Today marks the 25th anniversay of the signing of the ADA legislation. This milestone is a good time to look around your community and see just how much your governmental agency has accomplished in removing barriers for those who have disabilities. Do you have a transition plan for identifying and removing barriers? When was the…
Category: Public Works
Learning New Skills at Civic Design Camp – Chicago 2015
At today's Civic Design Camp not only did I pick up a few choice bits of advice and skills to add to my civic toolbox, but I also was able to meet and network with some great people including Josh Kalov who I first met at CityCamp in Chicago back in 2010. Introduction and…
Running Toilets Get Their Own 5K Race!
The EPA has been promoting Fix-a-Leak Week (March 16-22, 2015) for the past seven years. But like many issues in public works, sometimes it is difficult to drive awareness and attract people's attention to the message. Even with great social media resources and a topic that left ignored could mean a loss of money, it's still not easy…
Newly Released Pedestrian Facility Selection Tool
Last month, Austroads, the association of Australasian road transport and traffic agencies, released a Pedestrian Facility Selection Tool. According to their website, "the Pedestrian Facility Selection Tool is designed to help Australian and New Zealand practitioners select the most appropriate type of pedestrian crossing based on walkability, safety and economic outcomes." They have produced a User…
Choosing a Running Shoe Infographic
If you implement a running program at your company as part of your wellness program, you might want to also offer guidance and resources about running to those employees who begin taking up the sport in earnest. Because shoes are one of the main items of gear needed for running, some advice on picking out…
Using Stationary Bikes to Design Bike Trails
As I ride my bike through some of the grades, curves, and alignments along the bike paths in my area, I often wonder if the person who designed them rides a bike. Because I can't imagine anyone who rides regularly making some of the design choices I encounter. This got me wondering if the designer…
Improving Bicycle Path Design
Over the last year or so we've logged significant mileage on our bikes. While one outcome has been the expected increase in personal fitness, another has been better awareness and insight into design of bicycle facilities. Most of the paths along which we ride have been in place for many years so were probably designed under older…
Happy New Year 2015!
We are starting out the new year of 2015 still a little overwhelmed by everything that happened in 2014. This was due to several factors including an increased yet exciting work load at our primary jobs and some major changes we were making in our personal lives leaving little time to hop online and share…
Using Augmented Reality to Visualize Engineering Designs
This week I experimented with using an augmented reality app at a public meeting to display this simple visualization of one of our projects. My experience was that it did seem to help with explaining or showing people not only an overall snapshot of how the roadway will look when finished, but it also helped…
A Bike Sharing Experience in Chicago and Denver
Because I am involved in cycling as both a user and as a designer, I try to make an effort to check out bicycle facilities whenever I can. Over the last month, I had the opportunity to try out the bike share program in both Denver and in Chicago. This allowed me to tour some of the bike facilities in…