http://www.ruraltransportation.org/ en-us Sat, 25 May 2013 12:06:02 GMT Mon, 13 May 2013 04:00:00 GMT http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss SiteOrganic 60 webmaster@ruraltransportation.org http://www.ruraltransportation.org/pages/page.asp?page_id=60460&articleId=17464 View speakers' presentations from last week's National Rural Transportation Conference in St. Louis. By Carrie Kissel, NADO Senior Program Manager

The National Rural Transportation Peer Learning Conference took place last week, October 20 – 22, in St. Louis, Missouri.  The conference was attended by 120 individuals and provided opportunities for rural transportation planning professionals to learn from one another and from national experts.

Conference highlights included an Opening Plenary that focused on fostering freight and passenger mobility and business growth through transportation improvements.  During a luncheon panel discussion, attendees heard from Jim Cheatham, Federal Highway Administration, and Victor Austin, Federal Transit Administration, about emerging issues in transportation planning at the federal level. On Friday morning, a special plenary session held jointly with the AMPO Annual Conference, the Symposium for RPOs and MPOs: Assessing the Structure and Benefits of Collaboration featured a keynote address from Missouri DOT Director Kevin Keith, as well as panels of state and regional planning professionals.

In addition, several breakout sessions addressed issues such as livable communities, regional transit, bicycle and pedestrian planning, using social media in public involvement, integrating safety into regional planning, freight transportation, building capacity and evaluating regional planning, and other topics.

A special thanks to the conference sponsors: Appalachian Regional Commission, Brazos Valley COG, Decision Lens, Development District Association of Appalachia, Federal Highway Administration, Federal Transit Administration, Mo-Kan Regional Council, NADO Research Foundation and NADO’s RPO America, and Two Rivers-Ottauquechee Regional Commission.  Several training and networking events were also held jointly with the AMPO Annual Conference, providing a unique opportunity to extend professional networks.

View the speakers’ presentations and final conference program at http://www.RuralTransportation.org/pages/page.asp?page_id=93315.   Conference organizers have applied to the American Planning Association to offer AICP CM credits for the training sessions at the conference. 

Mark your calendars now for next year’s National Rural Transportation Conference, to be held August 24 – 26 in Washington, DC.  For more information, contact NADO Program Managers Carrie Kissel, at 202.624.8829 or ckissel@nado.org, or Kathy Nothstine, at 202.624.5256 or knothstine@nado.org.]]> Fri, 29 Oct 2010 04:00:00 GMT http://www.ruraltransportation.org/pages/page.asp?page_id=60460&articleId=17464