making a showing there. So, you know, we're we're we are on that right now. Right?
01:02:45:01 - 01:03:09:15
Sam Pearson
We are trying to make the case where we're trying to have those conversations. I know living in the center of the state, I do have more occasion, more history, talking to people who, you know, just that they don't visit Philly. They are afraid of Philly. Right. Like, and and there's also just sort of, you know, there are very vast cultural differences.
01:03:09:15 - 01:03:34:01
Sam Pearson
But at the same time, there are things we can agree on and we can discuss. And so keeping our kids safe, trying to make sure that people have, you know, access to food, talking about veterans who need, you know, shared ride cars, shared ride is also threatened to kind of just released a report saying that our shared ride funding sources is not up to up to the challenge either.
01:03:34:01 - 01:03:56:08
Sam Pearson
So all of these things are a challenge in a state like Pennsylvania, which has, where big, like large area, large population, huge number of roads and really inefficient networks currently. So we're ultimately trying to push people on the let's make an efficient, effective, safe network. Yeah.
01:03:56:08 - 01:04:39:22
John Simmerman
Okay. Who's going to speaking of, of efficient and safe networks, you know, hearkening back to what we were talking about with the Netherlands of connecting village to village, town to town, with the pathways and trails, you know, a a subtheme to that, that summit that, you know, we attended, two years ago was really, you know, looking at the economic benefit to many of these rural environments of having the connectivity, the safe access to a pathway and trail network and, you know, the trail towns, you know, and, and the other Tod instead of transit oriented development, it's trail oriented development.
01:04:39:24 - 01:05:28:19
John Simmerman
Do we do you get the sense that, you know, the those rural politicians and those supporters, they understand that economic benefit and they want some of that because your state has some of the most, some of the most amazing network of trails that have been in for decades. And the cities, the towns, the communities, the villages that happen to be along those corridors benefit from huge amounts of of local access, improved health and well-being, etc., but also the economic benefit of literally thousands, tens of thousands of, especially at this time of year, summertime of people visiting from all other states to go out and ride those networks.
01:05:28:21 - 01:05:41:11
Sam Pearson
That's a really good question. And so, the obvious one is, the gap trail, the greater Great Allegheny Passage. Right? Absolutely. Yeah. Pittsburgh, all the way down to Maryland. And then on the CNO, Canal Trail all the way.
01:05:41:11 - 01:05:54:05
John Simmerman
I just watched a YouTube video this weekend of of a gal and her, father doing it, and, you know, she had tens of thousands of people, you know, subscribing to our channel and watching.
01:05:54:08 - 01:06:14:19
Sam Pearson
Yeah. So, I will say that some of the small communities in those areas, some are latching on and they're like, oh, we need to connect to it. Right. And so there's, there's, lots of efforts, like in communities that are like ten, 20 miles away trying to get trails that will connect over to the gap. I will say a lot of the, the dirt.
01:06:14:26 - 01:06:33:01
Sam Pearson
So some of the communities along the Gap Trail have taken advantage of it and are really understanding. There's a new economic impact analysis that was done last year. It shows, just astounding amounts of money coming into the region through this. And so some of the communities are like, oh, yeah, we know we gotta get a piece of this.
01:06:33:03 - 01:07:04:02
Sam Pearson
But some of them, there's still a lot of there's a lot of a cultural divide where people are like, oh yeah, that's the trail for those people. We don't we don't do that. Right. And there is I mean, I am not from Pennsylvania originally, right? I moved here about 20 years ago and one of the things that drove me bonkers when I've said that a lot today, but, when I first got here was what I see is sort of an insider experience, culture.
01:07:04:05 - 01:07:26:15
Sam Pearson
People don't aren't as invested in sort of communal assets because they have their own river lot, or they have their own, you know, cabin in the woods somewhere. And so they are they're more about that sort of private, asset and. Oh, well, I go to the river, I do this or I go, you know, ride my ATV over here.
01:07:26:17 - 01:07:52:13
Sam Pearson
And less about providing an asset that is sort of accessible and visible. Even when we have accessible assets, they're often impossible to find. Like, it's like a secret. It's it's top secret. You have to know a person who knows a person. Right? And they'll tell you how to get to the trail. Right. Because we couldn't possibly put up signs or have maps.
