1993 Access Management Conference

Conference Overview The first Access Management Conference was held in Vail, Colorado on August 1-4, 1993. The conference was sponsored by the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT), the Federal Highway Administration (FIIWA), and the Transportation Research Board (TRB). It was attended by over 150 persons from a wide range of transportation disciplines (including engineers, planners, and legal experts) representing federal agencies, state and local departments of transportation, and private consultants. Comprehensive access management is an effective response to the congestion, the loss of arterial capacity, and the serious access related accident experience that is plaguing our nation’s roadways. Access management reduces the frequency of fatal, injury, and property damage accidents, it prolongs the functional life of existing highways, it maintains the efficiency of the transportation system, and it is an integral part of the Congestion and Safety Management Systems called for under ISTEA. While elements of it have been used for years, comprehensive access management is still relatively new in practice, and only a few states have comprehensive access management programs. This first national conference was intended to provide an overview of access management and the administrative, legal, and engineering processes necessary to put it into practice. The conference also provided a forum for state and local engineers and planners to learn about access management from those who are currently practicing it and see how other states have approached its implementation. It is hoped that this conference will encourage other states and municipalities to develop their own access management programs. The conference featured 10 technical and administrative sessions with a total of 36 formal presentations. The presentation sessions were followed by discussion periods where audience members could ask the speakers more detailed questions. The presentation sessions were divided into two tracks: administrative and technical. The administrative sessions focused on the administrative and legal aspects of access management while the technical sessions focused on engineering, design, and case studies. The conference was declared an overwhelming success and was hopefully just the first in a series of access management conferences . A second Access Management Conference is already being planned for 1996 in Vail, Colorado (more information is provided in Section V) . PDF document was scanned from paper and converted to PDF.