Student Project for Safety & Climate Friendly Transportation Comes to Our Streets during Climate Week
by
Vanessa Bertozzi
Village Of Rhinebeck Board Trustee & Environmental Specialist
Climate Smart Rhinebeck Coordinator
On Monday September 19 after school, a group of middle and high school students will be coming together to install brightly colored, temporary, chalk paint crosswalks at the intersection of South St and S. Parsonage, with traffic cones demarcating a temporary sidewalk down the east side of S. Parsonage to Lions Mini Park. This action, known as "tactical urbanism" is a way to rapidly prototype a redesign.
This Tactical Urbanism project is part of our Climate Week programming and has been developed with Trustee Bertozzi and approved by Mayor Bassett and the Village Police Dept, who will be supporting the installation to make sure it's safe. It’s particularly exciting for it to be in place for September 22, International Car Free Day, when Climate Smart Rhinebeck is hosting a breakfast meetup in Lions Mini Park for students and families who will walk, bike, scoot, or skate to school that day.
The Tactical Urbanism project is led by students working with the Village Comprehensive Plan process and in collaboration with the Village's Climate Smart Task Force. After attending a full day workshop in May, students identified recommendations for the Comprehensive Plan and were inspired to do something tangible.
We’d like to invite students and parents to use the intersection and observe its use while it's in place. (I'm hoping it will be there at least a week - depends on how quickly rain washes it away!). There will be signage with a QR code/URL prompting folks to give feedback.
It's exciting to see our youth bring their vision to action in the streets. We hope this project’s visibility will prompt conversations and interest.