Walter Kulash, P.E. has more than 30 years of experience as a traffic engineer, for engineering consultants and currently as an independent public-interest traffic engineer. Mr. Kulash’s approach to traffic engineering reaches for a new balance point, between the long-held engineering goal of moving as much traffic as efficiently as possible, and the evolving view of streets as valuable for all users, particularly the non-motorized modes of walking and bicycling.
Reaching this new balance point typically involves redefining the acceptable level of traffic service, establishing a (usually lower) vehicular design speed reflecting shared use of a street, reallocating the street space between motorized and non-motorized users, adding to the quality (not merely quantity) of pedestrian and bicycle accommodations and dispelling widely-held but obsolete notions of safety. Typical sponsors for striking this new balance point are cities, community development groups, complete streets advocacy groups, new urbanist designers, non-governmental organizations, the retail industry and, increasingly, the transportation planning field itself.
Contributions to Humans & Nature:
- …By Asking: But Where Will the Traffic Go?
A response to “To build or not to build a road… how do we honor the landscape?”
Noteworthy Links:
- Downtown Streets: Are We Strangling Ourselves on One-Way Networks (730 KB)
Read this article by Walter Kulash.
