2018 Conference List

An eclectic list of meetings that have come to my attention. Please let me know of any additions or corrections.

Thank you.

John Z Wetmore
john@pedestrians.org
www.pedestrians.org
www.gofundme.com/pedestrians
www.youtube.com/pedadvocate
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2018 Conference List v. 1.0

January

7-11 Transportation Research Board (TRB); Washington, DC
11-12 Transforming Transportation; Washington, DC
22 ASTM F13 Pedestrian/Walkway Safety and Footwear; New Orleans, LA
22-26 World of Concrete; Las Vegas, NV
24-25 Creative Cities; Orlando, FL
24-26 Conference of Mayors; Washington, DC
26-30 ATSSA - American Traffic Safety Services Assn. Convention and Traffic Expo; San Antonio, TX


February

1-3 New Partners for Smart Growth; San Francisco, CA
8-10 Winter Cycling Congress; Moscow, Russia
10-13 National Sheriffs Association Winter Conference; Washington, DC
11-14 National Conference of Regions; Washington, DC
11-14 National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, Winter Policy Summit; Washington, DC
11-14 Active Living Research; Banff, AB
11-14 National Asphalt Pavement Association; San Diego, CA
16-18 North American Handmade Bicycle Show; Hartford, CT
20-22 Winter Roads Conference; Gdansk, Poland
22-26 World Bicycle Forum; Lima, Peru
24 Alumni Day; Princeton, NJ
25 - 3/1 Public Lands Alliance; Palm Springs, CA
26-28 Public Private Partnership Conference (P3C); Dallas, TX
27 - 3/2 AASHTO Legislative Meeting; Washington, DC


March

3-7 National Association of Counties Legislative Conference (NACO); Washington, DC
5-7 National Bike Summit; Washington, DC
5-7 Energy, Utility, and Environment Conference; San Diego, CA
6-8 World of Asphalt; Houston, TX
11-14 Congressional City Conference; Washington, DC
15-16 Georgia Walks; Rome, GA
18-20 American Public Transportation Assn. Legislative Conference (APTA); Washington, DC
20-23 IPENZ Transportation Group; Queenstown, New Zealand
20-24 Society of Health And Physical Educators (SHAPE); Nashville, TN
21-22 Smart Urban Futures; Melbourne, Australia
22-23 International Conference on Sustainable Infrastructure (ICSI); Prague, Czechia
26-28 Main Street Now Conference; Kansas City, MO
26-29 Aging In America; San Francisco, CA
28-29 Walk-Bike New York; Schenectady, NY


April

3-4 Intersections: Creating Culturally Complete Streets; Nashville, TN
4-6 Society for Public Health Education; Columbus, OH
4-7 Urban Affairs Association; Toronto, ON
5-6 U.S. Cargo Bike Summit; Bethesda, MD
8-11 The Play Conference; Clemson, SC
10-12 SAE World Congress; Detroit, MI
10-14 American Association of Geographers (AAG); New Orleans, LA
14-15 Global Health and Innovation Conference; New Haven, CT
16-19 Transport Research Arena; Vienna, Austria
17-18 Ontario Bike Summit; Toronto, ON
21-24 American Planning Association (APA); New Orleans
22-24 Lifesavers National Conference on Highway Safety Priorities; San Antonio, TX
22-26 National Association of County Engineers; Wisconsin Dells, WI
23-26 National Outdoor Recreation Conference; Burlington, VT
25-27 National Environmental Justice Conference; Washington, DC
26-27 New England BIke-Walk Summit; Boston, MA
29-30 Washington Bike Summit; Spokane, WA
29 - 5/2 Automated People Movers; Tampa, FL


May

1-3 Urban Land Institute Spring Meeting; Detroit, MI
1-3 Places for Bikes; Indianapolis, IN
2-4 Partnership for a Healthier America; Washington, DC
6-9 American Public Works Assn. (APWA) North American Snow Conference; Indianapolis, IN
7-9 Smart Cities Week Silicon Valley: Santa Clara, CA
9 National Bike To School Day
14-15 European Conference on Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans; Nicosia, Cyprus
16-18 WTS International; San Diego, CA
16-19 Congress For The New Urbanism (CNU); Savannah, GA
16-19 International Association for Impact Assessment; Durban, South Africa
17-20 American Society of Highway Engineers; Cleveland, OH
21-24 AASHTO Spring Meeting; Franklin, TN
23-25 International Transport Forum (ITF); Leipzig, Germany
29 - 6/1 International Conference for Road Engineers; Jeju Island, Korea
31 - 6/1 NACTO Sister Cities Bikeways Roadshow; Columbus, OH
31 - 6/3 Reunions; Princeton, NJ


