Context Sensitive Solutions: Designing Transportation Projects for People and Places

July 24-25, 2008

Hilton Garden Inn
Denver, Colorado

About the Speakers and Panelists

SCOTT BERNSTEIN

Scott Bernstein is President of the Center for Neighborhood Technology, an urban sustainability innovations laboratory which develops resources and systems to promote healthy, sustainable communities by helping local leaders understand and use their hidden assets; and publisher (1978-1998) of The Neighborhood Works, winner of the Peter Lisagor Award for Public Service Journalism.

He studied engineering and political science at Northwestern University and served on the research staff at its Center for Urban Affairs. He taught at UCLA, was on the Humphrey School Policy Program Board at the University of Minnesota. Founding Board member at the Brookings Institution Urban & Metropolitan Center. President Clinton appointed him to the President’s Council for Sustainable Development, where he co-chaired its task forces on Metropolitan Sustainable Communities and on Cross-Cutting Climate Issues with Dr. James Baker of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration; and two other Federal advisory panels on global warming, development strategy, and science policy. His work has provided leading approaches to urban economic development, resource efficiency, and transportation; currently, CNT is analyzing Chicago’s carbon footprint for the Chicago Climate Task Force of which he is a member; partnering with the Clinton Foundation, ICLEI and Microsoft to provide advanced climate change planning software for the world’s forty largest cities, and has co-founded the Presidential Climate Action Plan, which has written a “climate change playbook” for the first 100 and 1000 days of the next Administration, released in late 2007. This assignment also included produced a study demonstrating that reducing travel is as important as, and a necessary complement to achieving cleaner transportation technology.

Scott co-founded the Surface Transportation Policy Partnership in 1990. He helped organize and lead the world’s first study of location efficiency in metropolitan areas, along with MacArthur Fellow Dr. David Goldstein of NRDC, Hank Dittmar of the Princes Foundation for the Built Environment-UK, Dr. John Holtzclaw of the Sierra Club, and Dr. Peter Haas of CNT.

Scott co-founded the Center for Transit Oriented Development, a partnership with Reconnecting America and Strategic Economics. He led the development of the Location Efficient Mortgage® , a product that increases housing affordability by recognizing the value of convenient living, and the new Housing + Transportation Affordability Indexsm, to help working families recognize the full value of reducing transportation expenditures

With Julia Parzen, he organized an Urban Sustainability Learning Group. Current initiatives include (a) the Bay Area Family of Funds, and (b) the Mixed Income Communities Initiative of Metropolitan Atlanta.

With John Norquist, former Mayor of Milwaukee, and President of the Congress for a New Urbanism, he is currently leading an effort to replace aging elevated highways with surface boulevards and mass transportation.

ANNE P. CANBY

Ms. Canby serves as President of the Surface Transportation Policy Partnership (STPP), a national advocacy coalition for transportation reform. STPP’s goals are to strengthen federal transportation programs that provide options to motor vehicles, enhance the livability of our communities, improve safety for pedestrians and bicyclists as well as drivers, provide access to economic opportunity for people of all ages and incomes, reduce demand for energy and output of greenhouse gases, and protect our cultural, historic and community assets.

She served as Delaware’s transportation secretary from 1993 to 2001 and is recognized nationally as a progressive leader in the transportation field for transforming a traditional highway agency into a multimodal mobility provider and as an advocate for integrating land-use and transportation planning.

Prior to serving in this post, Ms. Canby lead a consulting practice focusing on institutional and management issues with particular emphasis on implementation of federal surface transportation legislation enacted in 1991, known as ISTEA.

She has served as the Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Transportation, Treasurer of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, and Deputy Assistant Secretary of the U. S. Department of Transportation. She sits on the executive committee of the Transportation Research Board and is on the Board of the Mineta Transportation Institute. She is a member of the Urban Land Institute, the Institute of Transportation Engineers, and the Women’s Transportation Seminar.

She has been recognized for her leadership by the American Public Transportation Association, the Association of Metropolitan Planning Organizations, the DE Chapter of the American Planning Association, and the Women’s Transportation Seminar. Ms. Canby received the 2006 Carey Distinguished Service Award for outstanding leadership and service to transportation research and to the Transportation Research Board.

