See you in Memphis!

Next week the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals will hold its Professional Development Seminar in Memphis, a city that has made incredible strides in walking and bicycling in recent years. I have the honor of joining some distinguished company on Wednesday afternoon at 4 pm for "Tactical and Strategic Approaches to High Impact Projects," which will explore how both tiny and huge interventions can enhance communities.

Grace Kyung of Trailnet in St. Louis and David Leyzerovsky of Project for Public Spaces in New York will focus on tactical projects first. Lighter, Quicker, Cheaper (LQC) demonstration projects are gaining traction as a way to test engineering solutions, and have people experience in real time how potential street changes will work for all road users. Such demonstration projects bring together new partnerships for cross-sector collaboration and reinvigorate a more equitable community engagement process by putting people first. David will talk about Project for Public Spaces' successful approach to creating streets as places across the nation and internationally, and Grace will present Trailnet's award winning project in Missouri. The session will have an interactive component to share ideas on low-cost high-impact solutions and the tools needed to accomplish this.

Grace and David will be a tough act to follow, but I'll then present on the opposite: how large, capital-intensive walking and bicycling projects can be successfully implemented. I'll provide case studies of two successful but very different trail bridge projects. The first, the Manayunk Bridge Trail in Philadelphia, consisted of conversion of a disused rail bridge into what has been called the "crown jewel" of the Delaware Valley trail network. Since its completion in fall 2015 the project has won multiple awards from a variety of organizations and has been praised for its function and design sensitivity. The second, the Jack A. Markell (Industrial Track) Trail in Delaware, is one mile of trail that includes more than 3,000 feet of bridges, part of which is a new signature arch bridge over the Christina River. Construction of that project is underway. The takeaway? Well, you'll need to attend to find out the details, but broad and deep partnerships paved the way for the success of both projects.

I hope to see you then!