The project is hosting a great series with VERY SPECIAL transportation experts invited to come to Virginia Beach to brief us and share pictures, ideas and possibilities for our transportation future.

These presentations are free and open to the public
No reservation is required

They'll be held in Tidewater Community College's state of the art Technology Theater

Advanced Technology Center,
1800 College Crescent,
Bldg H-Technology Theater
Virginia Beach, Virginia 23453

All presentations are from 7 - 9 p.m.

Stewart Schwartz

Coalition for Smarter Growth Presentation

Transportation – Thinking Out of the Box

Addressing our transportation challenges has much to do with where and how we grow, and how we design our communities.  Transportation planners are generating creative land use, urban design and transportation project solutions.  This broad-reaching presentation will show the interrelationship of transportation, land use and community design and highlight innovative street network, transit, bicycle/pedestrian and transportation demand management solutions.  You will learn about new tools that we could apply in the Virginia Beach community.  The presentation will be a great introduction to our fall series to be followed by presentations on walkable communities, complete streets, and regional transportation visioning.

Biography

Stewart Schwartz, Executive Director, Coalition for Smarter Growth

Stewart Schwartz is the Executive Director and a founder of the Coalition for Smarter Growth, which he built into the leading smart growth organization in the Washington, DC region, addressing the interconnected issues of land use, transportation, urban design, housing, and energy.  He leads the Reconnecting Virginia transportation reform project and serves on the board of the Virginia Conservation Network.  He is also a founder and board member of the Richmond area Partnership for Smarter Growth.  For the second time in five years the Coalition has been recognized by the Catalogue for Philanthropy as one of the best small charities in the Washington, DC region.

An attorney with experience in land use, transportation and the environment, Mr. Schwartz has worked for the President’s Council on Sustainable Development, the Land Trust Alliance, the Southern Environmental Law Center, and volunteered for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. He is responsible for the strategic direction of the Coalition whose Blueprint for a Better Region makes the case for urban revitalization, transit and transit-oriented development, affordable housing, and more walkable communities.

A veteran who served for 24 years on active and reserve duty with the Navy, Mr. Schwartz earned a B.A. and J.D. from the University of Virginia and an M.A. from Georgetown University. He was recognized in 2002 by the Washington Business Journal as a Business Person of the Year and was a 2009 finalist for their Green Business Visionary Award.  He is a member of the Virginia Bar Association.

Organization Information - www.smartergrowth.net

Our mission is to ensure that transportation and development decisions accommodate growth while revitalizing communities, providing more housing and travel choices, and conserving our natural and historic areas.

Between the Chesapeake Bay and the Blue Ridge, we have a world-class capital city, rich history, and an irreplaceable natural environment. But we face serious challenges from rapid, poorly-planned growth, pollution, traffic, global warming and economic disparities. Public frustration over these issues is at an all time high.

For us, dealing with these challenges is all about where and how we grow. Our Blueprint for a Better Region offers a vision of where and how we can grow in a way that creates great places to live, work and play.

We don't just care about the results of planning our growth - we also care about the process. The best results will come from genuine cooperation between government, business and residents. Whether designing a public plaza or planning a new streetcar line, having all of the facts on the table and open community involvement is key to success.

The region's future is ours to shape. Instead of turning all of our farmland, forests and open space to parking lots and ever wider roads, we can save land by creating more compact, well-designed, and walkable communities. Instead of enduring more traffic, we can provide travel options through transit, walking, bicycling and homes closer to jobs.

Michael Ronkin

Michael worked for the Oregon DOT from 1984 to 2006. The first five years in construction, where he learned the basics of highway design and road building. From 1989 to 2006, he served as the Bicycle/Pedestrian Program Manager, where he helped shape ODOT’s proactive pedestrian and bicycle policies.

Michael is now president of his own consulting firm, and he’s a nationally acknowledged expert in designing streets to better accommodate pedestrians and bicyclists. He can help citizens achieve their goals of place-making, building livable communities, and reaching consensus on critical design issues. Michael regularly offers training courses to engineers and planners, and addresses a variety of audiences on the need to ensure our cities and streets are planned and built with people, not just cars, in mind.

To help achieve these goals, Michael Ronkin is a member of the Complete Streets coalition and is an experienced Complete Streets workshop facilitator.

Mr. Ronkin now lives in Switzerland, where he grew up, and offers a bi-continental perspective on transportation and urban policy.

