SCAG’s Go Human Kit of Parts: Impacts on Street Level Community Resiliency
Go Human is the active transportation safety and encouragement campaign from the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG), the nation’s largest metropolitan planning organization. Go Human‘s goal is to reduce the number of injuries and fatalities involving people walking and biking and to increase rates of active transportation. Since its inception in 2016, Go Human has expanded the conversation beyond vehicular violence into a suite of traffic safety programs, including:
- Community Streets Mini-Grants, a funding program for projects that build street level community resiliency and increase traffic safety which just awarded 31 community-driven traffic safety activations. Read more on our blog.
- Community Safety Ambassadors, a paid training opportunity in partnership with California Walks that consists of educational and engagement strategies to improve safety through virtual interactive workshops.
- Traffic Safety Peer Exchanges, a series of in-depth virtual sessions convening traffic safety practitioners discussing topics such as equity, funding, and community-centered safety strategies. Register now!
One of many pivotal Go Human strategies includes engaging priority and historically disinvested communities through the development of its “Kit of Parts,” an engagement tool to temporarily demonstrate potential and planned street design treatments and safety infrastructure. The Kit of Parts (“Kit”), designed by the Kounkuey Design Initiative, includes modular, lightweight, and durable components that can be easily assembled to demonstrate five different street design treatments (protected bike lanes, parklets, crosswalks, pedestrian refuge islands and bulb‐outs).
Installed on a temporary basis, the Kit of Parts transforms a conventional street into one that prioritizes the safety of people walking, biking, and taking transit. Participants engage with the temporary street treatments, learn about their purpose and impact, enjoy a new public space, and give their thoughts and comments on the improvements through surveys and other feedback tools. Go Human’s temporary safety demonstrations provide a creative avenue for residents who have not traditionally engaged with their local jurisdictions to inform planning decisions. More than just getting projects in the ground, these pop-ups serve essential roles in facilitating community participation and leadership development within planning efforts.
Additionally, SCAG has developed its Resilient Streets Toolkit. This pandemic response strategy utilizes street space for community resiliency, recovery, and resource delivery that prioritizes impacted and historically disinvested communities and identifies use of the Kit of Parts as a strategic resource. The Kit of Parts was included as a resource and proved instrumental in supporting nonprofits with Resilient Streets efforts. Many of the Kit of Parts items were repurposed to adhere to COVID‐19 public health parameters. To date Go Human has partnered with 20+ civic organizations to use the Kit to address the evolving needs of the region’s communities.
Often, community-identified safety improvements can take years, if not decades, to address. Go Human collaborates directly with community stakeholders to respond to safety needs in ways that are timelier and focus on community-led strategies. The Kit brings a wide range of active transportation interventions to under‐resourced communities in the short term, allowing residents to enjoy them and understand their benefits without having to wait many years for full implementation. By helping build this constituency for future improvements, these projects build community capacity, strengthen resilience, and advance equity at the local level.
Since its release in 2019, the Kit has been showcased to tens of thousands of residents at events across Southern California. Prior to the pandemic, the Kit was deployed over 45 times for a variety of projects, in conjunction with open streets events, Safe Routes to School demonstrations, bicycle-friendly business district programs, safety demonstrations, and conferences. To date, over one-quarter of the 40+ Go Human safety demonstration projects have been funded or permanently installed.
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Stay tuned on the Go Human social media pages @gohumansocal on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for upcoming deployments of the Kit of Parts in conjunction with Mini-Grant recipients, Community Ambassadors, SCAG’s Active Transportation Program projects, and more! Subscribe to our newsletter and contact Alina Borja at borja@scag.ca.gov with any questions.
