Innovative Bicycle Facility Design / Liability and Bicycle Facilities Seminars
The Council of Governments will be hosting two companion seminars on Thursday, February 18th. A morning session will cover Innovative Bicycle Facility Design, and the afternoon session will cover Liability and Bicycle Facilities.
Innovative Bicycle Facility Design
Many cities across the United States are interested in implementing bicycle facilities that are not included in current or proposed design guidelines. Facilities like bike boxes, colored bike lanes, and cycle tracks have been installed in cities in the US with designs based on existing facilities in other countries, and engineers, planners and designers are interested in learning more about these facilities. This course will present details about these and other innovative bicycle infrastructure projects, with examples from the United States and other countries, and discuss when and where these facilities are most appropriate. An overview of the experimental process that is used by the Federal Highway Administration when considering whether to add new facilities to the MUTCD will also be included.
The course will be led by Steve Durrant, a Principal with Alta Planning and Design.
Steve Durrant, ASLA
Steve Durrant, ASLA, is a principal and the senior landscape architect at Alta Planning + Design in Portland, Oregon, a national firm specializing in non]motorized transportation solutions. He is a registered landscape architect and planner with over 30 years experience helping communities become better places to live. His recent work in Portland, Minneapolis, St Louis, Kansas City, Seattle, Dallas, Louisville and other cities includes planning and design for regional open space systems, non]motorized transportation corridors, light rail and streetcar transit, and bicycle transportation programs and facilities. He is also a lecturer for the Initiative for Bicycle and Pedestrian Innovation at Portland State University.
Liability and Bicycle Facilities
The following panelists will discuss liability and bicycle facilities:
Ronald W. Eck, P.E., Ph.D.
Ron is Professor Emeritus of Civil Engineering at West Virginia University where he taught undergraduate and graduate transportation engineering courses for over 30 years. He currently serves as Senior Advisor with the West Virginia Local Technical Assistance Program (LTAP). He has B.S.C.E. and Ph.D. degrees from Clemson University and is a registered professional engineer. His experience and interests are in the areas of traffic engineering, traffic safety, pedestrian safety and forensic engineering. He teaches a variety of traffic engineering and roadway safety courses (including roadway safety fundamentals, low-cost safety improvements, intersection safety, pedestrian/bicycle transportation and tort liability/risk management) for LTAP centers across the country. He is active in the technical committees of the Transportation Research Board and the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE). He is a member of TRBfs Pedestrian Committee and is a former chair of the Expert Witness Council of ITE. He authored the Handbook of Accident Reconstruction. He has testified as an expert witness in matters relating to roadways, accident reconstruction and pedestrian safety in over twenty states
Alan W. Kempske, Senior Assistant Attorney General, State of Maryland, Maryland Department of Transportation.
Mr. Kempske works in the areas of real estate law and procurement law with special emphasis on transit-oriented development,the development of special purpose governmental facilities and the acquisition of telecommunications and IT products and services.
Mr. Kempske has Juris Doctor from University of Baltimore School of Law (1979), and an MS from Florida State University in Urban and Regional Planning (1971); Urban Design specialization
Michael E. Jackson, Director of Bicycle and Pedestrian Access, Maryland Department of Transportation
Mr. Jackson oversees the development and implementation of transportation policies affecting pedestrians and bicyclists. Mr. Jacksonfs duties include providing information, resolving problems and representing the Department at venues throughout the State and beyond. He serves as the staff person to the Maryland Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee and monitors development of Marylandfs 20-Year Bicycle and Pedestrian Access Master Plan.
Mr. Jackson has spent nearly 30 years in the field of bicycle and pedestrian transportation beginning his career in 1979 with the DC Department of Transportation as Assistant Bicycle Coordinator in his hometown of Washington, DC. He has since worked for municipal, county and state governments in California and Minnesota before coming to MDOT.
Mr. Jackson earned a Juris Doctor degree from Western State University School of Law (now Thomas Jefferson School of Law) in San Diego, California in 1994.