This Web seminar series is based on the Urban Street Geometric Design handbook. The handbook focuses on geometric and operational characteristics in the urban and suburban street environment, including all classifications of surface streets (local streets, collector streets, arterial streets and their intersections) other than freeways and expressways. The Web seminar and handbook are intended for use by engineers and design professionals with a basic background in the fundamentals of geometric design and traffic engineering. The course titles in the series are: Introduction to Geometric Design, Urban Geometric Design Philosophy and Controls, Goemetric Design Consideration for Local and Collector Streets, Urban Intersection Design, Access Management Techniques for the Design of Safe and Efficient Urban Streets, Urban Street Geometric Design Consideration for Bus and Rail Transit, Successful Design of Urban Arterial Streets and The Keys to Safe and Efficient Roadside Design.

While the courses may be taken separately, participants are encouraged to attend the courses in the scheduled order. See individual modules below for course details and learning objectives. 

Various experts in the transportation profession.

This Introductory Web seminar is intended that this course serve a foundation for the following courses in this series.The topics to be covered in this introductory course include urban geometric design principles, challenges in urban street design, history or urban street design, functional design process, and flexibility in design. 

At the conclusion of the module participants should be able to:

1) Recognize the history and evolution of transportation in cities.
2) Describe the urban street hierarchy and functional classification system.
3) Formulate a functional design process that accommodate the needs of all users and allows for street designs that are compatible with the surrounding area.

Marshall Elizer, P.E., PTOE, Chief Transportation Engineer, Gresham, Smith and Partners, Nashville, TN, USA

Marshall Elizer joined Gresham Smith in 1997 after a twenty-two year career serving local governments in California, Texas, Colorado, and Tennessee. He holds BS and MS degrees in transportation engineering/planning from the University of Tennessee, is a registered Professional Engineer in 14 states, and is certified as a Professional Traffic Operations Engineer.

Marshall has been responsible for roadway planning, design and operations for over 30 years and has served on numerous transportation design task forces and committees during this time. He has most recently served as Editor of ITE’s Urban Street Geometric Design Handbook, and also serves on the Policy Review Committee for the new ITE/CNU publication Designing Walkable Urban Thoroughfares: A Context Sensitive Approach. Marshall is also a member of AASHTO’s Technical Committee on Geometric Design, representing the American Public Works Association.

Marshall is a Past International President of the Institute of Transportation Engineers (1995).

This Web seminar will present the characteristics of vehicles, pedestrians, bicycles and other users of urban streets and explain how they should be considered in the urban street design process.  It will emphasize the interaction of road users, vehicles and the roadway in an urban environment.

At the conclusion of the module participants should be able to:

1) Identify the factors that influence urban street design.
2) Demonstrate the relationship between mobility and access.
3) Identify and define the elements of a roadway cross-section.
4) Discuss concepts related to the roadway design speed.

Marshall Elizer, P.E., PTOE, Chief Transportation Engineer, Gresham, Smith and Partners, Nashville, TN, USA

Marshall Elizer joined Gresham Smith in 1997 after a twenty-two year career serving local governments in California, Texas, Colorado, and Tennessee. He holds BS and MS degrees in transportation engineering/planning from the University of Tennessee, is a registered Professional Engineer in 14 states, and is certified as a Professional Traffic Operations Engineer.

Marshall has been responsible for roadway planning, design and operations for over 30 years and has served on numerous transportation design task forces and committees during this time. He has most recently served as Editor of ITE’s Urban Street Geometric Design Handbook, and also serves on the Policy Review Committee for the new ITE/CNU publication Designing Walkable Urban Thoroughfares: A Context Sensitive Approach. Marshall is also a member of AASHTO’s Technical Committee on Geometric Design, representing the American Public Works Association.

Marshall is a Past International President of the Institute of Transportation Engineers (1995).

This Web seminar will address geometric design issues related to urban local and collector streets located in residential, industrial and commercial areas. In addition, general design characteristics for these streets including cross-sectional features; horizontal and vertical alignments; and additional considerations important to the successful design and operation of streets will be reviewed in this module.