June

1 Transport Chicago; Chicago, IL
1-2 Michigan Bicycle Conference; Grand Rapids, MI
2 National Trails Day
3-6 National Association of Regional Councils; Orlando, FL
3-6 American Society of Safety Engineers; San Antonio, TX
4-7 ITS America; Detroit, MI
6-8 International Transportation and Economic Development; Washington, DC
8-11 Conference of Mayors; Boston, MA
10-13 National Travel Monitoring; Irvine, CA
10-13 Canadian Association of Road Safety Professionals; Victoria, BC
11-14 International Bridge Conference; National Harbor, MD
12-15 Velo-City; Rio De Janeiro, Brazil
13-16 International Cycling History Conference; London, UK
16-20 National Sheriffs Association; New Orleans, LA
17-20 National ADA Symposium; Pittsburgh, PA
18-20 National Bus Rapid Transit Conference; Los Angeles, CA
18-21 World Transport Convention; Beijing, China
20-21 Praxis Conference Pedestrian Protection; Bergisch Gladbach, Germany
21-22 Summer Conference on Livable Communities; Kalamazoo, MI
21-23 American Institute of Architects (AIA); New York, NY
24-27 International Conference on Transport and Health; Mackinac Island, MI
25-29 World Gas Conference; Washington, DC
26-28 Making Space for Mobility in Booming Cities; Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
27-29 Snow and Ice Management Association; Cleveland, OH


July

4-5 Science and Cycling; Nantes, France
10-12 Automated Vehicles Symposium; San Francisco, California
11-13 Alliance For Community Media; Baltimore, MD
13-16 National Association of Counties (NACO); Nashville, TN
15-18 Transportation Law; Cambridge, MA
15-18 Pipelines Conference; Toronto, ON
17-19 National Access Management Conference; Madison, WI
19-22 Canadian Institute of Planners (CIP); Winnipeg, MB
28-31 International Municipal Signal Association (IMSA); Orlando, FL
29-8/1 Association for Commuter Transportation; Anaheim, CA
30 - 8/1 2WALKandCYCLE; Palmerston North, New Zealand
30 - 8/2 Nat'l Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) - Legislative Summit; Los Angeles, CA


August

8-11 International Association of Fire Chiefs / Fire-Rescue Int'l; Dallas, TX
12-15 International Traffic Records Forum; Milwaukee, WI
20-23 Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE); Minneapolis, MN
21-23 American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators; Philadelphia, PA
21-24 Pedestrian and Evacuation Dynamics; Lund, Sweden
25-29 Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA); Atlanta, GA
26-29 American Public Works Association (APWA); Kansas City, MO


September

3 Mackinac Bridge Walk; Mackinaw City, MI
4-7 National Bike Share Conference; Portland, OR
5-7 Global Tolling Summit; Salzburg, Austria
16-19 Walk/Bike/Places; New Orleans, LA
17-21 Intelligent Transportation Systems World Congress (ITS); Copenhagen, Denmark
19-21 Urban Transport and the Environment; Seville, Spain
20-24 AASHTO; Atlanta, GA
23-26 American Public Transportation Association (APTA); Nashville, TN
23-26 International City/County Management Association (ICMA); Baltimore, MD
23-27 Highway Engineering Exchange Program; Lincoln, NE
24-28 Association of Metropolitan Planning Organizations (AMPO); San Antonio, TX
25-27 NRPA - National Recreation and Park Association; Indianapolis, IN
30 - 10/3 Transportation Association of Canada; Saskatoon, SK


October

1-4 NACTO Designing Cities; Los Angeles, CA
8-11 Urban Land Institute (ULI); Boston, MA
10 International Walk To School Day
10-12 European Transport Conference; Dublin, Ireland
12-15 Annual Civil Engineering Conference (ASCE); Denver, CO
14-16 International Bridge Tunnel and Turnpike Association (IBTTA); Baltimore, MD
15-17 Driver Distraction and Inattention; Gothenburg, Sweden
15-19 Walk21; Bogota, Columbia
19-22 American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA); Philadelphia, PA
21-24 Rail~Volution; Pittsburgh, PA


