Educating the bicycle and pedestrian planners of tomorrow

University instructors who want to incorporate bicycle- and pedestrian-specific concepts into their graduate transportation planning programs can now access a full set of materials developed by the Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center (PBIC), a national center housed within the UNC Highway Safety Research Center (HSRC). PBIC staff helped develop the 3-credit, graduate-level course with funding from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

"For students who want to work in a large, urban environment, experience working on pedestrian and bicycle issues is critical," said Laura Sandt, PBIC associate director and course co-developer. "This course covers key concepts on multimodal transportation planning that every emerging practitioner should know."

This graduate-level interdisciplinary course explores the core concepts related to creating and evaluating effective and comprehensive bicycle and pedestrian plans and programs. Following free registration, instructors interested in offering the course can access course assignments, grading keys, lab activities, and lecture materials, including slides with speaker notes. The modular course materials can also be integrated individually into existing courses to fit the needs of the students or the academic program.

The course was taught in 2009 within the UNC Department of City and Regional Planning. The course developers then revised course materials with student and instructor feedback.

For more information, please:

• Read the Executive Summary
• Get the Syllabus and list of course readings
• Register for the free, adaptable course materials

• Executive Editor: Katy Jones
• Managing Editor: Jeremy Pinkham
• Graphic Designer: Zoe Gillenwater

Directions is a free, online publication of the University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center. No permission is needed to reprint from articles, but attribution is requested. To receive Directions, please subscribe to the HSRC contact list.