Active transportation refers to modes of travel that do not involved motorized vehicles; the most prominent examples includes biking and walking, although sometimes active transportation can be supplemented by motorized vehicles (e.g., walking to a transit stop, using manual pedal power on an electric-assisted bicycle). Active transportation is a key element to providing individuals with a choice of transportation options when moving from origin to destination, and is important to enhancing the safety, health, and overall livability of a community.
ITE is a strong supporter of active transportation, and strives to provide a number of different resources from ITE and partners in this realm. Please see below for some key resources to access:
Context sensitive solutions (CSS) refer to those the planning, design, construction, and operation of transportation facilities to enhance community livability. CSS considers not only the goals of safety and mobility for a facility, but also the goals of the surrounding community in which the facility exists. This can include factors such as land use, aesthetics, historical considerations, and environmental quality.
CSS emphasizes a holistic process to transportation development, beginning with a multi-stakeholder community input process, and continuing throughout the lifecycle of the transportation facility to accommodate and enhance the desires of the community. CSS is a necessary, but not sufficient, element of the larger Complete Streets movement; that is, while Complete Streets multimodal access and safety (of which CSS is a critical element), not all CSS requires accommodation of every mode of travel. It could be that in certain contexts, it makes sense to provide separate but parallel routes to different modes of travel, for example, depending on the operating characteristics of the transportation facility, the surrounding land use, and the broader community goals.
ITE champions the CSS process in all transportation infrastructure project development and operation. Below are a few key resources that can be used on educating transportation professionals about Complete Streets, CSS, and Context Sensitive Design (which is one part of CSS):
Accommodations for freight are an important consideration in the Complete Streets process. Now more than ever, with the rise of ecommerce and just-in-time delivery, the is a need to ensure that freight vehicles, particularly smaller delivery trucks, have safe and efficient access to residential and commercial infrastructure. Additionally, the curb space in urban areas gets ever more crowded, due to ridesharing, multimodal roadway users, and community design concepts that encourage active transportation (e.g., outdoor patios, pedestrian malls), having adequate capacity for freight vehicles is critical to ensuring the continued economic prosperity of a region.
Below are some resources that can help to guide transportation professionals in the freight design and freight management space:
Traffic calming is an important element of safety and speed management within Complete Streets; it ensures that higher speed motorized vehicles operate in a manner that is safe and consistent with non-motorized users, through the use of physical devices, pavement markings, and roadway use policies.
ITE has a number of traffic calming resources through its website and partners, such as FHWA, which can be accessed below:
Designing and operating roadways to facilitate good access to transit is important within a Complete Streets environment, to provide a link between localized trips and longer-distance travel. In many cases, users walk or bike to a transit station on either end of their trip, and providing safe and efficient access to these facilities can help to reduce traffic congestion, encourage additional non-motorized travel, and foster greater regional economic development.
ITE has a number of resources for transportation professionals looking to implement transit considerations into their jurisdictions: