Final Report
Presentation
Students in this spring 2018 studio at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy worked with clients from both municipal and school governments in Bound Brook and South Bound Brook, NJ, Somerset County staff, RideWise, Inc., and members of Healthier Somerset to create a Pedestrian and Bicycle Travel Plan for Bound Brook and South Bound Brook. In the final report, students created a menu of actions addressing education, encouragement, enforcement, engineering, and evaluation activities focusing on both short-term and long-term projects to improve walking and bicycling in both towns. In the process, students explored several topic areas and techniques including Placemaking, Tactical Urbanism, Complete Streets, Green Streets, community engagement, Crime Prevention through Environmental Design, and Health in All Policies. As part of this course, Bloustein students were given a workshop from Project for Public Spaces about Placemaking that they then used to advise Bound Brook High School students (Middle Earth/4-H) on a community pedestrian safety project. Several actions resulted from this studio report. First, the Bound Brook High School students used their new knowledge about Placemaking to create safer, more enjoyable pedestrian conditions through creating street murals, decorative crosswalks and a parklet during the summer of 2018. Second, the report findings were used to apply for NJ Department of Transportation Safe Routes to School grant funds in September of 2018. Finally, a regional health-focused group, Healthier Somerset, is working with each town to help implement findings and create healthier, more enjoyable environments for those to live, work and play. The studio was taught by Voorhees Transportation Center staff Leigh Ann Von Hagen and Sean Meehan with assistance from RideWise, Inc. and Somerset County.