CNU to Participate at ITE Midwestern District Meeting and TRB 4th Urban Street Symposium

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Next week, CNU will take part in the ITE Midwestern District Meeting & TRB 4th Urban Street Symposium in downtown Chicago. The joint ITE/TRB conference will run Sunday, June 24 through Wednesday, June 27, and includes sessions, tours, panel discussions, and small-group meetings covering a broad range of transportation topics.

CNU's President and CEO, John Norquist, will deliver the lunchtime keynote address on Monday, June 25 from 12-1:30pm.

Additional CNU sessions include:

Safety and Street Connectivity (part of “Tradeoffs in Street Design” session)
Monday, June 25, 10:30am-12:00pm
Speakers: Eric Dumbaugh, Associate Professor and Interim Director, School of Urban and Regional Planning, Florida Atlantic University and Jacky Grimshaw, VP for Policy, CNT
Description: Since the advent of the automobile, city planners and transportation engineers have moved away from the traditional urban grid to systems of winding roads and cul-de-sacs. While we think these meandering streets to be more private—and as a result safer—research has shown that they are in fact the opposite. Instead of exclusive neighborhoods that keep out unwanted uses and traffic, we have been designing communities that make us drive more, keep us disconnected from one another, and ultimately make us less safe and healthy. It turns out that street connectivity—specifically well-connected networks of traditional street grids—is essential to good urbanism and overall community life safety.

If you miss Eric's presentation on Monday, be sure to catch up with Eric and CNU Illinois for a Happy Hour on Monday evening. In addition, Mark de la Vergne and Steven Vance will join Eric to talk about what makes a street safe and what Chicago is doing to improve conditions. Happy hour will begin at 5:30pm at the Jefferson Tap. More details available here.

Using Context Sensitive Solutions for Walkable Thoroughfare Design: Lancaster Avenue in Fort Worth, Texas (part of “Considering Context Sensitive Solutions” session)
Monday, June 25, 1:30-3:00pm
Speaker: Beverly Storey, Texas Transportation Institute

Emergency Response and Street Design (part of “Street Design” session)
Monday, June 25, 3:30-5:00pm
Speaker: Heather Smith, Planning Director, CNU
Description: In recent years, New Urbanists and firefighters have discovered both common interests and shared challenges in neighborhood street design. The Emergency Response & Street Design Initiative, a collaboration between the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU), fire marshals from across the United States, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Smart Growth program, is working to reconcile narrower streets and good emergency access. Additionally, these groups have found that street connectivity — specifically well-connected networks of traditional street grids — is essential to good urbanism, shortens emergency response times, and improves overall community life safety.

Renewing Elgin: Applying the CNU/ITE Walkable Urban Thoroughfares Guide in Elgin, Illinois (part of “Evolving Context Sensitive Solution Guidelines” session)
Monday, June 25, 3:30-5:00pm
Speaker: Johanna Bye, Program Assistant, CNU
Description: Healthy, vibrant and welcoming places require walkable streets—convenient thoroughfares to walk, bike, drive, use transit, and live our daily lives. CNU and ITE have developed a new resource, Designing Walkable Urban Thoroughfares: A Context Sensitive Approach, to help implement the essential requirements. The manual is a recommended practice for local communities to apply context-sensitive solutions to street design, and acts as a how-to document that illustrates best practices for the creation and implementation of walkable, mixed-use streets. In February 2010, CNU leaders met with city officials and planners from Elgin, Illinois for the first implementation of the new guidelines. This session will discuss the manual, its role in creating more well-connected, walkable streets, and its implementation in Elgin.

Presenting the Model Design Manual for Living Streets (part of “Evolving Context Sensitive Solution Guidelines” session)
Monday, June 25, 3:30-5:00pm
Speaker: Ryan Snyder, President, Ryan Snyder Associates

Context Sensitive Solutions for a Livable City: The Wilmington Downtown Circulation Study (part of “Evolving Context Sensitive Solution Guidelines” session)
Monday, June 25, 3:30-5:00pm
Speaker: Jeff Riegner, Whitman, Requardt & Associates

Charlotte’s Urban Street Design Guidelines: Lessons Learned from 5 Years of Implementing Projects (part of “Evolving Context Sensitive Solution Guidelines” session)
Monday, June 25, 3:30-5:00pm
Speaker: Tracy Newsome, Charlotte DOT

Workshop #5: Rethinking Street Design for Livability
Tuesday, June 26, 1:30-5:00pm
Speaker: Kenneth H. Voigt (Ayers Associates) and CNU Wisconsin Chapter President
Description: What would streets look like if they accommodated people of all ages and abilities, promoted healthy urban living, social interaction and business, the movement of people and goods and regeneration of the environment? How will the form and function of streets change as we adopt new technologies? Learn about the latest research on street design and apply the nine elements of street design that affect the quality of life in your community. Street design considerations include mobility for all users and green infrastructure as well as considerations of signage/wayfinding, livability and streetscape. The workshop will offer guidance for creating a network of streets types unique to your city, based on specific needs of your residents and business community and its social, cultural and environmental character.

Freeways Without Futures: Surveying the Landscape of Teardowns (poster session)
Afternoons of Monday and Tuesday, June 25-26
Presenter: Tim Huff, Program Assistant, CNU
Description: CNU recently released its 2012 “Freeways Without Futures” list, which recognizes the top-twelve locations for urban freeway removal. The report focuses on where opportunity is greatest to stimulate revitalization though boulevard conversion and other cost-saving, value-producing urban alternatives. CNU's poster discusses the identifying factors for urban freeway removal projects and surveys the landscape of freeway teardown projects across North America.

For registration information, please visit the conference website here.

We hope to see you in Chicago June 24-27! And get ready for CNU's 2012 Transportation Summit, taking place September 9-10 in Long Beach, CA (prior to the Pro Walk/Pro Bike conference).