Mark Keener aia aicp pp

SMART TRANSPORTATION GUIDEBOOK Planning and Designing Highways and Streets that Support Sustainable and Livable Communities

When transportation is understood to serve all modes of transport and to be compatible with surroundings, investment can be calibrated more precisely to serve many purposes: providing mobility across modes, offering access to homes and businesses, and supporting economic growth. “Context-sensitive” road design expands design criteria beyond optimizing vehicular mobility. The Smart Transportation Guidebook, subtitled “Planning and Designing Highways and Streets that Support Sustainable and Livable Communities,” is intended to help agencies, local governments, developers and others plan and design roadways that fit within the existing and planned context of the communities. It is endorsed by both New Jersey and Pennsylvania DOT's.

The project was commissioned by the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission, with additional funding from the Rockefeller Foundation and the U.S. Department of Transportation. Frequent collaborator, Dan Kueper PE of Orth Rodgers Associates was selected to lead the project.

Design elements and Design values

Mark Keener AIA AICP's key contribution to the guidebook was linking the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials’ (AASHTO’s) “functional classifications” to place types. Mark's work, together with designer, Diane Luckman, shaped the graphically-compelling, user-friendly presentation of the project. Most of the key exhibits linking landuse and roadway types are his creations.  These aspects of the project were included as highlights in the peer review of the document:

The 2011 review cites the chief features and merits of the Guidebook:

A summary of the rationale of Smart Transportation, especially from the standpoint of relating its goals to Context Sensitive Solutions and smart growth

• Detailed, illustrated discussions of roadway types and networks and their features. The presentation consolidates professional understanding in formats that invite and facilitate their use by non-specialists including local officials and the public

• Enumeration of design elements and design values and their relationship to specific types of settings, as well as the appropriate approaches to thinking about desired traffic speeds

• Discussion of effective roadway guidelines for traffic lanes, shoulders, bicycle facilities, medians and intersections; also for pedestrian facilities, public transportation, landscape design and street furniture

• And finally, discussions of access management, traffic calming, operations and maintenance issues and considerations involving emergency vehicles

Reviewers further observe: Smart Transportation is more than the sum of such specific initiatives, however. It is a theme that affects the functioning of PennDOT and all its constituents. The heart of the message is that transportation must support goals for strengthened communities, fiscal responsibility and good land use. Smart Transportation has become a PennDOT brand.

Some of Smart Transportation’s tools and approaches are now well developed. Examples abound of useful short-term outcomes. Other processes and partnerships are still in early stages. This report recounts some of its continuing challenges as well as its evolution and achievements until now. Smart Transportation’s full potential to benefit Pennsylvania’s communities, environment, and economy remains to be seen.