ITE has recently released a groundbreaking new recommended practice, Designing Walkable Urban Thoroughfares: A Context Sensitive Approach. This Web briefing will provide a detailed overview of the contents of this newly released report along with supplemental information and case studies to demonstrate real world implementation of the concepts included in this report. This report was produced by ITE and the Congress for the New Urbanism with financial support from FHWA and EPA.This Web briefing is ideal for transportation professionals including, urban architects, planners, landscape architects, land use planners, street design professionals and consultants and government agencies.

At the conclusion of the course, participants should be able to:

1) Identify the benefits of these principles and how they are applied in designing walkable urban thoroughfares.
2) Classify “context” for purposes of thoroughfare design.
3) Identify thoroughfare types that are compatible with context.
4) Demonstrate and reference specific design criteria for thoroughfare elements that promote walkability.
5) Use case studies and references as examples of CSS implementation.

James M. Daisa, P.E., Kimley Horn and Associates, Inc., Pleasanton, CA, USA and John Norquist,  Congress for the New Urbanism, Chicago, IL, USA

James M. Daisa has more than 20 years of experience in transportation planning and traffic engineering. Mr. Daisa manages a broad range of projects from downtown revitalization to regional transportation plans. He is one of the Kimley-Horn’s specialists in the planning and design of pedestrian and transit-oriented communities, traffic calming and multi-modal street design. He is responsible for developing policy documents, circulation plans, parking studies, design standards, pedestrian and bicycle networks, station design, and transit system planning. In addition to community planning, Mr. Daisa develops street design guidelines that integrate the principles of Context Sensitive Solutions. He is experienced in conventional highway and interchange planning and conceptual design through his work on corridor studies, Project Study Reports, and alternatives analysis for freeways and interchanges. Mr. Daisa authored “Creating Livable Streets: Street Design Guidelines for 2040”, which won EPA’s “Way to Go” award. He also served as Project Manager and primary author of ITE’s “Proposed Recommended Practice for Context Sensitive Solutions in Designing Major Urban Thoroughfares for Walkable Communities.”

John Norquist's work promoting New Urbanism as an alternative to sprawl and antidote to sprawl's social and environmental problems draws on his experience as big-city mayor and prominent participant in national discussions on urban design and school reform. John was the Mayor of Milwaukee from 1988-2004. Under his leadership, Milwaukee experienced a decline in poverty, saw a boom in new downtown housing, and became a leading center of education and welfare reform. He oversaw a revision of the city's zoning code and reoriented development around walkable streets and public amenities such as the city's 3.1-mile Riverwalk. Named a Governing magazine Public Official of the Year during his tenure as Mayor, he also widespread recognition for championing the removal of a .8 mile stretch of elevated freeway, clearing the way for an anticipated $250 million in infill development in the heart of Milwaukee. A leader in national discussions of urban design and educational issues, Norquist is the author of The Wealth of Cities, and has taught courses in urban policy and urban planning at the University of Chicago, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee School of Architecture and Urban Planning, and at Marquette University. Norquist served in the Army Reserves from 1971 to 1977, earned his undergraduate and master's degrees from the University of Wisconsin.