JIM CHARLIER

Mr. Charlier is a nationally-recognized expert in community transportation systems and associated growth management strategies. He has been a transportation planner for over 30 years, working in state and local government and as a consultant to public and private sector clients. Early in his career, Mr. Charlier served in a variety of capacities with state and local transportation departments, including senior management positions at both Iowa DOT and Florida DOT. During 1988 and 1989 he served on the Florida Governor’s Task Force on Urban Growth Patterns, chairing the Public Transit Committee and authoring recommendations that since have been adopted by a number of state and local governments.

Since entering private practice in 1989, Mr. Charlier has provided transit system development, transportation demand management, congestion management, and multimodal transportation system planning services to clients in Arizona, Alaska, California, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming. Mr. Charlier has worked extensively with western cities and counties to plan multimodal transportation systems and with coastal and mountain resort communities wrestling with traffic congestion. He is an expert in the planning and design of pedestrian facilities and in strategies for meeting the mobility needs of residents and tourists in resort communities.

Mr. Charlier is widely known for his meeting facilitation skills and has designed and managed public participation processes for a variety of projects, including charrettes, workshops, roundtables, and public hearings. He is a frequent speaker and lecturer on transportation planning and land use, travel demand management and growth management at national conferences and workshops. He has been a Faculty Associate of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he taught courses in transportation and land use planning.

Mr. Charlier is currently teaching a class in “Transportation and Sustainable Cities” as an adjunct professor for the University of Colorado (Boulder), and has recently served as faculty for both the Mayors’ Institute of Community Design and the Governors’ Institute of Community Design. He is also serving on the Transportation and Land Use Policy Working Group of the Colorado Climate Action Panel organized by the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization (RMCO) and the Center for Climate Strategies (CCS).

LAVADA DESALLES

Lavada E. DeSalles of Sacramento, a former AARP California State President, has also served as a member of AARP's National Board of Directors. As a member of the Board, she served as chair of the AARP Insurance Trust and vice chair of the Board Governance Committee. Lavada retired in 1994 after 32 years of service with the State of California Employment Services. At the time of her retirement, she served as executive director of the Governor's Task Force for Employment of Older Workers. In addition to her AARP activities, Lavada has been a member of the International Association of Personnel in Employment Security, the National Forum for Black Public Administrators, and the African American Leadership Association. Lavada is also on the Board of WalkSacramento and serves on a Complete Streets Coalition.

Among her many honors, Lavada has received the Los Angeles Mayor's Certificate of Appreciation presented by the late Tom Bradley, a Certificate of Special Recognition from Congresswoman Maxine Waters, and an Outstanding Achievement Award from the African American Leadership Association

JACQUELYNE GRIMSHAW

Vice President for Policy, Transportation and Community Development for the Center for Neighborhood Technology. Responsible for the Center’s programs in these areas. Oversaw the development the Center’s capacity to engage in transportation research and policy development, conduct air quality modeling, GIS mapping, creation of public involvement tools and community economic development. Supervised the development of the Center’s Walker’s Win! Program. Participated with our national coalition in the reauthorization of ISTEA, TEA 21, and SAFETEA LU.

Organized a Citizens’ Leadership Commission of over 190 groups with the charge of developing public consensus for Long-Range Transportation Plans with sustainable transportation options. Responsible for developing the Chicago Transit Authority’s university transit pass initiative. Member of various MPO’s Task Forces including formerly co-chairing the Community Mobility Task Force that deals with environmental justice (EJ) issues. Now a member of the regional planning agency’s Human Services Committee. Chairs TRB’s Committee on Environmental Justice in Transportation and a member of Committee on Women’s Issues in Transportation. Board Vice Chair of the Congress for the New Urbanism, formerly a founding Member of the Board of Smart Growth America, and was a member of the Illinois Growth Task Force. She has also worked for the city of Chicago, the state of Illinois and the federal government.

MINNIE FELLS JOHNSON, Ph.D.

As a pacesetter, Dr. Minnie Fells Johnson has held several high-level management posts in Montgomery County, the State of Ohio and Broward County, Florida. All of her positions have been as the first African American or female or both. In her position she is one of a small elite group of females in the country who manage transit properties. As CEO of the Miami Valley Regional Transit Authority, she has energized economic development in her community by taking risks and overcoming obstacles. Dr. Johnson has demonstrated that public transportation is more than running buses from point “A” to point “B” on time. She understands the “bigger picture” and has been able to implement a broader concept of what public transportation can become.