01:07:52:16 - 01:08:21:28
Sam Pearson
You know, so, so I think it's a cultural thing, but I think you are right that the existence of these things is starting to catch on. We now have, some new divisions in our Department of Conservation, Natural Resources, our own. The Pennsylvania Downtown Center has a program called Nature Based Placemaking, where we're trying to tie, you know, natural assets and, and economic development together and sort of guide communities to, to think in those terms.
01:08:22:00 - 01:08:47:08
Sam Pearson
But I that culture element that you just mentioned, like having and an attitude or an aptitude or a tendency to think, oh, I could do that. That is probably the biggest barrier. We need more people to just be like, oh yeah, I go to the trail, I walk my dog there, I run sometimes, sometimes I ride a bike.
01:08:47:11 - 01:09:07:09
Sam Pearson
Oh, I don't have a bike. I can borrow a bike, you know? I know where to get a bike or a bike share or something like that. I don't know how to ride. Well, there's, you know, learn to ride classes for grownups, you know, like, we really need that culture to build up. And it it is, depressing to say it on the one hand, but also hopeful.
01:09:07:16 - 01:09:24:02
Sam Pearson
Like, I moved here 20 years ago, and there was me and one old guy who was always riding around on our bikes, and now there are lots of people like I was. I had a bike trailer, you know, with kids in it. I had you know, I was always like, oh, I see you. I saw you riding your bike.
01:09:24:09 - 01:09:46:29
Sam Pearson
And I'm like, I haven't been in town for a month. And they're like, oh, there's there's other people riding, you know, we have a slow roll, which is not really my thing, but it's great. Other people do that, you know, people are just getting more in the habit. And, and I think it's a, it's a slow, gradual thing, but I do think it is gradually moving in that direction.
01:09:47:02 - 01:10:10:01
Sam Pearson
We're getting to the sort of tipping point of people spending too much time indoors on computers just for their livelihoods, and people are realizing, wait, I really need to just walk more. I need to just get my blood moving. I don't have to. I don't have to do a marathon, but I need to. I need to just touch grass and and be outside some.
01:10:10:04 - 01:10:24:17
John Simmerman
Yeah, yeah, well, I can't think of a better place to to bring this to a close and so. Well said. Sam Pearson, thank you so much for joining me on the Active Towns podcast. This has been so much fun catching up with you.
01:10:24:19 - 01:10:39:15
Sam Pearson
It's been great. John. I don't know if we had sort of a big picture, but, I love talking about this stuff, and and it's really good to, to hear from someone with a like minded health perspective on it, too.
01:10:39:18 - 01:10:58:11
John Simmerman
Yeah, well, we will be sure to catch up once again. Please be sure to reach out if you do, have any major updates. We'll be sure to, promote that, out on LinkedIn. I know you and I are connected out there. Is that typically the best place, professionally, for folks to catch you?
01:10:58:14 - 01:11:03:26
Sam Pearson
Sure. Yeah. LinkedIn is great. I'm just on. There's, Samantha. She says.
01:11:03:28 - 01:11:04:18
John Simmerman
Yeah.
01:11:04:20 - 01:11:09:03
Sam Pearson
There are a number of us, but I'm the one in central Pennsylvania.
01:11:09:05 - 01:11:13:11
John Simmerman
That's right. Very good. Again, thank you so much, Sam.
01:11:13:14 - 01:11:15:05
Sam Pearson
Great. Thanks, John. Hey, everyone.
01:11:15:05 - 01:11:29:18
John Simmerman
Thank you so much for tuning in. I hope you enjoyed this episode with Sam Pearson. And if you did, please give it a thumbs up. Leave a comment down below and share it with a friend. And if you haven't done so already, be honored to have you subscribed to the channel. Just click on that subscription button down below and ring that notification bell.
01:11:29:22 - 01:11:49:28
John Simmerman
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01:11:50:04 - 01:12:13:06
John Simmerman
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01:12:13:13 - 01:12:31:04
John Simmerman
Cheers! And again, just want to send a huge thank you to all my Active Towns Ambassadors supporting your channel financially via YouTube memberships YouTube super thanks. As well as making contributions to the nonprofit and joining my Patreon. Every little bit adds up and is very much appreciated. Thank you all so much.