Advocates for transit and livable communities from around the country will descend on Los Angeles, a city renowned for its love of the automobile, this month for the 10th annual Rail~Volution conference. The national conference focuses on how to transform the way communities are built, using transportation as a tool to shape the places people live. This year's conference will showcase Southern California's efforts to redesign itself to build thriving communities around modern, efficient public transit systems.

"Los Angeles has long been one of the primary trendsetters in American culture," said Oregon Congressman Earl Blumenauer, the founder of Rail~Volution. "As it faces challenges in population and demographics, increasing sprawl and traffic congestion, it is becoming one of the most important laboratories for livability in this decade. Los Angeles is where America is headed."

Over the past decade, Rail~Volution has become the place to be for talking transit with community activists, technical experts, architects, developers, transit agency representatives and local government leaders. From the national effort to bring the streetcar back to America's cities to lessons learned from Houston's light rail project, the conference will provide media with a wealth of story ideas. Other subjects covered in the conference include how to bring families back to city centers, encouraging healthy living by creating more walkable communities, overcoming parking challenges and designing communities to prevent crime.

In all, more than 60 workshops are planned covering a wide range of topics including smart growth, new urbanism, economic development, public safety, schools, community building, citizen advocacy, health and environmental protection. Conference planners have also organized 20 Mobile Workshops to tour new transit-oriented developments and other urban centers in downtown and East Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Hollywood, Pasadena, Fullerton, Brea, Claremont and Long Beach.

The conference also features panels of nationally and internationally known speakers including: Congressman Earl Blumenauer; Jenna Dorn, Administrator, Federal Transit Administration; Bill Millar, President, APTA; Timothy Beatley, Teresa Heinz Professor of Sustainable Communities, University of Virginia; Reid Ewing, Director, Rutgers University Center for Urban Policy Research; David Goldberg, Communications Director, Smart Growth America; Peter Calthorpe, Cathorpe and Associates; Todd Litman, Executive Director, Victoria Transport Policy Institute; Stephanos Polyzoides, Moule & Polyzoides; Roger Snoble, CEO, Los Angeles Metro; Shelley Poticha, Director, Center for Transit-Oriented Development; Donald Shoup, Professor, UCLA; and Molly White, Nike USA

Related Link: RailVolution Registration and Information

For more information contact:

Mary Simon

1120 SW 5th Avenue #800
Portland
OR 97204
USA

Phone: (503) 823-6870/(503) 701-3030
Email: [email protected]