Dr. Johnson led the complete redesign of the bus hub system. She facilitated creative financing of bus shelters and routes to support the construction of 5/3rd Field, Riverscape and the Benjamin and Marian Schuster Performing Arts Center. Most recently her bold plans included the rehabilitation of the American Building downtown to house the Wright Stop Plaza.

In addition to Dr. Johnson’s professional success at RTA, she has founded such programs as “Top Ten African American Male Lunch” and the Parity Mentoring Program. She has paired countless adults and youth in mentoring partnerships. Dr. Johnson has served on many community boards and committees including chairing the African American C.E.O., the National Job Access Task Force for the American Public Transportation Association. She serves on various community boards such as the Boy Scouts (Dayton), Dayton Area Chamber of Commerce, South Metro Chamber of Commerce, Downtown Dayton Partnership, Dayton Art Institute and is the member of other organizations including the Conference of Minority Transportation Officials, Dayton Area Manager Association, Dayton Sister City, Executive Dialogue II, Main Street Program, Parity, Inc., Ohio Public Transit Association, and the Women’s Executive Group.

Dr. Johnson has received prestigious awards both in Ohio and the State of Florida. In 1976 she was named one of Dayton’s Top Ten Women. The following year she was named Outstanding Black Woman by Sinclair Community College Student Government. In addition, she has received several national and state awards including National Association of Counties County achievement Award, Outstanding Women of the Year, Women in Communications- Government, and the Governor’s Proclamation, State of Ohio.

WENDY LANDMAN

Wendy Landman is Executive Director of WalkBoston and leads the organization’s advocacy around walking for transportation, health, the environment and vibrant communities. Among WalkBoston’s current initiatives are: Walking Prescriptions for People and Communities with the inner-city Uphams Corner Health Center; a Community Safe Routes to School program designed to encourage student walking and to engage a variety of community organizations and agencies in walking (jointly funded by a health care foundation and the MA Departments of Public Health and Transportation); provision of safety training for 2nd graders in communities across the state; safety advocacy workshops for Boston Public Health Commission staff and suburban senior center staff and senior volunteers; encouragement of better sidewalk snow and ice clearance among local public works staff; and leading walks focused on advocacy efforts throughout metropolitan Boston. WalkBoston is also deeply engaged in efforts to insure that the Central Artery project will result in a wonderful pedestrian environment for the City, in the review of transportation designs and private development projects around the state, and creation of walking maps designed to attract new walkers and encourage municipalities and large employers to get engaged in advocacy.

Wendy came to WalkBoston with 25 years experience in urban planning, most recently as the Principal of Landman Planning Consultants. Her planning experience spans all modes of transportation, as well as master planning, smart growth and environmental review. She holds BS and Master of City Planning degrees from MIT, and a Diploma in Urban Design from the University of Edinburgh.

LEIGH LANE

Leigh has spent over 20 years working in transportation planning and project development. She spent 15 years working with the North Carolina DOT, first as a NEPA practitioner and project manager and then as Head of the Public Involvement and Community Studies Unit. She managed a staff of community analysts, land use planners, and public involvement specialist tasked to prepare community impact assessment (CIA) studies, environmental justice (EJ) assessments, indirect and cumulative effects studies as well as to develop and implement public involvement strategies for projects statewide. Over the last six years she has leveraged her practitioner knowledge and experience in both research and education related to implementation of Context Sensitive Solutions (CSS) by state DOTs. She has developed national course curriculum for CSS including community impact assessment (CIA) as well as trained more than 2,000 individuals on these topics. Most recently Ms. Lane has completed a Synthesis for the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) on CSS and Multi-disciplinary Teams as well as NCHRP 8-36 Task 66, Improved Methods for Assessing Social, Cultural, and Economic Effects of Transportation Projects. She is currently completing a CSS Training Guide and Action Plan for FHWA and was recently awarded FHWA’s CSS Implementation Task Order which includes providing technical assistance to state DOTs on CSS related topics including public involvement, flexibility in design, tort liability, interdisciplinary teams, etc. Ms. Lane is recognized as a national leader/expert in the areas of CSS and CIA, as evidenced by published papers, appointments to several Transportation Research Board committees, NCHRP panels and invitations to speak at statewide and national conferences. She is one of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) CSS and CIA environmental experts and she has a degree in Civil Engineering from North Carolina State University.

