PROGRAM

11:00am - 12:00pm ET

Urban highways divided communities and destroyed neighborhoods. Now cities from Syracuse to San Francisco to Detroit are choosing to get rid of them altogether. And for the first time, new federal program is helping foot the bill. In addition, some cities are choosing to forego new highway construction altogether.

Featuring:

• Shawn Dunwoody, Reimagine Rochester

• Miriam Schoenfield, Reconnect Austin/Rethink 35

• Will Toor, Executive Director, Colorado Energy Office

• Dorothy Wiley, Allendale Strong

12:30pm - 1:30pm ET

People with disabilities are disproportionately hurt and killed in car crashes in major cities. How can Vision Zero and public space planning center and include the needs of those who have disabilities?

Featuring:

• Dr. Prashanth Venkataram, Postdoctoral Researcher, University of California, Davis

• Eman Rimawi-Doster, Executive Director, Diversity Includes Disability

• Steve Wright, Storyteller, Steve Wright Communications

• Anna Zivarts, Program Director, Disability Mobility Initiative, Disability Rights Washington

2:00pm - 3:00pm ET

Economic pressures such as congestion pricing, changing real estate, and zoning within central business districts is reshaping mobility in American cities. This transition has the potential to redefine our streets, with projects being proposed that would create parks, mobility corridors, and new development. This panel will share insight into projects under development today, and explore potential public health and economic benefits.

Featuring:

• Henry Grabar, Staff Writer, Slate, Author, Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World

• Nicole Horst, Principal, Wenk Associates

• Kyla Scanlon, Writer, Podcaster

• Mark Vogl, Senior Project Manager, Planning, Great Rivers Greenway
  

3:30pm - 4:30pm ET

A new breed of tactical urbanism has sprung up across the U.S. -- and is transform city streets without the permission of city governments. Employing confrontational, illicit, and often illegal tactics, activists are organizing anonymously to redesign streets for safety when local governments fail to act. In this panel, you can learn from the activists who are dismantling AVs, painting their own crosswalks, and traffic calming the streets that governments leave unsafe about how and why they're taking action.

Featuring:

• Jessie Singer, Author, There Are No Accidents, Senior Strategist, Transportation Alternatives

• Anonymous, Chattanooga Urbanist Society

• Anonymous, Cone SF / Safe Street Rebel

• Anonymous, Crosswalks Collective LA

9:00am - 11:00am | Manhattan
Your City, Your Voice is an activist training series developed by Transportation Alternatives’ renowned team of community organizers. Hear the lessons learned in their years of hyper-local, grassroots political activism. Absorb the tools and tactics that contributed to winning campaigns to change New York’s speed limit and introduce innovations like protected bike lanes, bike share, and speed cameras to city streets.

You’ll be taught how to engage with your neighbors and organize a successful local campaign — valuable lessons that could apply to the fight for a protected bike lane, an effort to protect a community garden, or a campaign to advocate for better food access for your community.

Featuring:

• Elizabeth Adams, Deputy Executive Director, Public Affairs, Transportation Alternatives

• Juan Restrepo, Director of Organizing, Transportation Alternatives

9:30am - 11:00am | The Bronx

Join community members and leaders from the disability community for a walking, rolling audit of the Mount Eden Mall neighborhood in the Bronx. Learn with us about what makes streets accessible, usable and safe, and how you can partner with advocates in your community to build stronger coalitions to fight for streets that work better for all of us.

Featuring:

• Jonathan Greenwald, Staff Attorney, Disability Rights New York

• Anna Zivarts, Program Director, Disability Mobility Initiative, Disability Rights Washington

12:00pm - 1:00pm | The Bronx
Start: Mill Pond Park
End: Roberto Clemente State Park

We will lead a bike tour of the Harlem River Waterfront, highlighting the current challenging conditions and the importance of the access points to the future greenway, including the Depot Bridge Access and later the Tremont Bridge Access.

Participants will have the opportunity to participate in a canoe ride on the Harlem River with the Harlem River Working Group and Wilderness Inquiry at the end of the tour.

