Over the past year, NACTO worked with our 45 member cities, 18 transit agencies across the continent, TransitCenter, APTA, and ITE to develop the Transit Street Design Guide, building on the practical experience of these remarkable professionals and synthesizing the kernels of wisdom hiding in less-accessible guidance. The result is a new toolkit that fills the gap, enabling planners, engineers, elected officials, and the public to speak the same language and get transit where it needs to be: at the heart of our streets.
With in-depth guidance on topics ranging from dedicated lanes and on-street transitways to transit-friendly signals and in-lane stops, the Guide is a much-needed resource for planning transit-first streets that are also vibrant, welcoming places to walk, bike, or sit. And with new guidance on evaluation methods to measure the usefulness of the street for all modes—we will be able to tell the story of the success on our streets.
NACTO invites cities, states and counties to endorse this new vision for world-class transit streets. This unified voice endorsing safe, efficient, and equitable streets will push federal and state governments to support the implementation these state-of-the-practice strategies.
Letter of Endorsement for the NACTO Transit Street Design Guide
The National Association of City Transportation Officials’ (NACTO) Transit Street Design Guide represents a vision for world-class transit streets—providing a framework for cities to grow without slowing down. Today, transit is returning to its central place in the life of cities. Millions of people are using buses, streetcars, and light rail every day, and our street design paradigm is shifting to give transit the space it deserves. With innovative planning, our streets can not only move incredible numbers of people, but also serve as great places to be. Transit agencies and street departments are increasingly working together to create these streets, and yet there has not been a comprehensive guide to incorporating safe, transit-first urban street design in the North American context.
The Transit Street Design Guide is a blueprint for the future of mobility in cities, providing the key for unlocking street space and safely moving people to where they want, and need, to be. The guidance, vision, and techniques shown in the Guide will allow our planners, engineers, and community members to speak the same language and work toward a common goal: toward safe, efficient, and desirable city streets in all of our neighborhoods.
The NACTO Transit Street Design Guide is an integral and effective tool for designing modern streets for the future of our cities.