Gary Toth: Reinventing Transportation Planning as Community Development
Recently, we were very lucky to have Streetsblog's Editor-in-chief, Aaron Naparstek in the "Streetfilms Headquarters" to chat with Gary Toth the Senior Director of Transportation Initiatives with the Project for Public Spaces.
For thirty-four years, Mr. Toth worked for the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT), and become known for his collaboration and facilitation skills, and was one of the architects of the transformation of NJDOT to a stakeholder inclusive process helping the state become a national leader in Context Sensitive Solutions (CSS).
Mr. Toth has written, "A Citizen's Guide to Better Streets," which is designed to help the every person and advocacy community better understand the behind-the-scenes processes that occur when dealing with transportation departments and how to better prepare and speak their language. He shares some of his views and advice with Aaron in this very important interview.
What a fine contribution that StreetFilms et al are once again making. Ten minutes with such a wise person with a deep understanding of this side of the dilemmas of our communities.
The solutions, or rather the paths toward solutions, that Gary is speaking to strike this one adopted European as very familiar, since this is very much in line with the practices of the leading edge (which is not small) in our cities here. But what is so great about this message is that this is coming from the States, after so many years of educated and deliberate -- what do we have to call it if we look back at it through the rear view mirror? -- “malpractice”.
But that’s the past. (Or so one hopes.) What’s so great about the 21st century is that we now have the tools available to help our key actors for deployment – the traffic engineers and transport planners – to come to grips with the much more complex environment that our cities now provide. We speak of this here as the necessary “technical virtuosity” that can now get us on the path of more sustainable cities and more sustainable lives.
Thanks Gary, thanks Aaron, and thanks Partners for Public Spaces. Keep at it and stay in touch. We have a two way street across the Atlantic and ways for bridging the distance that don’t need to generate enormous clouds of CO2.
Don’t stop!
Eric Britton
New Mobility Agenda, Paris
This video is incredibly useful, and not just for an American audience. Thanks. Project for Public Spaces is obviously making an important difference and 'placemaking' seems to provide a powerful idea to rally around.
Your interview inspired me to write a post and link to the video here: http://reinventingtransport.blogspot.com/2008/10/places-worth-loving-and-protecting-from.html