November

7-10 National League of Cities - City Summit; Los Angeles, CA
10-14 American Public Health Association (APHA); San Diego, CA
12-15 TRANSED - Mobility and Transport for Elderly and Disabled Persons; Taipei, Taiwan
14-18 Gerontological Society of America; Boston, MA
18-21 Canadian Urban Transit Association; Toronto, ON


December

5-7 Res/Con Global Resilience Summit; New Orleans, LA
5-8 National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) Capitol Forum; Washington, DC

Perils For Pedestrians 252

• We talk with the head of Walk-Bike Nashville.
• Nashville, Tennessee, has a new sidewalk law.
• A doctor discusses obstacles to walking in Nashville.
• Nashville is improving bicycle facilities.
• We talk with the head of Walk-Bike Frankfort.
• We look at pedestrian access to a Frankfort, Kentucky, shopping center.

Perils For Pedestrians 251: Memphis

• We visit a new bicycle and pedestrian path on the Union Pacific Railroad bridge over the Mississippi River at Memphis: The Big River Crossing.
• We look at public space improvements in the Medical District of Memphis.
• We drop in on a meeting of the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals (APBP).
• We listen to Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland's remarks at the APBP meeting.

Traffic Signal Control Cabinet Art

Traffic Signal Control Cabinets are ubiquitous.  Usually they are drab and boring, but they don't have to be.

In Victoria, BC, the cabinets are covered with a map of downtown and a "You are here" circle.  Wayfinding maps are something that most cities can use more of.

In Somerville, MA, the art is a little more whimsical, with a 500 pound box of popcorn.

Cambridge, MA, has also gone the whimsical route, with a set of bookshelves.

Cheyenne, WY, has art related to the city, including the State Capitol Building.

Calgary, AB, has art related to the history of the surrounding neighborhood.

Whatever you do to liven up the control cabinet, you still need to be careful where you place it.  A sidewalk obstruction is still a sidewalk obstruction, even if it looks nice.

Stair Structure Squeezes Sidewalk

For some inexplicable reason, the designer of these stairs had the decorative side structure stick out two feet into the sidewalk.

This is, of course, a serious tripping hazard that should have been caught by any safety review of the plans and blueprints.

In addition, even if no one ever trips over the obstruction, it still significantly narrows the sidewalk.  To make matters worse, its placement directly across from a tree pit creates a pinch point.  Apologists might say that the space still meets the minimum requirements of the ADA.  People who care about pedestrians say that it is a totally unnecessary degradation of the pedestrian environment.


Spring 2018 Update.  There are five of these structures at this location.  Four of them have been cut back a foot, reducing the hazard a bit, as seen in this photo.  For some unknown reason, the one in the original photo was not cut back, and continues to stick two feet into the sidewalk.

Woodmont Avenue Signage -- FAIL

Suppose you are on Bethesda Avenue in Bethesda, Maryland, and you ask for directions to the Bethesda Metro Station, about a ten minute walk away.

You might be told to walk north on Woodmont Avenue to Edgemoor Lane, and then turn right.  After two blocks (at Hampden Lane), Woodmont Avenue becomes one way southbound.

Is the next street Edgemoor Lane?

You have no idea.  The street name signs only face the southbound automobile traffic.

You look off to the right, and can't see anything.  You don't know that the accessible elevator entrance to the Metrorail Station is just two blocks down Montgomery Lane.  So you keep walking north.

At the next corner (North Lane, which is labeled), a small sign for Metro points toward this hodgepodge of driveways and passageways.  This could get you to the buses and the Metrorail escalator, but you would have to climb stairs, so it's not an accessible route.

You continue on to the next intersection, still hoping to find Edgemoor Lane.  Once again, pedestrians cannot tell where they are because the signs only face the southbound automobile traffic.

You look off to the right.  Could that be the Metro station?

Does Montgomery County design for pedestrians or for automobiles?  On Woodmont Avenue, in the heart of downtown Bethesda, the design for the street name signs doesn't even include pedestrians as an afterthought.

Trails Under Power Lines

A deer crosses the Lake Country Trail in Waukesha County, Wisconsin.

For other examples of trails under power lines, see the Gallery of Power Line Right-Of-Way Trails.

