Two local transportation planners are attending the Pro Walk/Pro Bike 2010 conference. The conference is presented by the National Center for Bicycling & Walking and is taking place in Chattanooga, Tenn..

Here is a blurb from the conference’s site:

The Pro Walk/Pro Bike 2010 conference takes place in Chattanooga, Tennessee, September 13-16, and will have a wide-ranging program focusing on everything from basic bike/ped planning to sessions covering the latest design manuals in sessions led by national experts.

Ann Chanecka, a Pima Association of Governments planner, and Tom Thivener, the City of Tucson’s bike and pedestrian program manager, will both send updates each night about the most interesting sessions and information they learn each day.

The first update is from Chanecka who wrote:

I am excited to be here in Chattanooga, TN for the 16th International Symposium on Walking and Bicycling presented by the National Center for Bicycling and Walking.  It took me a few days and a few modes of transportation to make it here which I won’t go into since a bicycle was actually not involved.

However, I do want to mention that I arrived to the Chattanooga greyhound bus station this morning which unfortunately is located about 15 miles outside of downtown.  My years of traveling on the cheap influenced my decision to walk the 1/2 mile to the closest public bus stop.  Of course there were no pedestrian amenities and so I had to chuckle at the irony of feeling like I was going to be clobbered WALKING to the ProWalk ProBike conference.

Fortunately I made it to the conference in one piece in time for the National Safe Routes to School Partnership annual meeting.  I am glad I was able to attend this meeting as the Partnership unveiled their 2011-2015 draft strategic plan to try to get more kids walking and bicycling to school.

The meeting was definitely focused on getting stuff down to be more effective, a sentiment I try to embrace everyday at PAG.

There are a lot of folks here, who work hard towards making their cities, states and the country a better place for cyclists.  I am looking forward to learning from others in this field.  I plan on writing a few snippets over the next few days of the conference about what is happening in the bicycle professional world.

Ann

Stay tuned for updates from both Thivener and Chanecka tomorrow.