City of Stafford moving forward with active transportation policy
Stafford – The City of Stafford is moving right along with the active transportation policy that was started in 2013 by past Program Director, Sydney Blanton, and her Healthy Communities Initiative Leadership Team. Stafford County Economic Development received a Healthy Communities Initiative Grant through the Kansas Health Foundation in 2013 to promote active and healthy lifestyles.
“I am excited that the City of Stafford is moving forward with our active transportation policy,” said Ashlee Bevan, Program Director for Stafford County Economic Development. “Within our Live Well Stafford County, KS Leadership Team, we want to promote active and healthy lifestyles as well as we can. When safety is an added factor to where exercise opportunities exist, more people will be apt to getting out and staying active.”
Jan Chatman, Stafford Recreation Commission Director, took the lead in educating and talking with the City of Stafford to get sharrows painted along a Master Walk/Bike Plan completed by PedNet for an active transportation policy that Live Well Stafford County is implementing.
The City of Stafford created their own wooden stencil to use now, and in the future to keep the sharrows visible. Starting at the corner of Main and Stafford you will find the white sharrows going north on Main. At Main and Topeka the sharrows go westward to Green Ave. where they then head south all the way to Broadway. The majority of Broadway will have sharrows. A smaller-scale sharrow stencil is being made so sharrows can be painted on sidewalks downtown where parking eliminates sharrows on the streets.
A “sharrow is short for “shared lane bicycle marking”. This pavement marking includes a bicycle symbol and two white chevrons and is used to remind motorists that bicyclists are permitted to use the full lane. There are no striped bicycle lanes on streets marked with sharrows.”
Health Equity and Civic Health are the two program areas that KHF focuses. The Kansas Health Foundation is located in Wichita with a mission to improve the health of all Kansans. The Foundation believes that “health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being.” The sale of Wesley Medical Center in 1985 became the foundation of KHF with a $200 million endowment with a focus of improving the health of Kansans. The Kansas Health Foundation has flourished for several decades expanding their line of work. For more information about KHF, visit http://kansashealth.org/aboutus/history.
“I am excited that the City of Stafford is moving forward with our active transportation policy,” said Ashlee Bevan, Program Director for Stafford County Economic Development. “Within our Live Well Stafford County, KS Leadership Team, we want to promote active and healthy lifestyles as well as we can. When safety is an added factor to where exercise opportunities exist, more people will be apt to getting out and staying active.”
Written by Ashlee Bevan – Edited by Terry Spradley, St. John News
Article published in the St. John Newspaper on Wednesday, October 14th.