JACK LETTIERE

Jack Lettiere is the President of Jack Lettiere Consulting, LLC that was formed in February 2007 with the purpose of providing diverse management consulting services to transportation owners, operators, developers and builders to meet changing needs of clients. Jack Lettiere Consulting assists management and decision makers in government, private firms and financial institutions create strategies to develop transportation assets, deliver core business cost- effectively, expeditiously, and more efficiently in a diverse, global economy. He is the former Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT). He served in that capacity from December 2002 through January 2006. His duties included Chairman of the Board of Directors of the New Jersey Transit Corporation and the New Jersey Transportation Trust Fund Authority. He also served on boards of the New Jersey Turnpike Authority, the South Jersey Transportation Authority, the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission, the New Jersey Redevelopment Authority and the New Jersey Ethics Commission. Lettiere, who was at the Department for more than 31 years, served as Deputy Commissioner (Chief Operating Officer) and the Assistant Commissioner for Capital Investment. Additionally, Lettiere was 2005 President of American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials (AASHTO), the nation’s premier organization for setting transportation policy direction and transportation standards. Jack is the 2006 recipient of the Thomas H. MacDonald Memorial Award. This award is considered to be the highest award made by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation officials (AASHTO). It is awarded to persons who have rendered continuous outstanding service over an extended period of time and have made exceptional contribution to the art and science of highway engineering.

In November 2006, Jack was appointed Chairman of Nation’sPort, which is a bi-state coalition of business and government representatives that advocates and promotes the safe, efficient, and sound movement of goods through state of the art infrastructure serving the Port of New York and New Jersey.

Lettiere is a graduate of the General Motors Institute of Technology with a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering and a Masters of Business Administration from Rider University.

CYNTHIA NIKITIN

Cynthia Nikitin is a Vice President of PPS. She is a planner with a background in transportation, art history and public art. At PPS, Cynthia is involved in the on-going development of station area improvement programs for commuter rail stations around the country (most recently in Cleveland and New Jersey). She managed three multi-year transportation-related research efforts for the Transportation Cooperative Research Program. She has managed several corridor planning, main street improvement and downtown revitalization projects, most recently the Peninsula Corridor Plan in San Mateo County. She managed a three year smart growth-planning program for NJDOT around the heavily congested Route 17 corridor in Bergen County, NJ. Cynthia has co-instructed the CSS Placemaking course in New Jersey and New York State. In collaboration with the Center for Reconnecting America, PPS staff and board chair, Cynthia is crafting the agenda for the Thinking beyond the Station Campaign.

TROY P. RUSS, AICP

Troy is a Principal and Senior Urban Designer with the nationally recognized Community Planning and Design Firm, Glatting Jackson Kercher Anglin, Inc.. Troy is the director of the firm’s Urban Design and Transportation Practice. Troy will be leading Glatting Jackson’s Denver Office, which opens in May of this year.

Troy has experienced many high profile urban design initiatives throughout his career, including the Community Venues Master Plan for the City of Orlando, the downsizing of Chattanooga’s Riverfront Parkway, the catalyst project for the City’s 21st Century Waterfront, and Charlotte’s integrated Land Use and Transit Program, where he guided the completion of 64 premium transit station area plans complete with infrastructure guidelines and development strategies.

Troy has a Master of City Planning from Georgia Tech and a Bachelor of Environmental Design from the University of Colorado, Boulder.

LIZ TELFORD

Liz has a Masters degree in Urban and Regional Planning, and has provided Project Management, environmental planning, and travel demand planning services for a number of transit, multi- modal, and highway transportation projects.

She assisted with the Major Investment Studies for RTD on the Gold Line, North Metro and US 36 Corridors. She has managed the TIP and the RTP and authored the Bus Fleet Management Plan for the New Starts submittal for the Southeast corridor (TREX).

She has provided project management and environmental management on EA and EIS’s in California, Nevada, Wyoming and Colorado. She was the environmental task lead for the US 36 EIS and the Environmental Project Manager for the Longmont Feasibility Study. For the US 36 EIS she was the prime author of an Environmental Methodology Manual that has since been adopted as a FasTrack’s program standard.

