VII. Follow-Up
It is important to remember that the Pedestrian Safety Road Show is just the first step in a long-term program to make your community safer and more walkable. The momentum that is established during the four-hour seminar can easily dissipate if someone doesn't take responsibility for setting up a second meeting, expanding the group, and leading the discussion. This is part of your job as local sponsor until someone else volunteers to take it over.
Taking the Next Step
Immediately following the Road Show, you should contact all of the participants, thank them for their contributions and ask who else they think should become involved. If a date was set for the next meeting, you should immediately begin lining up speakers and making other arrangements. You might want to get a press release out notifying the community that a commitment has been made to make your community more walkable, and inviting interested individuals to contact you.
If the participants at the Road Show were not ready to make a commitment to pursue pedestrian safety, review the notes taken to determine what additional information the group needed before they would make such a commitment. If possible, gather that data and provide it to the participants as part of a follow-up package. Enlist some supporters from the group who can meet with the other participants informally to try to break down any resistance to taking further action. Once all of the requested information has been provided, schedule a second meeting to reach a final decision on whether to proceed.
Seeking Technical Assistance
The Walk Alert Guide and Pedestrian Safety Road Map you received in conjunction with the Road Show are your best starting points for building a community pedestrian program. The Walk Alert Guide provides detailed information on the steps you should follow and the Road Map points you to the resources that are available at each stage along the way.
Many of the resources in the Road Map are available from the National Bicycle and Pedestrian Clearinghouse (1-800-760-NBPC). The Clearinghouse can also provide you with some technical assistance. They can direct you to other communities that have faced similar challenges and developed successful solutions. They can also direct you to the important government officials at the Federal and State level who may be able to provide more in-depth assistance.
As the Local Sponsor of a Pedestrian Safety Road Show, you may start to feel that you have taken sole responsibility for the safety and mobility of every pedestrian in your community. You may become the lightning rod for every question or concern that is raised about pedestrian safety. Everyone at the Road Show will look to you to decide what to do next. The most important thing you can do to increase your personal effectiveness and the success of your program is to bring in as many people as you can to help you early on. If you try to do everything on your own, you will quickly find yourself frustrated and burned out. That is why a Task Force or Steering Committee is so important.
Similarly, it is also important to identify resource people outside of your community who can share technical information or who may be able to assist you in securing funding for your program. The Road Map and the Clearinghouse can both provide you with good leads for this.
A Final Note
By hosting the Pedestrian Safety Road Show, you have become part of a very important group in this country. You have become an advocate for pedestrian safety and walkability.
Once you begin to focus on the problems that pedestrians have faced for so long, and on the numerous ways your community could benefit from a more walkable environment, you will never view walking the same way again. And if you devote some of your talents and energy to the cause, your community will never be the same again either!
Finally the web page at http://www.ota.fhwa.dot.gov/walk/ provides update information on resources including this guide. Let's work together and please provide an update of your activites to Leverson Boodlal ... so it can be included on the web page.