At the conclusion of the module participants should be able to:

1) Define and discuss functions of urban local and collector streets Identify urban geometric design issues for each of the types of local streets and also for collector streets.
2) Recognize design elements including street user; design vehicles; design speed; travel lanes etc.
3) Discuss alignment and grade elements including sight distance; horizontal and vertical curves; and terrain and acceptance grades for urban local and collector streets.
4) Describe usage of traffic control devices on urban local and collector streets
5) Identify the factors important in the design of driveways, shoulders and sidewalks for urban local and collector streets.

Marshall Elizer, P.E., PTOE, Chief Transportation Engineer, Gresham, Smith and Partners, Nashville, TN, USA

Marshall Elizer joined Gresham Smith in 1997 after a twenty-two year career serving local governments in California, Texas, Colorado, and Tennessee. He holds BS and MS degrees in transportation engineering/planning from the University of Tennessee, is a registered Professional Engineer in 14 states, and is certified as a Professional Traffic Operations Engineer.

Marshall has been responsible for roadway planning, design and operations for over 30 years and has served on numerous transportation design task forces and committees during this time. He has most recently served as Editor of ITE’s Urban Street Geometric Design Handbook, and also serves on the Policy Review Committee for the new ITE/CNU publication Designing Walkable Urban Thoroughfares: A Context Sensitive Approach. Marshall is also a member of AASHTO’s Technical Committee on Geometric Design, representing the American Public Works Association.

Marshall is a Past International President of the Institute of Transportation Engineers (1995).

This Web seminar will address how vehicle movement through intersections can be facilitated by various geometric designs and traffic controls.  Intersections are an important part of the roadway facility because the efficiency, safety, speed, cost of operation, and capacity of a facility are functions of intersection design.

At the conclusion of the module participants should be able to:

1) Define the functional area of an intersection.
2) Lists publications that can assist with intersection design.
3) Identify key design elements for intersections.
4) Describe benefits and disadvantages of turn lanes and turn lane geometric characteristics.
5) Identify pedestrian street crossing issues.
6) Recognize design features outside of the travelway that can affect intersection design.
7) List signal components that affect intersection design.

Keith Knapp, Director, Iowa LTAP, Ames, IA, USA

Keith Knapp, P.E. is the former Traffic and Safety Engineer with the firm Traffic Analysis and Design, Inc. He has more than 18 years of experience in roadway planning and design, safety improvements, research, and training. His consulting and research projects have generally focused on design and the evaluation of safety and operational impacts due to various roadway characteristics. He has developed, offered, or been an instructor for more than 40 professional development training courses that have focused on a variety of subjects (e.g., intersection operations and safety, roundabouts, rural roadway and urban street design, signalization, and pedestrian/bicycle facilities).

This Web seminar will present access management principles and strategies; how the strategies benefit both property development and urban street function; and how and when to apply access-related geometric design elements, including medians and left- and right-turn lanes. 

At the conclusion of the module participants should be able to:

1) Define the concept of access management.
2) Demonstrate the safety and capacity benefits of access management
3) Identify ways to implement access management policies.
4) Discuss the legal issues with access management.
5) Illustrate the best access management design for an urban setting.

Philip Demosthenes,Principal Planner, Consultant, Denver, CO, USA

Phil Demosthenes is a recognized national authority in the field of access management. He has over 33 years of experience in transportation planning, application of access management strategies, access management plans, traffic operations, design elements and safety. He was with CDOT (28 yrs) where he created the Access Code and then managed the CDOT Access Management Program. He is a member of the Transportation Research Board’s (TRB) Committee on Access Management, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Outreach and past chairman of the Subcommittees on Research and Legal and Right-of-way Issues. Phil has chaired the quarterly national telephone conference on access management since 1991. He is the co-author of the access management chapters in two recent ITE publications: “Urban Street Geometric Design Handbook” (2008), and the “Traffic Engineering Handbook” (2009). He has provided training and consulting services on access management to over 14 states and 5 countries.

This Web seminar will address a broad range of geometric design issues related to the integration and operation of bus and rail transit on urban streets. Bus, streetcar, light rail and heavy and commuter rail will be discussed.  For each of the different transit forms, specific considerations are identified for services operating in general-purpose lanes, exclusive on-street lanes and separate off-street rights of way. Geometric design requirements discussed include street rights of way; through and turning traffic lanes; intersections; sidewalks; exclusive bus lanes; bus bays; bus waiting areas; and exclusive transit rights of way.

