Friday, September
8, 2006
8:00 AM - 9:30 AM
Period Eight:
-
Data: What It Can Tell Us
at the Corridor, City, and National Levels
(Meeting Room E)
Workshop 48 - Data can help move a
project forward. But how do you get it, and how do you
use it? Bruce Landis, (Sprinkle Consulting, Inc.), discusses
predicting non-motorized trips at the facility level.
The question of “If you build it, will they come?”
has been at the forefront of bicycle and pedestrian
planning for many years. This ongoing research initiative
is serving to answer that question. Michael Jones, (Alta
Planning + Design), then introduces the National Bicycle
& Pedestrian Documentation project. Find out the
latest cycling and walking trends and patterns in the
country and your region, and how it may impact the planning,
design, and evaluation of non-motorized facilities in
your community. Howard Mann, (New York, NY, Metropolitan
Trans. Council), demonstrates a process of counting
and collating New York bicycle data to the point where
the procedure is standardized. This process was first
presented at Pro Walk/Pro Bike in St. Paul in 2002;
Mann shows how the team has used technology to make
the process more efficient and less costly.
-
Non-Motorized Pilot Project
Communities - Canada and the US (Meeting Room
F)
Workshop 49 - John Fegan, (Federal
Highway Administration), will introduce the Non-motorized
Transportation Pilot Program (NTPP). Section 1807 of
SAFETEA-LU, the Federal transportation legislation,
called for the establishment of this pilot program which
provides $25 million to each of four communities to
build connected networks of facilities for bicyclists
and pedestrians, and report on how they changed the
number of people bicycling and walking. Other communities
can learn where the NTPP is in learning what works and
what hasn't worked in getting more people bicycling
and walking. Sabine Schweiger, (City of Whitehorse,
YK), will describe Whitehorse Moves, a Canadian approach
to boosting alternative commuting. Whitehorse, Yukon,
was selected by Transport Canada as one of eight Canadian
municipalities to showcase urban transportation initiatives
that reduce greenhouse gases. Whitehorse Moves proposed
to elevate the availability and appeal of active commuting
by constructing continuous bicycle and pedestrian corridors,
road dieting two major thoroughfares, installing a roundabout,
and educating the public. Learn about this three-year
journey filled with challenges and successes.
-
Where the Trail Meets the
Road (Meeting Room I)
Workshop 51 - On-road bicycle facilities
are being constructed throughout the United States.
However, in many cases, the general public, elected
officials, and planning and design professionals believe
that a separated sidepath is the better choice. Theodore
Petritsch’s (Sprinkle Consulting, Inc.), presentation
describes quantifiable guidelines for sidepath facility
consideration and a conceptual level of service framework
for sidepaths. William Schultheiss, (Toole Design Group),
discusses trail/roadway intersection design as the most
frequently overlooked aspect of trail design. Schultheiss
notes that designers often don’t grasp the importance
of applying standard intersection design criteria to
the project, and instead rely upon a stop sign to protect
trail users from themselves and motorists at intersections.
This approach isn’t working, and is being reevaluated
by trail managing agencies.
-
Community Approaches to Encouraging
Physical Activity (Meeting Room J)
Workshop 52 - Many communities are
experimenting with ways to get their populations more
physically active. Stacey King, (Cambridge, MA, Public
Health Dept.), will introduce Fitness Buddies, a 10-week
social-support model tested with more than 200 participants
in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Sabrina McCarty, (Austin/Travis
Co. Health & Human Services), will present the best
practices and lessons learned in the implementation
of a physical activity program called Walk Texas, including
group leader recruitment, train-the-trainer safety seminars,
community change models, and the Active Austin Guide.
Dave Glowacz, (Chicagoland Bicycle Federation), will
discuss how bicycling and pedestrian professionals can
work with physicians and other health professionals
to encourage folks to bike and walk, and describe results
of research concerning physical activity prescriptions
and other methods bike/ped program managers can use
when partnering with community clinics.
-
How to Develop a Pedestrian
Safety Action Plan (Lecture Hall)
Workshop 53 - The Federal Highway Administration
(FHWA) hired the Pedestrian and Bicycle Information
Center (PBIC) to develop a comprehensive guide and course
to provide a framework for state and local agencies
to develop and implement a pedestrian safety action
plan tailored to their specific problems and needs.
In this workshop, Peter Lagerwey, (Seattle Dept. of
Transportation), provides an overview of the “How-To
Guide” using materials developed for the two-day
training course. The guide is primarily a reference
for improving pedestrian safety through street redesign
and the use of engineering countermeasures, as well
as other safety-related treatments and programs that
involve the whole community. The guide also contains
information on how to involve stakeholders, potential
sources of funding for implementing projects and how
to evaluate projects.
-
Senior Connections: Walkable
Neighborhoods and Safety Practices (Meeting
room G)
Workshop 54 - California has the highest
population of culturally diverse older adults. Presenter
Lisa Cirill, (California Dept. of Health Services),
will describe how California public health and its partners
have played a significant role in promoting a higher
quality of life for its growing older adult population
by creating best practices on how to make communities
safer and more walkable for seniors. John Bauer and
Stacey Vilas, (Safe Community Coalition of Madison and
Dane Co.) will discuss their NHTSA Demonstration Project,
intended to improve pedestrian safety for older adults.
The Coalition is one of three groups in the nation to
be awarded such a grant.
