Posts tagged ‘walk’

Jan 23

Join the Clear the Air Challenge 2020

Are you ready for a new challenge? How about one that will help you save money, burn calories, and improve our air quality? Salt Lake City employees are already on board and want to invite you to join the 2020 Clear the Air Challenge. During the month of February, keep our air clear of pollutants by limiting your driving!

You can aim to reduce your “driving-alone” trips every day in February, or pick a goal that’s manageable for you. It all helps!

If you don’t have a team and want to challenge yourself, please join the Clear the Air Challenge SLCgreen Team!

What is the Clear the Air Challenge?

Since 2009, Utahns have been participating in the month-long Clear the Air Challenge. During February, when air quality in Utah is historically bad, participants track their trips with the goal of avoiding single-occupancy vehicle travel and reducing air pollution. Participants carpool, bike, walk, telecommute, trip chain, take public transit, drive electric vehicles, and ride electric bikes or scooters– all to help clear the air!

In 2019, participants in the Clear the Air Challenge eliminated 84,421 single-occupancy vehicle trips. This saved 1,244,624 miles of traveling and $0.4 Million! Together, all these efforts reduced 359.8 tons of CO2!

This year, the Clear the Air Challenge needs everyone’s help to reach the goal of eliminating 100,000 single-occupant trips.

Clear the Air to Protect Our Health

Winters in Utah can be beautiful, but when inversion starts, polluted air gets caught in our valleys. PM 2.5 and other pollutants threaten our health the well-being of our communities.

On bad air days, our activity is limited. Moreover, children, older adults, and people with heart diseases or respiratory problems are at a higher risk for suffering from poorer health due to bad air. Poor air quality is associated with a range of negative impacts including pregnancy loss, premature death, child asthma, and increased cases of pneumonia.

In Salt Lake City, nearly 50% of air pollution comes from cars, trucks, and other vehicles. That’s why the Clear the Air Challenge is more important than ever.

What We’re Doing

Salt Lake City Corporation employees are already signing up to do their part to Clear the Air this year (see our previous Challenge roundup).

Each participating department has its own team. Salt Lake City employees live all over the Wasatch Front. Many of us take public transit to work every day. Others carpool or bike. For the month of February, we’re doing all we can to cut back on our single occupancy car rides!

Salt Lake City departments compete with each other for the coveted Clear the Air Challenge “Mayor’s Cup” and “SLCgreen Team Spirit” award.
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Thanks to the recent public transit expansions, the robust network of bike paths for the sunny days, as well as the Clear the Air Challenge app’s handy carpool guide, the Clear the Air Challenge will make February an exciting and competitive month!

Join SLCgreen’s Clear the Air Challenge Team

Mar 22

SLC Open Streets is Back! Sign up to Volunteer or Host a Booth

Photos of residents enjoying SLC Open Streets 2015

by Ardyn Ford, SLCgreen intern

Imagine riding your bike down a wide city street under clear, blue skies. There are no cars in sight. You meander across lanes of traffic, surrounded by fellow bikers, skaters, and joggers. Food trucks and beer gardens line the streets. Echoes of laughter are carried by the warm breeze. Sound too good to be true? It isn’t!

On May 5^th, Salt Lake City is bringing back a favorite community event called Open Streets. From 10 AM to 4 PM a section of downtown will be closed to all non-essential vehicular traffic. This means that streets will be open for anything from walking to rollerblading. People are encouraged to bring family and friends for a day of movement and fun community activities including yoga classes, art exhibits, and live music.

The route was designed for easy access to public transit and GREENbike stations in an effort to give people the opportunity to experience alternative, sustainable transportation in a safe environment. Read more

Feb 1

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The 2018 Clear the Air Challenge is Here!

It’s February which means it’s time for the Ninth Annual Clear the Air Challenge! If you haven’t already, now is the perfect time to get signed up and start identifying how you can drive less and drive smarter to save pollution. Read more

Jan 18

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Help Clear the Air! Sign up for the February Challenge

Transportation emissions are responsible for nearly 50% of the pollutants that make up our poor air quality. These pollutants become a serious concern during the winter months when normal atmospheric conditions (cool air above, warm air below) become inverted. This allows the air quality in the valley to become filled with particles that can quickly become unhealthy.