Cycle Track Signage - FAIL

The N Street Cycle Track in Lincoln is the first protected bikeway in Nebraska.  A planted buffer separates the two-way bicycle traffic from automobile parking and automobile traffic.

Features include protected places for turning bicyclists to wait for a green signal on the cross street.

The bikeway also has exclusive bicycle signals to prevent conflicts with turning cars.

But what about wayfinding?  Can bicyclists see the street name signs?

N Street is one-way westbound.  An eastbound bicyclist can only see the backs of the street name signs because they are only designed for motor vehicles.

It is astonishing that all the planners, designers, engineers, and consultants could go through the entire process of rebuilding the street and adding paint and signals, and never stop to think about something as simple as letting bicyclists know the name of the street they are about to cross.

Pathways and Signs in Regina

Suppose you have just visited the Saskatchewan Legislative Building in Regina.

And you go for a walk on the Wascana Park Pathway along the lake.

And you come to a street.  Where are you?

You don't know.  The street name signs are all directed towards drivers, not towards trail users.

Wayfinding for trail users is often inferior.  Even simple things like the names of cross streets are often left out.

Peds and Transit - Calgary

Rather than drive downtown from my motel to the Walk21 conference and have to worry about traffic and parking, I decided to take Calgary's light rail system, the CTrain.  It's a 10 minute walk from the station to my motel.  Conditions start good, but then go rapidly downhill.

Leaving the CTrain Banff Trail Station.

Taking the crosswalk.

A nice wide sidewalk, despite the obstructions.

The sidewalk narrows.

Very wide driveways and parking lots.

An even narrower sidewalk, with shrubbery encroaching.

The sidewalk turns to mud.

Landscaping fills the sidewalk space, sending pedestrians through the parking lot.

Another bit of narrow sidewalk.

A muddy goat path along the desire line.

Multiple dirt paths as pedestrians try to avoid the mud.

A sidewalk of pavers by a fast food restaurant provides a break from the mud.

A hodgepodge of driveways, parking lots, and odd bits of pavement.

More mud.

Some ankle-breaking boulders, followed by some decent flagstones.

One final stretch of boulders as I arrive at my motel.

A ten minute walk can be a pleasant little journey, or a miserable ordeal.  Would this infrastructure encourage you to walk to the CTrain station?

Bench Placement - FAIL

The Norwood Bridge over the Red River in Winnipeg has two types of railings -- a metal railing along most of its length, and a stone railing where the sidewalk bumps out.

The metal railing is mostly transparent, and would allow someone sitting on a bench next to it to enjoy the view.

However, the benches are at the bumpouts, which could be a good place to relax and enjoy the view of the river.  Except . . . . 

The stone railings at the bumpouts are mostly opaque, so anyone sitting on the benches will have a very poor view of the river.

One-Way Street Signage - FAIL

Street name signs, like the rest of the street, are often designed only with drivers in mind.  The results do not always work well for pedestrians.

At many intersections, the street name signs are located on the signal mast arms.  If it is a one-way street, the street name signs are often installed only facing the approaching traffic.  However, pedestrians approach from both directions, keeping the name of the cross street a mystery for the half of pedestrians walking opposite traffic.

This problem is not limited to remote suburbs.


HALL OF SHAME

Topeka, Kansas
Pedestrians walking south on Jackson Street have no idea what cross street they are approaching in front of the Kansas State Capitol.

Indianapolis, Indiana
Pedestrians walking north on Capitol Avenue don't know the streets they are crossing as they approach the Indiana Statehouse.

Cheyenne, Wyoming
Pedestrians walking north on Central Avenue can't tell what street is between them and the Wyoming State Capitol.  The Capitol Building is undergoing renovation, but the Wyoming DOT street sign policy needs modernization as well.

Lincoln, Nebraska
Pedestrians walking west on K Street are unable to tell which street they are about to cross on the way to the Nebraska State Capitol.  Nebraska has the nation's only unicameral legislature, but  Nebraska needs a bidirectional street sign policy.

Jackson, Mississippi
Pedestrians walking south on West Street see the back of the eagle on the top of the Mississippi State Capitol dome.  They also see the back of the sign that would tell them what street they are about to cross if it faced both directions.




HONOR ROLL

Springfield, Illinois
Pedestrian-oriented blade signs supplement the mast arm signs on a one-way street by the Illinois State Capitol.  We can't say if the legislators inside know where they are going, but at least pedestrians walking by can tell where they are.