CNU holds first statewide workshop for transportation professionals

Norman Garrick, standing, directs a small group of Illinois engineers
at CNU’s transportation workshop.

Early in February, CNU partnered with the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) to host one of a growing number of workshops focused on the Designing Walkable Urban Thoroughfares manual – coauthored by CNU with the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE). This was the largest workshop of its kind with more than 80 participants in two days – including members of the Illinois Department of Transportation (DOT), county DOTs, municipal agencies and private firms. Similar events have been held in Elgin, IL, Blue Springs, MO, and Atlanta.

The most recent workshop familiarized designers in the Chicago area with the principles and impacts of walkable thoroughfares in order to advance the region’s comprehensive plan – GO TO 2040 – and the state’s context sensitive solutions policy.

Stacey Meekins of Sam Schwartz Engineering in Chicago led the event with help from CNU Board Members Marcy McInelly and Norman Garrick and Past ITE Presidents Rock Miller and Ken Voigt. The event’s leaders focused heavily on the impacts of design decisions on safety and on economic vitality.

Garrick, associate professor of civil engineering at UConn, emphasized the importance of protecting the roads’ most vulnerable users or “those who take to the street without armor,” quoting the World Bank’s Stephen Plowden. Miller — a transportation engineer with Stantec Consulting — reminded participants that the standards intended to assure safety sometimes fall short, encouraging them to rely also on their judgment.

On the first of two days, Mayor Larry Morrissey of Rockford, IL, joined CNU President and former Milwaukee Mayor John Norquist to stress the important role that transportation design plays in urban revitalization.

For part of the workshop, participants were asked to brainstorm in small groups and propose ways of improving safety, enhancing economic opportunities and meeting the needs of pedestrians and bicyclists. This exercise focused on two communities just outside of Chicago – Alsip and Blue Island. Both communities are receiving local technical assistance from CMAP. Some participants struggled to reconcile the ITE recommended practice with their existing guidelines and practices. However, most participants indicated the workshop would help them better plan and design safe, vibrant thoroughfares for a wider variety of road users.

The workshop was supported by a grant from the Chicago Community Trust as part of an ongoing effort to implement a wider range of transportation and land use strategies in the Chicago area. CNU will continue to work with workshop participants in their continued efforts to implement the Designing Walkable Urban Thoroughfares and other urban design principles. 

An upcoming workshop is scheduled for City of Twinsburg, Ohio, as part of the Livability Solutions coalition program.

For more on past and future Designing Walkable Thoroughfares workshops, visit cnu.org/streets/illinois