Fill sidewalk gaps. Fill gaps in the trail system. Identify places for bike lanes. Evaluate crosswalks. Try a median crossing. Place “yield paddles” such as the one at the courthouse. Apply for grants. Employ road diets and traffic-calming techniques.

These are some of the recommendations made by transportation expert Dan Burden in his report about walkability in Albert Lea.

About 100 people turned out Thursday at the Albert Lea Senior Center in Skyline Plaza to hear Blue Zones health initiative director Joel Spoonheim share Burden’s report and to find answers on the City Health Makeover by Blue Zones and AARP.

“We believe by the end of the summer this town can show great strides,” Spoonheim said.

Burden’s report is available for viewing at the Albert Lea Public Library.

“Albert Lea has the opportunity to make a number of easy, short-term, affordable changes to improve its active transportation walkability, alternative transportation and livability,” the report says.

Bike racks, benches, hearty trees are some easy-to-afford items that can lend a greater sense of place, it says.

Spoonheim noted the statewide indoor workplace smoking ban that went into effect in October 2007, then quoted a St. Louis University research conclusion saying infrastructure and policy approaches create more permanent change than public health programs. He also noted that the Centers for Disease Control says places that install the infrastructure for making walking safe find a 35 percent increase in physical activity.

Automobile traffic in the United States has gone up five times faster than the growth of the population in the last 20 years, Spoonheim said, and is predicted to triple in the next 15 years.

He also showed a photo of a fitness center with escalators from the parking lot to the front door.

No matter how paint is applied to the roads and how construction is done, pedestrians will jump in front of cars and cars will fail to stop for pedestrians, Spoonheim said, so safety education is needed.

In his presentation, he showed photos of sidewalk gaps and of bike lanes, noting that Albert Lea has no bike lanes on its streets.

He showed slides of roads where traffic-calming measures were taken to move cars quickly while reducing collisions and improving walkability.

“Drivers get used to them,” he said.

The changes were in the number of lanes, closeness of the trees and buildings along the road, the ways the cars park and how a city’s comprehensive plan operates to encourage businesses to build.

Spoonheim, reflecting Burden’s report, said Albert Lea needs more bike racks to encourage cycling and more benches to give breaks to people who get out and walk.

A woman said she had friends in their 70s and 80s who don’t walk much and were wondering what else will the Blue Zones officials talk about. Spoonheim said if Blue Zones succeeds in the health makeover, they will be walking soon. He asked for patience as the next phase starts May 14.
6:30 p.m. April 2, Albert Lea High School auditorium: “Blue Zones” author Dan Buettner will speak about his upcoming visit to the Greek island of Icaria to find whether it is the fifth Blue Zone in the world. Earlier that day, he will lead assemblies for grades four through eight and will invite them to participate in his expedition.

7 p.m. May 14, Albert Lea High School auditorium: Officials from AARP and Blue Zones will launch the City Health Makeover for Albert Lea. Buettner will tell his story and share lessons he has learned for the world’s longest-lived cultures. A presentation will share why and how Albert Lea was chosen for the makeover. Brian Wansink, author of “Mindless Eating,” will speak, too. Blue Zones hopes to get 1,000 people to attend.

City Public Works Director Steve Jahnke talked about the city’s past and present on walking and cycling.

He said until last year Albert Lea hadn’t had any new sidewalks since the 1950s. Shoreland Heights was built in the 1960s and Brookside area in the 1970s — both without sidewalks. The Lake Chapeau area left space for shared-user trails but they haven’t been built and there are no sidewalks. There was talk of sidewalks at Tiger Hills this decade, but the idea was nixed. Goose Lake Estates didn’t build because they weren’t part of the city’s assessments policy.

In 2006, the policy was reworded so that all state-aid roads will have sidewalks and in 2008 the city started fixing gaps. Pedestrians found the projects on Lakeshore Boulevard and Lakewood Avenue.

Projects for 2009, Jahnke said, are connecting the North Shore Trail to City Beach, going through Shoff Park near Highway 13 and Lakeview Boulevard near Martin Road.

Future projects, he said, are connecting to Wedgewood Cove Estates on Ninth Street and Wedgewood Road, linking William Street to the channel between the lakes and going from City Beach to New Denmark Park.

Jahnke said his department paints crosswalks and restripes roads by the Fourth of July each summer.

People broke into groups to talk about bike trails, walking school buses, sidewalks and traffic safety.

The bike-trail group had the most people and seemed the most avid. They drew lines on streets they felt deserved bike lanes: Bridge Avenue, South Shore Drive, Newton Avenue, Fountain Street, Front Street. They also noted the importance bike trails serve to free the sidewalks for pedestrians. Dr. Stephanie Nainani urged Jahnke to implement the ideas so the exercise wasn’t futile.

The sidewalk group listed gaps, many of which were brought up at another meeting last month, and the group members discussed city policy to encourage sidewalk construction. Council member Vern Rasmussen sought ideas.

The traffic-safety group felt education is the biggest factor. Some bikers don’t know bike-safety rules, such as how to signal. Some motorists don’t slow down for crosswalks. Some drivers fail to recognize traffic signals properly. Group coordinator Patti Hareid felt Albert Lea needs a traffic-safety event.

Kristine Heinz led a brainstorming session on walking school buses. They are not a school program. They are led by community members. A walking school bus is simply a group of children walking to school with one or more adults. They assemble at a point, perhaps a mile away, and go.

“Obviously, there is the health benefit of getting kids moving,” Heinz said.

And she noted studies show students who walk to school perform better academically.

At the end, everyone voted on what they would like to see done first. A median crossing near where Bridge Avenue is close to Fountain Lake had the most votes. The next highest voter-getter was filling in a sidewalk gap from railroad tracks to the Blazing Star Landing. Third was a connection from Skyline Plaza to an existing sidewalk along Highway 13.

It all ended with Spoonheim sharing how in some towns they find volunteers do the most expensive part of sidewalk building — the labor. They find people with the skills to build a sidewalk and seek donations from construction companies, who often have excesses that otherwise would go unused. He said it can reduce a $15,000 job to a $3,000 to a $4,000 job.