Liz also has extensive experience in the evaluation of Environmental Justice issues, transportation impacts, and the cumulative effects of major transportation projects.

Liz currently manages the FasTrack’s Environmental Resource Group, a group of environmental planners responsible for the quality of the environmental work on all of the FasTracks corridors. She has developed programmatic agreements with the SHPO and the USACE for transit projects, as well as standardized environmental processes and programmatic mitigation measures to help streamline the environmental process for the FasTrack’s program. She also serves as the Project Manager on the Gold Line EIS.

Liz has been very active in the American Planning Association. She has served on the Board of the Colorado Chapter as the Legislative Chair for 6 years and has received the Presidents Award for outstanding service.

GARY TOTH

Mr. Toth is Senior Director, Transportation Initiatives with the Project for Public Spaces. During his thirty four years within the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT), Gary was one of the architects of the transformation of NJDOT to a stakeholder inclusive process. He was a founding member of the NJDOT’s Context Sensitive Solutions (CSS) program, and helped NJDOT become a national leader in CSS. He was the team leader for NJDOT’s CSS training, with over 800 trained.

He has participated in workshops or peer reviews on CSS or Community Impact Assessment (CIA) in Maryland, Georgia, Connecticut, Washington D.C, Indiana, and Oregon. As a member of the AASHTO Task Force on CSS, Gary helped redraft the National CSS principles, develop the Task Force’s strategic Action Plan, and prepared a one page flyer for DOT CEOs, entitled “How CSS Can Help You Meet Your Agencies’s Mission”. He is currently under contract to the Surface Transportation Policy Project to be technical advisor for their April 2008 National Workshop on CSS. In 2006, he helped organize the AASHTO and the American Society of Civil Engineers Workshops on CSS.

Gary has been one of the national leaders in the movement to integrate transportation and land use. At NJDOT, Gary shifted the focus of major investment studies from costly, controversial and unsustainable major capacity increases to a more balanced approach. He helped form the Task Force on Transportation and Land Use, a partnership between the NJDOT and Pennsylvania DOT. He has provided subject matter expertise on integrating transportation and land use to Maine DOT, New York State DOT, Connecticut DOT, Pennsylvania DOT, the Chatham County-Savannah MPO, the North Atlantic Transportation Planning Officials, National Community Impact Assessment Committee, Northeast Association of State Transportation Officials, the 2005 and 2007 Asilomar Conferences on Transportation and Climate Change and at AASHTO’s September 2005 Executive Seminar on Transportation and Land Use.

Gary is currently a member of the Board for the Context Sensitive Solutions web site and a member of the Strategic Highway Research Program’s Technical Coordinating Committee for Capacity. He was part of the 2007 National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission, Sustainable Transportation Issues Panel . Gary’s Publications include “Reducing Vehicle Miles Traveled, Can We Really Pull it Off” published in Driving Climate Change: Cutting Carbon from Transportation, NJFIT: Future in Transportation, Back to our Roots? and Back to Basics in Transportation Planning. In November 2007, Gary received the President’s Award for Excellence in Transportation Planning from the NJ Chapter, American Planning Association.

Gary has a degree in Civil Engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology, and is a graduate of the Environmental Management Institute at the University of Southern California.

MARILEE UTTER

President of Citiventure Associates LLC, Marilee has been developing executable solutions for tough land use problems for over 25 years. Marilee has authored numerous articles featured in national real-estate and business publications, and is a sought out speaker on Mixed-Use and Transit-Oriented Development issues.

Prior to Citiventure, Marilee was a Transit-Oriented Development Specialist for the Regional Transportation District (Denver); Regional Vice President for Trillium Corporation, a real estate development company; Director of Asset Management for the City and County of Denver; and Vice President of Wells Fargo Bank.

She holds a BA Mathematics from Colorado Women's College, an MBA from UCLA's Anderson School, and certificate in State and Local Public Policy from Harvard's Kennedy School.

Professional affiliations include the Counselor of Real Estate designation; member Urban Land Institute, CU Real Estate Center, CREW, the International Women's Forum and member Congress of New Urbanism.