Featuring:

• Brian Hedden, Advocacy and Greenway Projects Coordinator, Brooklyn Greenway Initiative

• Chauncy Young, Coordinator, Harlem River Working Group

12:30pm - 2:30pm | Brooklyn
Start: Brower Park
End: Park Slope Plaza

2023 is the year of the Bike Bus! We want you to get fired up about the most effective kid-centric city building strategy. Join early Bike Bus pioneers, Coach Sam Balto from Portland, Megan Ramey from Hood River Oregon and local Emily Stutts for a ride in Brooklyn's beloved and diverse neighborhoods to see the need and solution. Riders are encouraged to come with your burning questions so we can help you eliminate your barriers and leave feeling pumped to start a bike bus in your own city or neighborhood.

Featuring:

• Sam Balto, Physical Education Teacher, Alameda Elementary, Portland

• Kathy Park Price, Brooklyn Organizer, Transportation Alternatives

• Megan Ramey, Safe Routes to School Manager, Hood River County School District

• Emily Stutts, Teacher, P.S. 372, Bergen Bike Bus Coordinator

Tour One | 3:00pm - 4:00pm | Manhattan
Tour Two | 4:00pm - 5:00pm | Manhattan

The East Midtown Greenway is a waterfront project that visions to “close the loop” of the Manhattan Waterfront Greenway, creating a contiguous greenway and open space network around Manhattan. The project fills a major gap between East 53rd and East 61st Streets along the East River through the use of innovative infrastructural systems that improve access while also anticipating sea level rise. The project also features an overlook, seating nooks, lush planting, and integrated art from Stacy Levy.

The tour will begin at Andrew Haswell Green Park which is still an active construction site, so PPE (work boots, hard hats, vests, safety glasses, and gloves) will be required.

Featuring:

• Gentry Lock, Principal, Landscape Architect, Stantec

• Ankita Nalavade, Project Director, Capital Division, New York City Economic Development Corporation

• Amy Seek, Design Director, Stantec

5:00pm - 7:00pm | Newlab Brooklyn

Mingle with your fellow Vision Zero Cities attendees for a casual Happy Hour at Newlab. Enjoy drinks, snacks, and test rides from micromobility partners including Lime, CLIP, Vela, Pave Motors, Civilized Cycles, bike repairs from Velofix, and more!

ROSENTHAL PAVILION

Across the World, major cities are rethinking the role of cars in central cities. From cities like Oslo, that have made downtown areas fully car free, to more mixed models like London’s Ultra Low Emissions Zone, or Barcelona’s Superblocks, the future of cars in major cities is being transformed, with notable benefits for air quality and public space. Panelists in this session will describe how their cities are reimagining public space and the role of cars in the center city.

Featuring:

• Charles de la Chevrotière, Executive Director of Business and Mobility Strategies, Agence de mobilité durable Montréal

• Betsy Plum, Executive Director, Riders Alliance

• Clare Sheffield, Director of Transport Planning, Arup London

• Midori Valdivia, Founder + Principal of Midori Valdivia Consulting LLC and New York MTA Board Member

ROOM 905/907

E-bikes are changing our cities– helping make bikes an alternative to cars for more people and more and longer trips. This panel will feature leaders working to bring new types of mobility to the masses, working to address everything from affordability to infrastructure to safety.

Featuring:

• Camille Boggan, Program Associate, NACTO

• Phil Jones, Senior Director - North - U.S., Lime

• William Medina, Deliverista, Los Deliveristas Unidos

• Waffiyyah Murray, Indego Program Manager, City of Philadelphia

ROOM 909

So you passed a major plan or won a new policy? Now comes the hard part: making sure it doesn’t just sit on a shelf. When it comes to planning, unfortunately, implementation – the real work of building safer communities – can be the hardest fight. Learn from panelists working to ensure that plans and policies become reality.

Featuring:

• David Fields, Chief Transportation Planner, City of Houston, Texas

• Nate Fillmore, Co-Founder, Cambridge Bicycle Safety

• Jeremiah Lowery, Director Of Advocacy, Washington Area Bicyclist Association

• Michael Schneider, Chief Executive Officer, Streets for All

ROSENTHAL PAVILION

SUVs and pickup trucks are getting bigger and more dangerous. Pedestrian fatalities are skyrocketing across the United States. However, pedestrian fatalities are declining in Europe in Japan thanks to better design and safety standards and the smart use of new technology. In this panel, experts will explain the uniquely American rise of giant vehicles, why U.S. regulators are not addressing this problem, what’s working elsewhere to protect vulnerable road users, and the regulatory fight ahead.

