[Note: Because of rain, the walk has been rescheduled to Tuesday, Feb. 26. Same time, same starting location.]

Eastside Walks, a project of the Coalition for Sustainable Transportation (COAST), will be hosting a neighborhood walk on Feb. 19 with the Eastside community to test out the new pedestrian improvements to Milpas Street.

Eastside Walks has been working with the City of Santa Barbara to get the word out and to educate all road users about the new pedestrian crossings at Milpas and Yanonali and Milpas and Ortega.

In conjunction with the recent pedestrian stings put on by the Police Department and traffic engineers last week, we want to have this walk to celebrate the progress we’ve made in the Eastside so far and to also educate the public on how the pedestrian activated flashers should work. These improvements are only as good as the people who utilize them properly!

We will meet at 9 a.m. in front of the Eastside Library at 1102 E. Montecito St., then will walk to the Milpas and Yanonali intersection and use the pedestrian-activated flashers. From there we will walk down to the intersection of Milpas and Ortega and do the same thing. We will end the walk at Milpas and Ortega.

This walk will just be one piece of the puzzle as the city continues to make improvements to the Eastside.

— Caitlin Carlson is a project director for COAST.