NACTO (National Association of City Transportation Officials)

We're excited to highlight some of our members' recent wins! 📉City of Chicago saw a 27% drop in traffic fatalities from a peak in 2021 (compared to 5% nationally). CDOT’s toolkit for safer street design includes raised crosswalks, bus boarding islands, protected bike lanes, context-sensitive lane widths, and left-turn calming. 🚲City of Durham's City Council officially adopted NACTO's Urban Street Design Guide and Urban Bikeway Design Guide. The move will unify design standards across departments and incorporate people-first transportation infrastructure into construction standards for private developments. 🚌Indianapolis’ IndyGo launched a brand-new bus rapid transit line. The 15-mile Purple Line includes new stops and buses and improvements to traffic signals, sidewalks, and curb ramps. 🏫City of Kingston, NY can launch a speed camera pilot program in up to three school zones, thanks new legislation. (And New York City Department of Transportation can now install red-light cameras at up to 600 intersections—four times the current limit of 150 intersections!) 🎉San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) is celebrating the 10-year anniversary of its bus service improvement program. Since launching in 2014, Muni Forward has established a bus rapid transit network, created new connections, implemented bus priority projects like red transit lanes and priority signals, and enhanced safety along routes.

Our October update is out! Sign up for NACTO's newsletter to get the latest updates on city transportation planning, policy, and design issues. 👇 In our October 2024 update: ♿ PROWAG, the U.S.'s new accessibility guidelines, is on the way to full adoption—and NACTO submitted comments on the proposed rule. 📘 Upcoming NACTO milestones, including the release date for the Urban Bikeway Design Guide, Third Edition! 🚗 Oversized passenger vehicles are inflaming the traffic safety crisis—but there are steps we can take to require safer vehicles and create safer streets. 🅿 Parking minimums are up for a vote in New York City. 📰 NACTO member updates: News from Chicago Department of Transportation, City of Durham, IndyGo, City of Kingston, NY, and San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA). 💡 This month's Design Guide highlight: Lane width guidance in NACTO's Urban Street Design Guide and Transit Street Design Guide.

From standards around curb ramps and detectable warning surfaces to accessible pedestrian signals and street furniture, Public Right-of-Way Accessibility Guidelines (PROWAG) will improve the daily lives of millions of Americans with disabilities and contribute to more livable, walkable communities. Last month, NACTO submitted comments to the U.S. Department of Transportation recommending that they adopt PROWAG without modification. https://lnkd.in/dXK-Nvfe

Join us next Tuesday, October 22, for "Safe School Trips from Coast to Coast," a webinar that NACTO is co-hosting with the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) and the Association for Commuter Transportation. You'll hear about examples of transportation projects near schools in Washington State, Ohio, and Washington, D.C. Open to all! Register here: https://lnkd.in/enwrx2Ve

The Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) was initially a document to standardize signage on rural roads but has evolved, awkwardly, to govern every street in the nation. Every day, people in our cities, suburbs, and towns suffer the consequences. Urban streets serve a variety of functions and many users. The uniformity and rigidity of the MUTCD are valuable on high-speed highways and for standardizing critical features like stop signs and uniform traffic lights but are challenging in the complex, vibrant contexts of city streets. We must continue working to promote the changes that bring federal policy more in line with USDOT Safe System goals. https://lnkd.in/dyh7HCwB

"It is not merely a hunch that the size of American vehicles puts the public in danger: Statistics and data clearly quantify their risks." The Road to Zero Coalition's "Massive Hazards" report aggregates research on how the weight, height, and design of the most popular class of American vehicles—SUVs, vans, and pickup trucks—are putting pedestrians, cyclists, and other drivers in danger. The upside? They have recommendations for how to create safer vehicles. Steps we can take include: ▶ Discouraging people from purchasing larger vehicles by charging higher registration or permit parking fees for their drivers ▶Improving street design to protect vulnerable road users with countermeasures like turn-hardening, daylighting, raised crosswalks, curb extensions, leading pedestrian intervals, and protected bike lanes ▶Eliminating existing standards, codes, and tariffs that incentivize increased vehicle size ▶Updating federal vehicle design standards to prioritize the safety of pedestrians and other road users, cap the height of vehicle front ends, and set a front visibility standard https://lnkd.in/eYzg9-hZ

"State highway engineers want to move as many cars as possible through a given space. Anything that interferes—including lower speed limits—must be scrutinized. City planners, by contrast, see streets as places to be, from storefront to storefront." Great piece by Henry Grabar on why our most dangerous streets are often out of city control, and what we can do about it.

Great day exploring the Austin bike network yesterday and hearing about how the NACTO community is helping city staff get more done for their residents! NACTO's Ryan Russo got a first-hand look at how the team is solving tricky design and delivery challenges with creativity. From gold standard bike facilities built as part of development projects to quick-build protected bike lanes and crossings, we're excited to see how this network grows.

You might have seen NACTO's Ryan Russo at #MOVEAmerica2024 this week, along with San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) and many other thought leaders. One topic we're tackling? Autonomous vehicles. By implementing proactive policies today, cities can act to ensure that AV technologies improve transportation, instead of leading to an overall increase in driving. But we'll need to act fast. Stay tuned for an AV policy update from NACTO soon, building on the work we’ve done over the past few years with a peer network of cities discussing emerging technology—including resources like the Blueprint for Autonomous Urbanism: https://lnkd.in/dphijj6

“The U.S. has some of the developed world’s worst traffic safety outcomes–as well as some of the clearest paths to saving lives. [NACTO's] research and experience with our cities shows that simple steps, like upgrading large city vehicles to safer designs with streamlined profiles and improved direct visibility can have dramatic results for safety. Together for Safer Roads’ Direct Vision Transition Guide and its Star Rating Visibility Toolkit is a much-needed, easy-to-use resource that makes this critical change simple for fleet managers. With it, cities have another tool to make Vision Zero go from vision to reality.” -Ryan Russo