Applications are now open for up to three state Complete Streets Leadership Academies. These free technical assistance programs are designed to help state DOTs and local communities work together to put Complete Streets into practice…
The Florida Department of Transportation is making major strides toward improving pedestrian and bicycle safety through its Complete Streets Implementation initiative. One of FDOT’s most innovative achievements has been the recent adoption of eight context classifications to guide road design decisions. While the concept of context classification is not new, FDOT is one of the first states to operationalize it within formal decision-making processes.
This week we look at FDOT’s plans to improve pedestrian conditions, distracted driving, congestion pricing, and more.
Public transit battles the “Uber effect”, cities implement new technologies to reduce bus travel times, and high-quality investments in buses are paying off.
How can transportation and land use professionals more effectively measure success — especially for transit riders and potential transit users? Two emerging technologies—accessibility metrics and trip-making data from mobile devices—are helping answer the challenging questions of where people are going and how easily they can get there. Connecting Sacramento, a new study from SSTI, puts these methods to the test by identifying and prioritizing first- and last-mile connections to transit.
DOTs across the country are looking for innovative and flexible ways to meet users’ needs in ways that cost less to build and maintain. Accelerating Practical Solutions is an opportunity for six state DOTs to win a one-day workshop with our expert transportation staff.
For the past several years Smart Growth America has been helping state departments of transportation improve safety and reliability, preserve their assets, and accelerate project delivery to expand economic opportunity and create healthier, more livable communities.
Our Innovative DOT program has worked with state DOTs in Florida, Vermont, Hawaii, Michigan, Minnesota, Oregon, and Tennessee. And over those years, we’ve released three editions of The Innovative DOT: A handbook of policy and practice, one of the most comprehensive guides available for DOTs committed to innovative excellence, in partnership with the State Smart Transportation Initiative (SSTI).
Earlier this month we released the third edition of The Innovative DOT: A handbook of policy and practice. The new and improved guide includes tools for state DOTs working to improve safety, alleviate congestion, improve system reliability, accelerate project delivery, preserve valuable assets, reduce environmental impacts, and enhance economic opportunities—all in an era of constrained budgets.
We want to make it as easy as possible to use the new guide, so Smart Growth America and our co-authors the State Smart Transportation Initiative are hosting a free webinar all about it.
Join us tomorrow, January 27, 2015 at 3:00 PM EST to learn about new features of the 2015 edition and to discuss how transportation professionals have applied the manual. Hear from panelists Billy Fields, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Texas State University; Roger Millar, Vice President of Smart Growth America and Director of Smart Growth America’s Leadership Institute; Adetokunbo “Toks” Omishakin, Deputy Commissioner/Chief of Environment & Planning at the Tennessee DOT; and Chris Spahr, SSTI Project Assistant. The speakers will highlight new features in the third edition, and how state DOTs across the country are already putting the manual into action.
State transportation officials across the country are facing the same challenges: Revenues are falling and budgets are shrinking but transportation demands are continuing to grow.
Innovative approaches can help transportation officials overcome both these sets of challenges, and an updated resource from Smart Growth America and the State Smart Transportation Initiative (SSTI) outlines how.
The second edition of The Innovative DOT, released today, provides 34 strategies transportation officials can use to position their agencies for success in a new era of constrained budgets. Originally released in 2012 and developed with input from top transportation professionals and agency staff from around the nation, the handbook documents many of the innovative approaches state leaders are using to make systems more efficient, government more effective and constituents better satisfied.
“America’s transportation system is vital for economic growth and to our everyday quality of life,” said Roger Millar, Vice President of Smart Growth America. “Faced with tight budgets, transportation agencies are taking new approaches to managing our nation’s transportation infrastructure. The resources in The Innovative DOT encourage smarter investments and a more strategic approach to help deliver the best possible performance given our current fiscal situation.”