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Complete Streets Presentation – What is Complete Streets and How Can it Help Virginia Beach?

Introduction to Complete Streets

Ø  Benefits of complete streets

Ø  What a Complete Streets policy means

Ø  The different types of Complete Streets

Ø  Complete Streets and Context Sensitive Solutions

Ø  Reversing the Burden of Proof: All Modes are Considered Equally

Ø  9 elements of effective complete streets policies (including exceptions, best practices)

Q&A Session and discussion on the following questions:

How would Complete Streets benefit your community?  What outcomes are important to you?

The streets of our cities and towns are an important part of the livability of our communities. They ought to be for everyone, whether young or old, motorist or bicyclist, walker or wheelchair user, bus rider or shopkeeper. But too many of our streets are designed only for speeding cars, or worse, creeping traffic jams.

Now, in communities across the country, a movement is growing to complete the streets. States, cities and towns are asking their planners and engineers to build road networks that are safer, more livable, and welcoming to everyone.

Instituting a complete streets policy ensures that transportation planners and engineers consistently design and operate the entire roadway with all users in mind - including bicyclists, public transportation vehicles and riders, and pedestrians of all ages and abilities.

Complete streets are designed and operated to enable safe access for all users. Pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists and transit riders of all ages and abilities must be able to safely move along and across a complete street.

Creating complete streets means transportation agencies must change their orientation toward building primarily for cars. Instituting a complete streets policy ensures that transportation agencies routinely design and operate the entire right of way to enable safe access for all users. Places with complete streets policies are making sure that their streets and roads work for drivers, transit users, pedestrians, and bicyclists, as well as for older people, children, and people with disabilities.

Dan Burden

One of our guests will be Dan Burden, who on November 8th will speak on “Community Walkability and Livability."

Burden is an internationally recognized authority on bicycle and pedestrian facilities and programs, livability, sustainability and Smart Growth. He brings together many disciplines and issues – street design, traffic calming, living streets, public safety, bicycling, and greenways – into a holistic vision for creating healthy, livable, sustainable and prosperous communities.

The video below is of a presentation Mr. Burden gave in 2008:

Amy Inman

Presentation description: 

Making the land-use connection with transit and intercity passenger rail from a station-area and regional level.

Speaker Biography:

Amy Inman, M.S.

Ms. Inman is the Manager of Transit Planning for the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation Planning (DRPT). Amy has her undergraduate degree from Indiana University and her Masters degree from the University of Illinois and has more than 10 years of experience in directing large-scale, multi-modal, transportation planning projects.  Leading Virginia’s Statewide Transit Planning Program, she has established the protocol for linking transit and passenger rail with land-use and multi-modal connectivity.  Amy is currently working with Hampton Roads Transit (HRT) and Williamsburg Area Transit Authority (WATA) to develop the Hampton Roads Regional Transit Vision plan in addition to actively pursuing the development of Statewide Multi-Modal and Public Space Design Guidelines.

The Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation (DRPT) will provide an update of the project scope, work tasks, schedule, and development of Phase II of the Transit Vision Plan with emphasis on Virginia Beach aspects.

Transit Vision Plan Background:

The Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation (DRPT) is managing the development of Phase II of a Transit Vision Plan (TVP) for Hampton Roads. The goal of the TVP is to lay out a robust transit network which can provide substantial mobility by means other than the automobile.  The information and recommendations from the TVP will support the development of a fiscally constrained 2034 Long‐Range Transportation Plan for the region. Additionally, the Transit Vision Plan will be incorporated into a Statewide Transit Plan, as well as the State Surface Transportation Plan.  The Virginia 2035 Statewide Transit Plan will synthesize the transit plans from all regions in Virginia into one plan.

Phase II of the TVP will build upon Phase I work that was completed in 2009.  Phase I work was a comprehensive study that provided a strategic approach for the development and implementation of a robust regional mass transit system. The plan – and the research, analysis, and public process supporting it – had been undertaken by the HRMPO at the request of the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation (DRPT). The Vision Plan recommendations and concepts will be used: (1) by the MPO, CBT, DRTP, and local transit agencies to guide service implementation; and, (2) by local governments as they direct development to transit corridors requiring greater activity prior to service implementation.

The TVP Phase I plan can be viewed at http://www.hrtpo.org/TPO_SpecReports.asp