The Madrid Río park in Spain has transformed a formerly neglected urban area into new public space. In a recent article, the New York Times takes a closer look at this park, as well as other similar projects around the globe. Read the article to learn more about how this park has changed the urban landscape in Madrid. Photo by James Rajotte for The New York Times.

The Public Participation Program for The I-81 Challenge has allowed us to gather feedback from the public through: - Meetings with the three committees involved in The I-81 Challenge - The Study Advisory Committee - The Community Liaison Committee - The Municipal Liaison Committee - Focus groups - Two questionnaires - First series of public workshops - Outreach to populations with Limited English Proficiency - Small group community meetings How does »

This is the sixth post in a series that highlights the public’s opinion about case studies from other cities. To read other posts in this series, click here. In this post we’ll look at the Fort Washington Way in Cincinnati, OH. To learn more about that project, click here. Here are a few of the key aspects that workshop attendees liked about this case study: - Connectivity and access – The project was seen as having restored connectivity between »

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This past Spring, Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) presented the preferred alternative for the Rte 79/I-195 Interchange Improvement Project to the public. The alternative consists of removing the elevated Rte 79 viaduct and building an at-grade roadway, utilizing some existing surface streets. The goal of this solution is to lower ramps to street level, and improve connections between Falls River’s downtown and waterfront areas, »

On Wednesday, November 2nd, James D’Agostino and Meghan Vitale of SMTC and William Egloff of NYSDOT answered questions from Post-Standard readers about The I-81 Challenge and the public’s proposed ideas for the future of the highway during a live Q&A session. You can learn more about the Q&A session and read the full transcript on the Post-Standard website.

At the public workshops this past May, attendees had the opportunity to share their ideas about deficiencies on I-81 by writing down any issues they felt needed to be addressed and then placing their notes in the appropriate location on a large map of the I-81 corridor. How do their ideas match up with the traffic, safety, and design deficiencies identified in the NYSDOT’s Technical Memorandum #1: Physical Conditions Analysis? The I-81 Challenge »

As you may be aware, the SMTC and the NYSDOT hosted the first series of public workshops for The I-81 Challenge this past spring.  The I-81 Challenge May 2011 Public Workshops Summary Report summarizes the findings and input from those workshops. You can now download and read the full summary on our website. “Our report makes interesting reading,” said Meghan Vitale, SMTC Principal Transportation Planner. “Community opinion is fairly evenly »

This is the final in a series of posts that explores the three major themes that arose from the visions shared at our first round of public workshops. We’ve already explored the first two major themes in previous blog posts: Rebuild the Viaduct, and Remove the Viaduct . This post explores the third and final major theme: Replace the Viaduct. The major ideas within this theme were to replace the viaduct with a below grade highway – either in a »