Randolph residents and visitors will notice something new on Main Street. Walk+Bike+Roll Randolph (WBRR) is the citizen advocacy group whose mission is to make Randolph “safe, accessible and enjoyable” for people walking and bicycling. WBRR has been conducting public outreach for several years, including a “walk audit” held in October 2023 and listening sessions with Randolph seniors. One of the main concerns expressed was the safety of crossing Main Street. Using grant funds obtained from America Walks, WBRR purchased three in-street pedestrian warning signs for use at key crosswalks on Main Street. The purpose of the in-street signs is to heighten driver awareness of the crosswalks and to act as a traffic calming device to slow vehicle speeds. Speed is a critical factor for pedestrian safety.

WBRR worked with the Town to gain approval to install the signs during the summer months when pedestrian activity is at its peak. The signs will be stored over the winter so that they don’t interfere with snow plowing. With the Main Street crosswalks recently remarked, the new signs can be put out. WBRR is very appreciative of this collaborative effort between their citizen group and the Town. “We hope that the in-street signs will help make downtown Randolph a safer place for everyone who walks to the shops and other businesses located there,” said WBRR Co-chair Jon Kaplan. Learn more about WBRR at https://walkbikerandolph.org/. 

Walk+Bike+Roll Randolph (WBRR), the local group advocating for safe walking and bicycling, held a promotional and educational event in early February. During the weeks of February 5 – 16, students at Randolph Elementary and at the RU middle and high school were encouraged to walk (or bike), take the school bus or carpool with others to school. The goal was to raise awareness of how walking can be a fun, healthy alternative to being driven to school. “Many Randolph students live within walking distance of the schools. By walking instead of being driven to school, they can play a role in easing traffic congestion and also realize the benefits of regular physical activity,” said WBRR organizer Anne Kaplan.

The schools were provided with fact sheets about the benefits of walking and how to do so safely. WBRR offered an additional incentive of raffling gift cards to students who participated. Gift cards were generously donated by local businesses, including Village Pizza, Brainstorm Art Supply and the Gear House. Students also received free reflective items to put on clothing or backpacks to help enhance their visibility.

Although participation wasn’t as high as had been hoped for, a number of students tracked their trips and received prizes. The leftover prizes will be used at a planned Bike to School day this May, which will be the second year in a row for that event.

Some of the participating students shared their thoughts:

From Savior Bass:  “I get to carpool with my favorite teacher every morning.  She is the kindest, most wonderful person on the planet and it’s a great way to start my day.” 

From Nolan Whitney:  “I usually do all of those things- I walk, I bike, and I take the bus.  More people should have the opportunity to do it!” 

WBRR is excited about this year’s event and hopes to encourage more participation next year. To keep posted about all of the work in which WBRR is involved, please consider signing up for email updates and to support their work at www.walkbikerandolph.org.

Have you heard of H.685, a bill being considered in the Vermont Legislature this session? It has a number of provisions that will make it safer for people who walk or ride bicycles in Vermont. Please consider contacting your legislator if you think they should support this bill. For more details you can go to Local Motion’s web site here. Local Motion asks you to sign a petition, but it is also very effective to reach out to your local representative directly via email or by phone. Randolph’s legislators are:

Senator Mark McDonald – mmacdonald@leg.state.vt.us

Representative Larry Satcowitz – lsatcowitz@leg.state.vt.us

Representative Jay Hooper – JHooper@leg.state.vt.us

To leave a phone message for any of them – (802) 828-2228

With assistance and leadership from staff at the Two Rivers-Ottauquechee Regional Commission, Randolph is embarking on a walk/bike master plan. Walk+Bike+Roll Randolph (WBRR) Co-chair Jon Kaplan met with Jeff Grout (Randolph planning/zoning/grants administrator) and staff from TRORC to discuss the scope of work of the plan on Wednesday, March 6th.

The project will include a robust public engagement process which will build off work that WBRR has conducted over the past couple of years. Outcomes of the plan will be a prioritized list of needs to make it safer and easier to walk and bicycle in Randolph. Potential funding sources will also be identified. This will help the town know which projects to go after first when grant funds become available, so that local dollars can be stretched further.

WBRR will be represented on the steering committee working with the town and TRORC on this important project. The public kickoff of this project is tentatively planned for the end of April.

Live or work near town? Why not join Granite Staters on February 9th for Winter Bike to Work Day?

Amidst the pre-Christmas hustle and bustle, I was listening to NPR and just happened to tune in to the end of a TED Radio Hour episode discussing so-called “Blue Zones”. If you haven’t heard of them, blue zones are those places around the world where people live especially long and healthy lives, regularly reaching into their 90s and even hitting the century mark. Incorporating regular physical activity into their lives is one of the contributing factors. Here is a quote from the show that caught my attention, “And then once they identified some politically expedient policies, we got them to implement several of them. The big one in Albert Lea (Minnesota) is they were about to widen their main street and draw more traffic from the interstate, and we convinced them to actually, instead of widening the street, widening the sidewalks and taking that street-widening money and putting a walking path around the adjacent lake, and also put in about three miles of sidewalks to connect every neighborhood to downtown. And lo and behold, once you invited pedestrians to walk downtown, downtown filled up. And it not only increased the number of – amount of physical activity people got by we calculate between 15 and 20%. Downtown became a vibrant place. People were sitting at the local cafes and visiting the local marketing.” I encourage you to check out the whole episode and to think about how we can work with the Town of Randolph to adopt policies to make it safer and more attractive to walk and bike around town.

On November 16, representatives of WBRR met with Randolph House residents to hear their feedback on conditions for walking in the downtown. Although there are sidewalks, there are some deficiencies that make it difficult for these residents to get around and to take advantage of the services and amenities right outside their door. You can read a full summary of the meeting here. The Herald published an article about the meeting in the 12/7/23 edition of the paper.

Oregon Representative Earl Blumenauer is retiring from Congress. He has been a staunch bike/ped/transit advocate the whole time he has served. He talks about many key issues in this recent interview from All Things Considered.