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Barriers to Municipal Planning for Pedestrians and Bicyclists in North Carolina Authors: Kelly R. Evenson, Semra A. Aytur, Sara B. Satinsky, Daniel A. Rodríguez Background: The Guide to Community Preventive Services recommends implementing community- and street-scale urban design, as well as land use policies and practices, to promote walking and bicycling. To better understand barriers to municipal walking and bicycling projects and policies, we surveyed municipal staff in North Carolina.  Methods: We surveyed all 121 municipalities with at least 5,000 persons, and 62% responded. We also surveyed 216 of 420 municipalities with less than 5,000 persons, and 50% responded. The municipal staff member most knowledgeable about walking and bicycling planning was asked to complete the survey. Responses were weighted to account for the sampling design, to reflect prevalence estimates for all North Carolina municipalities. Results: Common barriers to walking and bicycling projects and policies were selected from a 14-item list. For walking, barriers included lack of funding (93% of responding municipalities), other infrastructure priorities (79%), automobile infrastructure priorities (66%), and staffing challenges (65%). For bicycling, barriers included lack of funding (94% of responding municipalities), other infrastructure priorities (79%), automobile infrastructure priorities (73%), issues were not high priorities for the municipality (68%), staffing challenges (68%), and insufficient support from residents (63%). Barriers generally were more prevalent among rural municipalities than among urban municipalities (9 of 14 barriers for walking and 5 of 14 for bicycling; P < .10). limitations The study relied on 1 respondent to report for a municipality. Additionally, job titles of respondents varied with municipality  size.  Conclusions: Health professionals and multidisciplinary partners can assist in overcoming the common local- and state-level barriers

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Cycling campaigners are calling for a new law in Scotland to make motorists automatically at fault in an accident. The UK is one of only five European countries that do not currently have the law, known as "strict liability". Campaigners, including the mother of a 32-year-old Edinburgh man killed in a collision with a lorry in 2011, said the law would help reduce the number of cyclists killed and injured. But critics said it was unfair, and smacked of the "arrogance" of cyclists. Craig Newton, 32, died in a collision with a City of Edinburgh council lorry Seven cyclists were killed and more than 150 were seriously injured on Scottish roads during 2011, according to Transport Scotland figures. Under a strict liability law, motorists would be held responsible in the civil courts for all accidents involving cyclists - unless they can prove they were not to blame. Supporters of the Campaign for Strict Liability say it would greatly reduce the time it takes for accident victims to win compensation. Lynda Myles, whose son Craig Newton died after he was involved in a collision with a City of Edinburgh council lorry, said she fully supported the idea. "Over the two years since Craig's death, our whole family has been emotionally exhausted trying to make sense of what happened to him on that morning," she said.

Last week the social media world of the New York and Long Island cycling community blew up with outrage over a Suffolk County Legislator's letter to a 17 year old. The letter was in response to the young mans inquiry and call for assistance from...