Congratulations to the team of First + Main Media and Paget Films for winning CNU's 2009 video contest with their film Built to Last (below). I enjoyed the three minute movie very much. Even though I am not a hard core New Urbanist, I guess I personally fit the profile (my kids walk to school, I walk to the office, and we walk to the coffee shop – all within three blocks of our house).
Traffic engineers are tasked with making the transportation system work for new developments. An often overlooked component of our toolbox is reducing the amount of vehicle traffic generated by the development. Maybe videos like this will get communities excited about trying to reduce their development traffic. Some communities in the Twin Cities, notably Minneapolis and Eden Prairie, require Travel Demand Management Plans that require developers to implement strategies to attempt to reduce their vehicle traffic generation.
Unfortunately, in may parts of the country, traffic engineers have very little to zero input into developments. Architects and Site Civil engineers “design” the street layout of a development. We are brought in at the very end to determine what improvements need to be made. If it were up to us, we would probably design something very similar new urbanism… lots of grid-like connectivity.
Brian,
I agree. In Minnesota, the traffic engineers are usually brought in at the very end to bless (or tweak) the final design.
Mike