"If we can develop and design streets so that they are wonderful, fulfilling places to be – community-building places, attractive for all people – then we will have successfully designed about one-third of the city directly and will have had an immense impact on the rest." --Alan Jacobs

With this idea in mind, PPS offers "Streets as Places," a two-day transportation & Placemaking training seminar intended to introduce participants to new ways of thinking about streets and how Placemaking can be used to build great streets and great communities.

It is intended for anyone who is interested in creating a great street, including transportation professionals who want to learn more about how streets can contribute to better communities; civic and elected officials who realize the social and economic benefits that can result from changing the way that roads are designed; and citizen activists who understand that the time for change is now.

Presentations and discussions will focus on how roadways and transit facilities can be designed and managed to benefit communities, while also serving mobility needs. Practical tools for assessing a variety of street typologies and case studies of cities and towns that have moved beyond simply trying to address mobility to building community will be presented, and participants will be encouraged to share their own experiences with each other.

Topics will include:

• Context Sensitive Solutions - designing streets and highways that benefit communities
• Walkability - linking destinations with pedestrian-friendly streets
• Land Use - how smart land use decisions can leverage transportation investments most effectively 
• Placemaking on Streets - a series of tools and techniques for designing streets as places
• Community Engagement - how to do it effectively and without pain
• Street Design Flexibility - how to engage transportation agencies for better outcomes
• Transit (Thinking Beyond the Station) - how to create community-supportive transit service and stations
• Bicycle-Friendly Streets - best practices for safe cycling 
• Parking- how to better manage parking supply and demand
• Transportation Campaigns - advocating for a new transportation planning paradigm

Training Course Agenda

• Thursday, April 2: Introductory sessions; "Street Audit" exercise; reception with PPS Staff
• Friday, April 3: Tools & techniques; specialized topic sessions; application workshop

Project for Public Spaces (PPS): Training Course Host

Project for Public Spaces, Inc. is a non-profit technical assistance, research, and educational organization. We believe that transportation investments – in both streets and transit facilities – have enormous potential to reshape communities and be catalysts for more livable, economically viable and sustainable cities. PPS’s initiative, Building Communities through Transportation, provides the framework through which cities can work in partnership with transportation agencies to achieve this critical goal. Streets as Places is a key component of this initiative.

Instructors for this course are:

Gary Toth, PPS Director of Transportation Initiatives and former Director of Project Planning and Development for the New Jersey Department of Transportation; along with PPS senior staff Fred Kent, President; Cynthia Nikitin, Vice President; and Renee Espiau, Transportation Planner and Senior Associate.

More and more people are realizing the important impact that both transportation and Placemaking can have on communities– the time for change is now!