While there is much work being done to reduce those emissions (better transit, cleaner vehicles, more active transportation), the fact is– we can and should all help. We can each be a #CleanAirChampion.

There are many ways to participate! They all help the air and give you points in the Challenge:

Ride the bus or train
Bike or walk to work
Link your errands together when you are driving (aka “trip chain”)
Skip the trip by working from home or saving that errand for later

It all adds up!

The Utah Division of Air Quality estimates that if every driver along the Wasatch Front were to give up driving for just one day per week, it would keep 6,500 tons of emissions (or 85 times the weight of the International Space Station) out of our airshed.

Apr 22

Encouraging Alternative Transportation: e2 Best Practice Series

The April Best Practices session was held at Impact HUB, Salt Lake City’s newly completed headquarters at 150 S. State Street. In one of their beautifully finished lecture rooms, the group enjoyed sandwiches from Even Stevens while hearing presentations from Bike Utah, the Governor’s Office of Energy Development, and Utah Transit Authority.

Phil Sarnoff, Director of Bike Utah, started off the session with a look at the policy and advocacy work his organization is doing to make Salt Lake City an ever more bikeable community.

Richard Brockmyer of Utah Transit Authority discussed new projects UTA is currently pursuing, including First Mile/Last Mile. Richard explained that the first and last mile of travel when using public transportation are the most crucial, and so UTA has unveiled a suite of strategies for improving that ridership experience, including facilities for bikes and vanpooling service.

The lunch session finished off with a group discussion where the attendees could pose their own questions and thoughts with the speakers from Bike Utah, UTA and Governor’s Office of Energy Development. There were many questions for Blake Thomas of O.E.D. about the work being done in his office to support for alternative fuel vehicles in Utah.

Jun 24

Drive Less, Clear the Air & Win Prizes this July

The 2014 Challenge kicked off at the Downtown Farmers Market on Saturday, June 14.

Are you ready to help clear the air? The 2014 Clear the Air Challenge starts next week on Tuesday, July 1!

The month long Challenge is just that — an excellent way to challenge yourself to “drive down your miles” and reduce your emissions. Choose alternatives to driving alone and track your impact on air quality.

(And keep an eye on the leader board for the Salt Lake City Corporation network, which is SLCgreen’s home team!)

The Basics

The Clear the Air Challenge runs July 1-31, 2014.
Register at www.CleartheAirChallenge.org (registration details below).
Track the trips and miles you save by using alternatives to driving alone:
- Active transportation (walk, bike) — Biking and walking, also known as active transportation, are gaining popularity as healthy, efficient and sustainable means of transportation.
- Public transit — To put it simply, ride UTA!
- Carpool — Carpooling involves more than one person traveling together in a car and can be used for many occasions including commuting to work, attending special events or taking kids to school, practices or recreational activities. This strategy requires some coordination of schedules, but can be easily implemented to achieve significant results.
- Telework — Teleworking is possible from just about anywhere – from home, a telecenter, the local coffee shop or anywhere that has a wireless Internet connection. Teleworking can include conference calling or video conferencing for meetings instead of driving to an off-site location or working from a remote office.
- Skip the trip — The skip the trip strategy is as easy as it sounds. Just plan ahead to avoid unnecessary trips. These can be trips taken for work or for home activities.
- Learn more about these strategies at TravelWise.utah.gov.
Join a network, track your impact and compete for great prizes!

Registration

This year there is a new and greatly improved tracking tool for the Clear the Air Challenge. The new tool will require all users to re-register, but the registration process will only take about 30 seconds and users now have the ability to sign up using their Facebook profile.

