National Institute for Transportation and Communities

Road pavement is a known contributor to the urban heat island effect. Several vendors are providing engineered pavements coatings – known as “cool pavement” - to reflect light and therefore heat to reduce the thermal load of roads. The City of Tucson is planning a pilot application of a cool pavement in Fall 2021 as a part of its Parks and Connections Bond work; our team has been working with the city and vendor(s) to set up an evaluation framework of the cool pavement. Few of these cool p... Read More

The growing focus on context sensitive solutions and design in roadway planning, increased support for addressing public health objectives through transportation and land use planning, and concerns about oil dependence and global warming all point to a need for planning practitioners to have more knowledge and skills related to pedestrian and bicycle planning. At the same time, the amount of funding going toward pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure has increased significantly since the earl... Read More