2020 Transportation Conference – Wednesday Breakout Sessions

How school siting effects students, parents, and taxpayers
Presenter: Chris Danley

An overview of how school district determine future campus locations and the continual effects on students, parents, and tax payers over the life cycle of the school. The session will examine transportation impacts, busing and fiscal impacts, and the cumulative health effects using Idaho examples. Attendees will gain an understanding of the school siting process, the results on walking and bicycling rates, and the multiple long term costs associated with large campus and isolated locations.

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Canals Connect Communities
Presenters: Nina Schaeffer and Eric Willadsen

Progress on Expanding Canal Infrastructure to Include Bike/Ped Pathways. A coalition of bike/ped advocates, environmental organizations, recreational groups, and many others have come together to work on constructing a connected network of pathways across the Treasure Valley using the existing infrastructure of our regions canal system. This session will discuss how we built this coalition, our progress on connecting with communities and decision makers, and what’s to come in the future.

A holistic look at the value of walking
Presenter: Carl Whaley

The value of walking, and its link to quality of life, social capital and freedom of mobility. A deeper understanding of the history of walking and the impact it has on all phases of our lives.

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Building cycling education in Moscow, Idaho
Presenter: Erin Bacon

Moscow Idaho is bike friendly community with newly completed infrastructure to support safe cycling to many popular destinations. While our ridership remains at a solid 4% (4 times higher than the national and state average at 1%) our ridership has decreased over the last decade. This presentation will outline ideas for taking an evidence-based approach to cycling education to encourage ridership and help reduce barriers using the League of American Bicyclists materials and League Certified Instructor program.

Creating accessible communities
Presenter: Jeremy Maxand and Dianna Willis

This discussion will look at the history of the Americans with Disabilities Act, how this civil rights law has changed our built environments and how we communicate, local success stories around transportation and access, and how we can move forward (and beyond) the ADA through emerging technology and greater community collaboration.

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The transportation index
Presenters: Francoise Cleveland and Dr. Tom Trotter

Transportation serves as a major determinant of community livability in helping to create ‘great neighborhoods for all ages.’ How easily and safely we’re able to get from one place to another has a major effect on our quality of life. Livable communities provide their residents with transportation options that connect people to social activities, economic opportunities, and medical care, and offer convenient, healthy, accessible, and low-cost alternatives to driving. This session focuses on how AARP (1) defines livability in general, and transportation in particular, (2) measures its level of development, (3) formulates action planning for further development, (4) assesses progress made in implementing improvements in this arena, and (5) how your community measures up.

Families for safe streets
Presenters: Courtney Wyatt and Don Kostelec

This session will introduce attendees to the Idaho chapter of Families for Safe Streets, an advocacy group consisting of family members who have either lost a loved one in traffic violence, had someone they care about severely injured in traffic violence, or themselves been impacted. The presenters will explore why this advocacy group is so important based on crash data and statistics, both nationally and statewide. World Day of Remembrance will be introduced and suggested for participants to hold something in their own community. These discussions are facets of Vision Zero, a road safety project focused on achieving zero traffic deaths.

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How to engage elected officials
Presenter: Elaine Clegg

This session will have a short presentation and guided discussion on the most effective strategies for engaging elected officials effectively. Be prepared to share examples, good and not so good, of your prior engagement with your elected officials and what you and others can learn from those experiences.

How land use decisions impact transportation choices
Presenter: Deanna Smith

Learn how land use and development patterns impact mode choice and tools cities can use to achieve land use patterns that encourage walking and/or biking.

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Tree canopy and walkability
Presenter: Lance Davisson

Our Living Infrastructure — Building safe & healthy communities. The Treasure Valley Canopy Network is a public-private partnership organization that builds healthy communities through a lens of collaboration and impact. Our organization, across the greater metropolitan region of Ada and Canyon Counties, builds innovative and collaborative projects that create lasting positive change in the streets of our communities. Our transportation systems, if designed and managed appropriately, can create and interconnected web of living infrastructure. This web will clean our water and air, beautify our surroundings and promote healthy and active lifestyles in all neighborhoods. All of this is possible, if we look at the future of planning and design through the right lens. Join this conversation for a stroll down the path of a greener future.