During the registration process you will be asked to join a team/network, although it’s not required. If you do not see your team/network listed, please email tracker@ppbh.com with the following information:

Team/network name
Team/network admin name (the person on your team who will have admin rights)
Admin’s email
Team/network address
Team/network description (a little about who your team is- optional)

Prizes

The Challenge has approximately $10,000 in prizes to give out this year to participants. A number of weekly prizes will be randomly given to people who have earned badges. Grand prizes will be given to the winners in various categories, including: most trips saved, most miles saved and overall champion. The Grand Prize for the overall individual champion will be a $1,300 pair of powder skis provided by Ramp Sports.

New technology

Here are some of the features of the new technology implemented this year:

Social media integration: Sign up with your Facebook account and share Clear the Air Challenge posts to your Timeline.
Easier tracking and recording of saved trips:
- Set up favorite trips – Trips you take often can be easily added to your tracker dashboard
- Multiple day trip recording – Forgot to track each time you took the TRAX over the past week? Simply click on each of the days you made the same trip and record them all at once!
Trip Planner: Not sure how you might use alternative transportation to get somewhere rather than your car? Simply enter in your starting and ending locations, and you’ll receive carpool, vanpool, transit, walking and biking options to get to your destination. Use this feature all year round whether you are tracking trips or not!

Jun 12

Sugar House Welcomes “The Draw”

Last week, SLCgreen attended the grand opening of The Draw, a tunnel constructed under 1300 East connecting Sugar House Park to Hidden Hollow. An extension of the Parley’s Trail, The Draw allows pedestrians and bikers to bypass busy 1300 East and easily access all Sugar House has to offer.

Bottom line: The Draw is awesome. Check it out this weekend!

Jun 2

“The Draw” Opens this Friday!

We’ve got good news for bikers and pedestrians in Sugar House! “The Draw” — the tunnel that goes under 1300 East to connect Sugar House Park to Hidden Hollow — is opening this Friday, June 6.

You are invited to attend the grand opening and ribbon cutting at 10:30 a.m. this Friday at Sugar House Park.

You can learn more about this exciting project via Salt Lake Magazine.

Jun 2

S-Line Greenway Grand Opening: POSTPONED

SLCgreen message (6/6/2014): We just received word that this event has been postponed. Stay tuned for updated information.

You’re invited to the grand opening of the new S-Line Greenway in Salt Lake City!

Come celebrate the opening of Salt Lake City’s newest public space. The S-Line Greenway is a mile-long linear park running parallel to the streetcar line from 500 East to McClelland Street. The greenway features public art, plazas and a multi-modal segment of Parley’s Trail.

10 a.m. Grand Opening Press Conference (S-Line at 800 East)
Featuring Mayor Ralph Becker. The Mayor and other partners will mark the opening of the greenway with a ceremonial planting.

6 & 7 p.m. Community Greenway Walk (Sugarmont Plaza)
Come celebrate the Greenway with an interpretive walk with the corridor’s artists, designers and community partners. Walks will depart from the Farmer’s Market at Sugarmont Plaza (2232 S. Highland) at 6 p.m. and 7 p.m.

We’ll see you there!

Apr 1

The Woman Leading SLC’s Transportation Revolution

Photo Credit: Ben Bolte

Recently, The Atlantic Cities profiled Salt Lake City’s Transportation Director, Robin Hutcheson, shining a light on the woman who has been leading our city’s transportation revolution over the last few years.

Here’s an except from the article. We recommend heading over to The Atlantic Cities article ASAP.

SALT LAKE CITY—Here are a few things to know about Robin Hutcheson. She’s a Connecticut native who came to Utah in 1994 for the skiing, and except for a few years in Europe, has lived here ever since. Since 2011, she’s been head of the transportation planning division of Salt Lake City, the state’s capital and biggest metropolis, often commuting by bike, at other times running one way and taking public transit on the return trip. Also, as you have noted by now, she is a woman.

That last part shouldn’t be a big deal. And most of the time, it isn’t. Every now and then, though, as the 43-year-old Hutcheson has climbed the ranks of her chosen profession, she gets a reminder: being a woman in a leadership position in American transportation is not the norm.

Read the full article on The Atlantic Cities.