This week I attended the National Planning Conference organized by the American Planning Association (APA) in Denver, Colorado.
Highlights:
Lightning Talks on Transportation
In a Pecha-Kucha style talk, I told the story of the explosion of the global Bike Bus movement, in the presentation: “The Bike Bus Movement: Inspiring Kids and Communities”
It was a pleasure to share the stage with:
Emily Kennedy, AICP who described the methods used for greenway design in New York City.
David Fields, FAICP who described Houston’s design process for downtown pedestrianization.
Kate Schwartz who introduced new spatial tools for identifying patterns in transportation inequity.
I look forward to riding New York greenways soon (end of April) and would really like to see the Houston project when completed. Great work Emily, David and Kate!
Denver’s Downtown Transformation.
Denver has done extraordinary work transforming its downtown and protecting historic heritage buildings in the wake of destructive urban renewal of the 1970s.
Ken Schroeppel, AICP gave us an unforgettable walking tour of the downtown, packed with insights and stories.
Denver has made progress in developing bicycle infrastructure
Denver has created a network of protected bike lanes to promote active travel. They use a variety of designs, including the ‘armadillo’ designed by ZICLA. It was great to see a bit of Barcelona in Denver.
The Broadway design used low cement blocks, that create small pedestrian islands. Brett Boncore, PE explained that this design:
☆Provides a high sense of safety for bike users and is one of the most prefered options, only surpassed by a design with planters (which has high maintenance cost)
☆Is low cost
☆Has low maintenance
☆Provides pedestrian space for those accessing vehicles.
Denver has energy.
In a fabulous neighbourhood tour led by Emily Burrowes, I felt the energy and vibrancy of a city eager to grow taller and build community.
The highlight was the I-70 cover project, which has created a park, soccer field and playground over the I-170 highway
Thank you Denver for the wonderful visit.
