<div dir="ltr"><span><b>STREET
TALK! </b></span><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr"><p><b>
"Transportation reform for the US- are
Americans ready?"<br>
Thu. Aug. 21, 7 - 8:30 pm<br>
</b>by Gary Toth, Director of Transportation
Initiatives for the <a href="http://www.pps.org/info/bulletin/back_to_basics_in_transportation" target="_blank">Project for Public
Spaces</a><br>
@ LivableStreets office space, 100 Sidney
Street,
Central Square, Cambridge <a href="http://www.livablestreets.info/node/530" target="_blank">[
map... ]
</a></p>
<p><img align="right" height="32" width="100"><i>free and
open to the public, donation suggested,
beer/sodas
provided compliments of Harpoon Brewery!</i></p>
<p><a href="http://livablestreets.info/files/first_project_pic.jpg" target="_blank"><img align="left" border="0" width="300"></a><b>"The decisions
engineers make will affect people's lives. The street
can't be looked at as just a vessel for cars. It's a place
with many uses. What we want to do is try to help
foster sustainable, livable communities,"
</b>Toth says. </p>
<p> That's strong stuff coming from an
engineer with 34 years experience inside the highway
bureaucracy. And it's not just a line he throws out to
soothe angry citizens' groups--Gary Toth during his
tenure at NJDOT actually changed the way engineers
think. In the old days, NJDOT would give most street
widenings the green light, but Toth is dedicated to
halting this vicious cycle. Instead of funneling all traffic
from every residential and commercial property onto
the strip, NJDOT is encouraging towns to create
networks of streets with mixed-use developments,
dispersing traffic over the whole system. The idea is to
create livable corridors rather than endless sprawl.
Sounds simple enough, but it's actually a revolutionary
change in suburban transportation and land use
planning. He notes how Kentucky, Utah, Florida,
Vermont and other states are joining New Jersey in
seriously studying Context Sensitive Solutions--the
discipline's name for looking at streets and roads as
something more than simply a way to move traffic.
"It's becoming a national movement with 20 or
25 states already showing some signs of getting
away from the same old myopia." </p>
<p>Gary has left NJDOT to focus on bigger
transportation reform in America. He is an integral
member of the T4America Coalition, which is working
to shape the content of the next federal transportation
bill. He is currently one of the eight instructors for
USDOT's "Training Course on Transportation
and Land Use." He is also a member of the
Sustainable Urban Design Working Group of the
American Public Transit Association and a member of
the Strategic Highway Research Program's
Technical Coordinating Committee for Capacity. He
was also part of the Sustainable Transportation Study
Team charged with creating a conceptual plan for
presentation to the US Congress, which ensures that
the surface transportation system will continue to
serve the needs of the U.S. throughout the 21st
Century. Gary works part time for the <a href="http://www.pps.org/info/bulletin/back_to_basics_in_transportation" target="_blank">Project for Public
Spaces</a> as Director of Transportation
Initiatives.</p>
<p>Gary was featured in the article, <a href="http://livablestreets.info/files/governing_oct2005_engineeringspeed.pdf" target="_blank">"Rethinking the Urban
Speedway,"</a> (For decades, highway
engineers focused on designing wider, straighter,
faster roads. Now, moving traffic quickly is no longer
the sole goal), Governing Magazine, October 2005.
"The traditional engineering solution to road
problems is to make the road wider, straighter and
faster," Toth says. "Well, wider,
straighter and faster is not always better."</p>
<p><i>This event is sponsored by LivableStreets
Alliance</i></p>
<p><a href="http://www.livablestreets.info/node/1605" target="_blank">Click here for more
information</a>
</p></div>
</div><br></div>