CNU to Explore Equity + Transportation at NYC Summit

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Join engineers, planners, designers, and public officials from across the U.S. at the 2014 CNU Project for Transportation Reform Summit October 1-3, 2014 at the Ford Foundation Building in New York City. 

This year’s Summit, Equity + Transportation, will focus on the interaction between equity and transportation and how we can redefine transportation standards to support safe, vibrant, and equitable streets. 

For decades, U.S. transportation policy gave priority to automobile movement over the social and economic needs of the people living along our streets. Highways and wide arterials divided pre-existing neighborhoods, degraded the public realm, and created travel spaces unsafe for pedestrians and bicyclists. Much of CNU’s transportation work — such as our Highways to Boulevards initiative and the CNU/ITE collaboration Designing Walkable Urban Thoroughfares — helps to reverse decades of inequity.

This three-day summit of presentations, discussions, tours, and working meetings will challenge participants to identify research opportunities, policy strategies, and design approaches that make transportation policy more holistic and equitable. These discussions around Equity + Transportation will form the basis of CNU’s work on this topic for the upcoming year.

The purpose of the Summit is to explore the following questions:

1. How do we revitalize corridors in distressed communities?
2. How do we complete “incomplete” streets by building great, beautiful and equitable streets?
3. Is there a research, policy, or design gap in this area that CNU could address? If so, what?

VISIT TRANSPORTATION SUMMIT PAGE

Wednesday Reception Guest: Polly Trottenberg, Department of Transportation Commissioner, City of New York

Polly Trottenberg was sworn in as Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Commissioner of the New York City Department of Transportation on January 27, 2014. Responsible for one of the largest portfolios of any municipal agency, DOT provides for the safe, efficient and sustainable movement of people and goods throughout the five boroughs.

With DOT serving as one of the lead agencies in implementing Mayor de Blasio's Vision Zero traffic safety initiative, Trottenberg’s priorities include establishing policies and programs to dramatically reduce traffic fatalities and injuries and continue the effort to make New York's streets the safest in the country. Trottenberg is also focused on improving public space and transportation options, including Select Bus Service and cycling, in underserved neighborhoods so that all New Yorkers have access to jobs, education and opportunities to improve their daily lives.

Trottenberg’s 22 years of government experience include over four years at USDOT, most recently as the Under Secretary of Transportation for Policy, where she developed key initiatives for the Obama Administration, including the groundbreaking TIGER discretionary grant program. In 2008, Trottenberg was named as the first Executive Director of Building America’s Future, a non-profit organization that advocates for increased investment in infrastructure and major transportation policy reform. During her 12 years on Capitol Hill, Trottenberg served with U.S. Senators Charles Schumer, Daniel Patrick Moynihan and Barbara Boxer. Prior to her work in Congress, Trottenberg also served at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Trottenberg holds a B.A. in History from Barnard College and an M.P.P. from the Kennedy School of Government and lives in Brooklyn.

Visit the 2014 CNU Project for Transportation Reform Summit page to learn about working groups, tours, speakers, and more.