https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRsBPbXoZew
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fmm-UD5yHUc
Videos courtesy of Kevin McCarey
When “walk star” Mark Fenton strolled into Oak Park this week to keynote the all-day “Greentown: Pioneering Healthy Communities” event at Unity Temple, the tongue-in-cheek, charismatic host of PBS’s America’s Walking, who is also a public health, planning and transportation consultant, didn’t mince any words about what Oak Park needs to do next to ramp up its pedestrian and bike-friendly environs.
To punctuate his points, though, the day before the Oct. 12 event, Fenton energetically led about 50 locals on an interactive, 3-mile walkabout of central Oak Park.
But before stepping off from the West Cook YMCA and landing at Oak Park Village Hall 90 minutes later, the five-time member of the U.S. race walking team took five for Wednesday Journal
How did you become an expert and advocate on walking and active living? I grew up in a small town in upstate New York, where I was pretty much a free-range kid. I was the kind of kid that my parents would let disappear on a Saturday morning with my buddies on our bikes, and not get home until dinnertime, and they didn’t worry about it. A lot of people in my generation remember that lifestyle, the outdoor experience, as being part of their life. Later I studied engineering, got into biomechanics and exercise science, how the human body works, and how physical activity is critical to our health and well-being. I further learned that national guidelines tell us that every American should get at least 30 minutes of moderate physical activity every day. The other thing I have learned is that very few Americans do that. That is what we are told will reduce our risk of chronic disease like cardiovascular disease, Type 2 diabetes, essentially all the things that kill us prematurely.
What should we be doing? We have to rebuild our communities in such a way that we get physical activity as a part of our daily lives, where kids can be free-range kids again, and where everyone can be active, whether they are 12 or 70. I want people to be able to age in place, so even after they cannot drive anymore, they can walk to the pharmacy, to the movie theater, to the corner store. I want young kids to be able to walk or ride a bike to their friend’s house, or to school. I want all of us to think about how we can be more active as we get to work, go shopping or are at play.
Where do we start? We have to put a sidewalk outside of every front door, and it has to be a safe, wide sidewalk that is separate from the traffic flow. It has to be in good enough shape that an elderly person doesn’t feel there are a lot of tripping hazards, and there has to be bicycle lanes and bike parking at all our destinations. Traffic routes have to be at a calm and reasonable speed, so people don’t feel like they are taking their lives in their hands simply to cross the street. If we can build a world like that, where people can walk to the Y, walk to the corner store, walk to school, having good places that are inviting and where it is easy to be physically active, that is how we start to solve the problem.
How does Oak Park rate? Right now, I’d give you an 8. You guys have a great benefit that in fact the infrastructure here, for the most part, is really, really good.
In Oak Park, what should we be doing next? You need a comprehensive network of streets that are striped. It can’t be occasional streets that are good for bicyclists. Every road has to feel safe. There has to be highly secure, and preferably covered, bicycle parking at destinations. When I look at your train stations, it is clear that you could be doing a lot more of that. Yeah, there are bike racks, but why aren’t there bike lockers and a covered bike area? You are ready for that. In fact, arguably, for everyone to go the whole nine yards, you should have a bike-sharing system here, like many of the big cities are doing. You have enough density and proximity so you could easily do that.
What else? How about a scary one? Increase the price of parking. We tend to subsidize parking, which is an inducement for driving a car. The reality is, let the market dictate the prices for parking, and what you will find is that people will naturally shift. The reality is that Oak Park is mature enough as a community to go to a higher level of things.