Featuring:

• Alex Engel, Senior Manager, Communications, NACTO

• Aaron Gordon, Senior Writer, Motherboard, VICE Media

• Jessica Hart, Families for Safe Streets

• Zohran Kwame Mamdani, Assembymember, District 36, New York

• Eric Richardson, Deputy Chief Fleet Management Officer, City of New York

ROOM 905/907

Traffic crashes are a universal problem, but the response to them is far from equal. While some cities are quick to act, others refuse to even acknowledge a problem. This panel will feature local leaders who are making change for safe streets despite political obstacles.

Featuring:

• Jay Blazek Crossley, Executive Director, Farm&City

• Nina Guidice, Policy Manager, Transportation Alternatives

• Michael Kelley, Policy Director, BikeWalkKC

• Jon Larsen, Transportation Division Director, Salt Lake City

ROOM 909

The Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway User Study represents a new kind of innovative data collection - combining a 32-sensor network to measure ridership and mode of use with user intercept surveys by field researchers. This unique study is meant to fill in the missing data in our understanding of the 29-mile greenway, with tools that can be applied to other greenways and urban trails in NYC and across the country. The project was initiated by Brooklyn Greenway Initiative in partnership with Numina and Regional Plan Association. The panel will include members of the NYC Greenways Coalition to provide perspective on greenway conditions and planning efforts in other parts of NYC.

Featuring:

• Hunter Armstrong, Executive Director, Brooklyn Greenway Initiative

• Ellis Calvin, Data Research Manager and Senior Planner, Regional Plan Association

• Elisabeth Kalomeris, Chief of Staff, Numina

• Siddharth Motwani, Bronx River Greenway Coordinator, Bronx River Alliance

• Jon Orcutt, Director, Advocacy, Bike New York

• Can Sucuoglu, Data Scientist, Numina

ROSENTHAL PAVILION

Cities around the country are exploring new approaches to traffic enforcement. This panel will feature innovators making our streets safer in new ways that address equity concerns and ensure we’re focused on what matters: saving lives and preventing traffic violence. Solutions include automated enforcement, civilian enforcement, and more.

Featuring:

• Damian Kevitt, Executive Director, Streets Are For Everyone (SAFE)

• Daniel Pearson, Editorial Writer, Philadelphia Inquirer

• Rigel Robinson, Councilmember, City of Berkeley

• Sara Seo, Professor of Law, Columbia Law School

ROOM 905/907

Traditional U.S. planning and design practices are killing our children. In addition to traffic violence being the leading cause of death for our kids, poor planning leaves a devastating toll of sedentary behavior and poor health outcomes. But, it doesn't have to be this way! How can our transportation systems better support children and active play? From school streets to safe routes to school, this panel will feature transformational ideas for reclaiming public spaces for children from around the globe.

Featuring:

• Sam Balto, Physical Education Teacher, Alameda Elementary, Portland

• Natalie Draisin, Director, North American Office and United Nations Representative, Fia Foundation

• Megan Ramey, Safe Routes to School Manager, Hood River County School District

• Anna Siprikova, Senior Program Manager, Global Designing Cities Initiative

• Jacob Smith, Executive Director, National Organizations for Youth Safety

ROOM 909

Increasingly, victims of traffic violence are stepping up to share their stories and demand changes to our roads and vehicles. Families for Safe Streets, comprised of those who have lost loved ones or been personally injured in a crash, has been a force for change in New York City and has established local chapters across the country. FSS members explain the careful strategy behind its work from leading support groups to campaigning for new policies.

Featuring:

• Amy Cohen, Co-Founder, Families for Safe Streets

• Thomas DeVito, Director, Families for Safe Streets

• Michelle DuBarry, Families for Safe Streets Portland and SW Washington

• Andrew Gounardes, 26th Senate District, New York State Senator

• Daniel Langenkamp, Families for Safe Streets, Washington DC

• Juliane Williams, Families for Safe Streets, New York City