9:30 AM - 10:15 AM
Poster Session 2 & Refreshment Break
10:15 AM - 11:45 AM
Period Nine:
-
States
Moving Ahead With Safe Routes to School
(Meeting room E)
Workshop 55 - Still wondering how to
kick your Safe Routes to School program into gear? Elise
Bremer-Nei, (New Jersey Dept. of Transportation), will
give you some ideas by demonstrating the multi-layered
approach New Jersey has used to get moving on SRTS.
This will include an overview of the organizational
structure for the state coordinator, the set up of the
application process for funding, and lessons learned
from pilot programs held in rural, suburban, and urban
areas. Charlotte Claybrooke, (Washington St. Dept. of
Transportation), will then describe how Washington State
agencies, advocates, and elected officials have put
together a comprehensive package of programs and funding.
You’ll learn steps your own state might take to
reproduce Washington‚s successes in policy, funding,
oversight, and community mobilization.
-
Making
Ped/Bike Connections in Seattle, Boulder, and Eugene
(Meeting room KLOP)
Workshop 56 - This panel presentation
is all about making connections for pedestrians and
bicyclists. Megan Hoyt will illustrate the eleven key
barriers to connectivity that she and her Seattle Dept.
of Transportation co-workers have found and discuss
numerous countermeasures and implementation strategies
specific to these barriers. Marni Ratzel will discuss
how Boulder, Colorado, has been fine-tuning their bicycle
and pedestrian facilities for enhanced safety, and efforts
to measure the effectiveness of these treatments. Lee
Shomaker will show what Eugene, Oregon, has done to
create a well-connected city, and discuss plans afoot
to take Eugene to the next level of bicycle and pedestrian
connectivity.
-
Making
Tough Decisions: Go With the Data or What the Public
Says It Wants Or Doesn’t Want? (Meeting
room G)
Workshop 57 - When a safety problem
for pedestrians or bicyclists is identified, an ineffective
or potentially dangerous solution is often proposed.
Our pleas for doing the right thing are ignored, politics
prevail, and the unneeded or ineffective solution advances.
In this interactive workshop, Michael Ronkin, (Oregon
Dept. of Transportation), and Peter Lagerwey, (Seattle
Dept. of Transportation), will explore ways to ensure
the knowledge that we possess regarding safe and effective
measures to improve walking and bicycling conditions
get the attention they deserve. Especially in the face
of emotionally and politically laden arguments for “solutions”
we know are ineffective, or worse, unsafe. How do we
ensure the voice of reason prevails? What role can we
professionals play to ensure data mean something? In
an interactive format, we will hope to hear from those
who have successfully bridged this gap, so please come
with success stories. If your experience was not successful,
tell us why, and how you would have done things differently
to ensure a more positive outcome.
-
Trails
- Serving Active People and Revitalizing Communities
(Meeting room I)
Workshop 58 - Billy Fields, (Rails-to-Trails
Conservancy), will explore the use of nodal development
along trails as a means of revitalization. The presentation
will focus on the use of trail-oriented development
in New Orleans, while also looking at the use of similar
revitalization strategies in Atlanta and Montreal. Jack
Nasar, (Ohio State University), will discuss what active
people want in multi-use trails. His presentation will
include results of a study which examined the trail
and path design preferences of a typically unexamined
population: those who are currently active runners,
walkers, and bicyclists.
-
Mapping
Approaches for Walkable/Bikeable Communities
(Meeting room J)
Workshop 59 - Brett Hondorp, (Alta
Planning + Design), will present an overview of Pasadena,
California’s Walking Routes to School Maps program,
including low-cost tools for improving pedestrian connections
and safety at schools. David Henry, (Walkable St. Louis),
will introduce a web-based organizing tool using Google
Maps that allows Walking School Bus route organizers
to map out their routes and view them on-line by school.
Sean Co, (Metropolitan Transportation Commission, Oakland
CA), will demonstrate an an online, interactive bicycle
facility mapping tool called BikeMapper for the nine-county
Bay Area region.
-
ARs,
PARs, ORARs, and Trails: An Update on Pedestrian Route
Accessibility Standards
(Lecture hall)
Workshop 60 - This session will center
around a report on the progress on ADA/ABA-AG, PROW-AG
and trails rulemaking. Co-presenters Peggy Greenwell,
Marsha Mazz, and Lois Thibault of the US Access Board
will use drawings and photographs to illustrate the
three Access Board rulemaking initiatives with differing
pedestrian circulation provisions. The goal is to have
attendees understand how and why route access standards
differ; and to be exposed to best practices from around
the US and abroad.
-
Successful
Advocacy - From Outside and Inside
(Meeting Room F)
Workshop 61 - The transformation of
a transportation agency’s attitude of “Bikes
and peds, yeah, we got a guy who does that,” to
a formal policy of “Bicycling and walking accommodations…will
be included in the everyday operations of our transportation
system,” doesn’t just ‘happen.’
Tom Dodds, (South Carolina Dept. of Transportation),
discusses how such transformation in South Carolina
was sparked by a series of statewide annual conferences.
These meetings were crucial in getting the right people
connected so that progress and change take place and
evolution continues. Learn what goes into successful
statewide conferences. Mark Wyatt, (Iowa Bicycle Coalition),
then discusses building advocacy organizations from
the ground up, and how to capture the momentum from
a single issue that polarizes your community? Wyatt
uses as an example the creation of and projects undertaken
by the Iowa Bicycle Coalition, and shows how to build
an organization from volunteers to paid staff.
12 noon
Closing Plenary Session
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