Eating the Elephant: Small Steps to Big Change
For only $180, get a full year of unrestricted access to APA's extensive learning library. Kickstart your journey by subscribing to Passport, then take the next step by enrolling in the courses that pique your interest.
Certification Maintenance
Course Details
In 2020, despite years of investment, Austin was facing a massive backlog of active transportation infrastructure (sidewalks, pedestrian crossings, bikeways, and paved urban trails) amongst rapid growth and ongoing displacement of people of color and people with low incomes. Significant amounts of funding for sidewalks, bikeways, Vision Zero, urban trails, and anti-displacement actions were available, but these were each the domain of separate programs split across multiple city departments. While $300+ million in funding was available, figuring out how to meet immediate and short-term needs with limited staffing resources was a significant challenge.
Austin's answer was ATX Walk Bike Roll: a coordinated effort to simultaneously update Austin's three active transportation plans — the Sidewalks, Crossings, and Shared Streets Plan; Urban Trails Plan; and Bicycle Plan — to create increased alignment and synthesis to work toward shared goals. In this session, members of the project team will talk about lessons learned and key strategies they used to break down Austin's complex challenges into manageable components. We will discuss how an equity framework was developed to guide the project and how we addressed gentrification. We'll also talk about how GIS data analysis and planning scenarios were used to evaluate alternative approaches and measure impacts.
Learning Outcomes
- Utilize strategies to break down a large, complex, multi-disciplined planning effort into manageable parts.
- Develop strategies for equitable engagement and work toward equitable outcomes.
- Use scenario approaches to make decisions and gain public input.