of PBOT bike/walk map.
The Bureau of Transportation’s SmartTrips program just got a lot smarter. The focus of the program, which resides in PBOT’s Transportation Options division, is to encourage people to bike, walk, and take transit. Today PBOT announced that their popular series of biking and walking maps are now available in five new languages: Burmese, Nepali, Somali, Russian and Arabic.
SmartTrips employees visited the Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization today to pass out the new maps. PBOT’s Marni Glick says that for people new to our city, getting around can be “a monumental task, especially if English isn’t a first language.”
SmartTrips’ marketing approach has already proven successful, but it’s hard to know your transportation options if they’re not available in your language. “Handing out walk/bike maps in other languages,” Glick adds, “shows those new to our area that low-cost and free transportation choices are right around the corner.”
PBOT has separate biking and walking maps for every section of the city. The maps are currently available in English and Spanish and the new languages were added “cost-effectively” by placing stickers on the map legends of existing maps.
Check out PBOT’s Bike/Walk maps webpage for more.