Three sessions will focus on newest transportation strategies, including suburban bicycle planning and other alternatives to single occupancy vehicles
Silver Spring, MD – The Montgomery County Planning Department, part of the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, in partnership with the National Capital Chapter of the American Planning Association, is sponsoring a three-part Winter Speaker Series in 2016 that will focus on transportation. Smart Moves: New Ideas about Bikes, Cars and Transit will address new approaches to cycling, transit, trails and other alternatives to cars. The ideas generated from the series will help inform the Department’s current plans and policies, including the Bicycle Master Plan and Subdivision Staging Policy update.
The Winter Speakers Series is free and open to the public and planning professionals. Credit for certification maintenance (CM) for members of the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) attending the series is pending.
The presentations, which will include question-and-answer discussions, will be held at the Planning Department headquarters (8787 Georgia Avenue, Silver Spring, MD) from 6 to 7:30 p.m. on the following dates:
Session 1 –Wednesday, January 20, 2016
Speaker: Nat Bottigheimer, DC Region Market Lead, Fehr & Peers, Washington, DC
Topic: Putting the Transition Back in Transit: Bringing a market analysis perspective to transit planning using big data
Session 2 – Tuesday, February 16, 2016
Speaker: Jennifer Toole, President, Toole Design Group, Silver Spring, MD
Topic: Recent approaches to suburban bicycle planning
Session 3 – Wednesday, March 16, 2016
Speaker: Jeffrey Tumlin, Principal and Director of Strategy, Nelson/Nygaard, San Francisco, CA
Topic: Smart development in transitional suburban locations
About Session 1
Putting the Transition back in Transit will address the challenges that surface transit projects – light rail, streetcars, bus rapid transit in the region – face in being implemented and generating the mobility benefits that are among the key motivations and aspirations of these projects. The presentation will highlight these challenges that have been, and continue to be, encountered, as well as look at the tools and processes that are most common in transit planning.
The presentation will include some new approaches to surface transit planning that rely on new and developing data sources. These sources offer the potential to thread the narrow space between the rock of roadway widening and the hard place of converting general purpose lanes to dedicated transit lanes.
For more information, go to Montgomeryplanning.org/smartmoves
Use #smartmoves
Speaker Bios
Nat Bottigheimer of DC-based Fehr & Peers is a transportation planner with a background in public policy and real estate economics. Until 2012, Nat was an assistant general manager at Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), where he promoted bike and pedestrian access, sustainability and bus priority investment. He has expertise in planning for rail station access, transit and land use, and is a recognized expert in transit-oriented development.
Jennifer Toole, president of Toole Design Group in Silver Spring, has a keen understanding of how to design streets that work for all users. She has been involved in numerous projects of national significance for the Federal Highway Administration, American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. In 2008, Jennifer was honored with the Professional of the Year award from the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals.
Jeffery Tumlin of San Francisco-based Nelson/Nygaard has led award-winning plans in cities from Seattle and Vancouver to Moscow and Abu Dhabi. He helps balance all modes of transportation in densely developed places to achieve a community’s goals and best utilize limited resources. He has developed plans throughout the world that accommodate millions of square feet of growth with no net increase in motor vehicle traffic. Jeff is the author of the book Sustainable Transportation Planning: Tools for Creating Healthy, Vibrant and Resilient Communities.