When Your Main Street is a State Highway: Context Sensitive Solutions for Rural Communities

On behalf of Kittelson & Associates, Inc. in Sacramento (formerly Dowling Associates) we are pleased to invite you to attend our new Transportation Education Series (TES) workshop. These interactive workshops focus on a wide range of topics and are intended to promote professional development and advancements in transportation engineering and planning. The sessions also provide a unique forum for transportation professionals from a wide range of public agencies to share their ideas, best practices, and challenges. Participants earn credits that can be applied to continuing education requirements. We have a wonderful opportunity lined up on May 23rd.

About the Workshop

Rural areas all over the country grapple with the balancing the livability of local communities with regional transportation needs when a state highway runs through them. This workshop, offered free of charge to public agency staff, will summarize a process by which state highway administrations and local agencies can work together to meet the needs of local communities and regional travel demands through context-sensitive design and the application of procedures in the Highway Safety Manual. Lunch will be provided.

The first presentation will outline a stakeholder engagement process for transportation projects that gets beyond street trees and colors of paving and into the fabric of the community. The basis for this process was initially established in the publication When Main Street is a State Highway – Blending Function, Beauty and Identity – A Handbook for Communities and Designers. This handbook, created by the Maryland State Highway Administration, was in response to a mandate from Maryland’s governor to make state investments serve the localities where they’re placed. The field-tested process is the result of several years of experimentation with community-oriented projects, extensive agency input, and the contributions of many local communities and citizens’ groups. When implemented, this process benefits everyone, as the early and continuous involvement of stakeholders result in project development transparency and engenders collaborative solutions to issues.

The second presentation will highlight how the Highway Safety Manual has been applied to inform transportation projects such as corridor studies, long range planning and design activities. The 1st Edition of AASHTO’s Highway Safety Manual provides engineers and planners with tools to conduct quantitative safety analyses. The ability to quantify the effects of safety improvements is valuable for transportation professionals looking to fund and prioritize projects. The information in the HSM is especially useful as transportation professionals work to improve livability and enhance local economies.

Session attendees can expect to learn about:

This Transportation Education Series workshop will start promptly at Noon and will run until 1:30 PM on Wednesday, May 23rd. There is no cost to attend this session and the workshop is equal to 1.5 professional Development Hours (PDH). Lunch will be provided.

We look forward to seeing you there!

About the Speakers

Yolanda Takesian Associate Planner, Kittelson & Associates, Inc, Baltimore, Maryland

Yolanda offers more than 20 years of planning experience bridging engineering, planning, urban design, and economics to enhance areas seeking more walkable, bikable, transit-friendly transportation systems. Her collaborative approach and understanding of public process and implementation tools engages decision makers and community members to create plans that are technically, financially, and politically achievable. Prior to joining Kittelson & Associates, Inc., Yolanda served as Assistant Chief of the Maryland State Highway Administration’s Community Design Division where she managed the planning of over 80 Neighborhood Conservation Design Projects to revitalize communities through retrofitting state facilities. Her work there included authoring When Main Street is a State Highway – Blending Function, Beauty and Identity – A Handbook for Communities and Designers. Her collaborative approach, understanding of public process and knowledge of implementation tools engages decision makers and community members to bring about technically, financially, and politically achievable plans and policies.

Erin Ferguson Engineer, Kittelson & Associates, Inc., Portland, Oregon

Through her work as an engineer with Kittelson & Associates, Erin’s influenced the integration of safety into transportation planning and engineering on both a local and national scale. She was one of the authors of AASHTO’s Highway Safety Manual (HSM) and has taught HSM applications to engineers, planners and analysts across the US including courses in Arizona, California, Oregon, Maryland, Florida, Alaska and Utah. In addition to the safety applications and research, Erin also brings seven years of experience in transportation planning and preliminary design.

Brian Ray Principal Engineer, Kittelson & Associates, Inc., Portland, Oregon

Brian offers more than 25 years' experience in multi-modal transportation planning, traffic engineering, and contextual roadway design. He has performed location design and engineering evaluations for a variety of corridor studies and environmental impact review documents across the United States. He specializes in applying a systems approach in developing transportation solutions. His arterial experience includes conventional and modern roundabout intersection design. His design experience includes developing and evaluating conceptual alternatives for freeway, highway, and arterial street systems. His safety related experience includes serving as a technical senior resource and providing quality assurance review for integrating safety into existing planning and design processes and projects as well as oversight and guidance for developing training course materials on how to perform safety analysis. Brian routinely conducts training courses on applying the Highway Safety Manual, Roadway Geometric Design, Modern Roundabouts, and Context Sensitive Solutions.

Event Materials