At the conclusion of the module participants should be able to:

1) Discuss various principle types of bus and rail transit vehicles, their differing operating environments and how they affect urban street design.
2) Discuss existing guidelines for urban street geometric design for bus and rail transit services.
3) Identify specific geometric design considerations, design requirements and impacts for on-street running bus, LRT and streetcar operations.
4) Describe considerations for off-street bus and rail operation including trackway width and clearance requirements, street crossings, and access to and from stations.

Rod Kelly, Principal Transit Engineer, HDR Inc., Dallas, TX, USA

Kelly has 44 years of experience managing a broad range of transportation planning and design projects. He has established himself as a planner/engineer with many specialties, including multi-modal transportation system planning and engineering. His experience includes development of long- and short-range multi-modal transportation system plans; highway corridor studies; bikeway and parking studies and plans; central business district, university, and other activity center transportation system plans; goods movement studies; travel forecasting; and general traffic engineering.

Kelly also has significant experience in bus, rail and demand response transit system planning and engineering. In this arena, his experience includes the development of rail corridor studies; major investment studies; Draft and Final Environmental Impact Statement preparation; studies of complementary facilities such as roadways, terminals and park-and-ride lots; preparation of preliminary engineering plans; and management of LRT system final design plans for both design-bid-build and design-build projects

This Web seminar provides general principles for arterial street design with a recommended design approach that addresses the need to balance multiple functional goals of arterials streets. It also provides specific design characteristics for urban arterial streets including cross-sectional features; horizontal and vertical alignment; and additional considerations important to successful design and operation of an urban arterial.

At the conclusion of the module participants should be able to:

1) Discuss the importance of arterial streets as they relate to the overall roadway network
2) Demonstrate how arterial street design differs from design of other road types and purposes.
3) Identify existing resources and guidelines for arterial streets.
4) Demonstrate how to accommodate pedestrians, bicyclists, on-street parking, and transit along urban arterials.
5) Identify the key elements essential to the geometric design of urban arterial streets.

Karen K. Dixon, Ph.D., P.E., Associate Professor, Oregon State University, Coravillis, OR, USA

Karen Dixon is an Associate Professor with the Oregon State University School of Civil and Construction Engineering. Prior to her appointment at OSU, Dr. Dixon was a tenured associate professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology. She earned a BS from Texas A&M University and a MCE and PhD from North Carolina State University. She is also a registered professional engineer in the states of Texas, Arizona, and Georgia. Prior to returning to academia, she worked as a practicing civil engineer for many years. Her teaching interests include highway engineering, traffic engineering, site development, airport design, and multi-modal transportation issues. Her research focus is on the operational and safety effects of transportation design improvements.

This Web seminar will discuss the safe and efficient design of the urban roadway beyond the curb and the edge of the pavement.  Vehicles occasionally leave the designated roadway; thus making fixed objects located on the roadside a hazard.  These obstacles need to be appropriately designed to minimize the number of injuries and fatalities.

At the conclusion of the module participants should be able to:

1) Identify the danger of roadside hazards and how to design with safety in mind.
2) Explain three specific strategies to address roadside safety.
3) Demonstrate techniques to remove roadside hazards from roadway.
4) Identify existing resources and guidelines.

Karen K. Dixon, Ph.D., P.E., Associate Professor, Oregon State University, Coravillis, OR, USA

Karen Dixon is an Associate Professor with the Oregon State University School of Civil and Construction Engineering. Prior to her appointment at OSU, Dr. Dixon was a tenured associate professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology. She earned a BS from Texas A&M University and a MCE and PhD from North Carolina State University. She is also a registered professional engineer in the states of Texas, Arizona, and Georgia. Prior to returning to academia, she worked as a practicing civil engineer for many years. Her teaching interests include highway engineering, traffic engineering, site development, airport design, and multi-modal transportation issues. Her research focus is on the operational and safety effects of transportation design improvements.