Designing and Retrofitting Bridges for Active Transportation
Wednesday, August 17
2:00 to 3:00 p.m. Central Time
Bridges are highly visible and symbolic pieces of infrastructure; they act as gateways and when done right can showcase a city's commitment to creating great places for bicycling and walking. With national attention on the USA's degrading and deficient infrastructure, bridge repair and rehabilitation will be a major engineering focus in coming years. This represents a historic opportunity to incorporate bicycle and pedestrian facilities in bridge design for future generations.
Engineers, planners, advocates, and agency staff at all levels of government should attend this webinar to get up to speed on the policy, planning and design issues specific to building bridges that meet goals for supporting and increasing active transportation. Attendees will learn:
• to identify the role of bridges in bicycle and pedestrian networks as critical links for accessibility between trip generators and popular destinations;
• to define bicycle and pedestrian issues that arise during bridge rehabilitation in order to increase bicycling and walking mode share and safety;
• to identify facility designs that safely manage transitions from different facility types, as well as how to select the appropriate cross section (i.e. how to divide space among different roadway users);
• to recognize that bridge rehabilitations often involve multiple jurisdictions, and to discuss the complexities and lessons learned from working with numerous agencies and stakeholders.
Examples will be taken from Massachusetts' accelerated bridge retrofit program in the Charles River Basin. Click on this link to learn the background about LivableStreets Alliance's Charles River Better Bridges Campaign. Click here to read the League of American Bicyclists' policy report, Bridging the Gaps in Bicycling Networks: An advocate's guide to getting bikes on bridges.
Presenters are Jacqueline Douglas, Director, LivableStreets Alliance, and Nick Jackson, the Regional Office Director for Toole Design Group in Boston.