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Birmingham’s Multimodal Transportation Plan, a year in the making, will be unveiled during a Transportation Town Hall at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 29, at Boutwell Auditorium.
“It’s really a chance for us to share what we’ve heard and to share some of our preliminary recommendations,” said Christina Argo, deputy director of strategic projects for the Birmingham Department of Transportation (BDOT). “It’s really our chance to kind of showcase the work, give everybody a little preview before the actual plan comes out.”
Argo said the plan could shift residents’ thinking.
“Typically, a lot of cities across the country, Birmingham included, have really prioritized cars over people,” she said. “This part is a really big change in how we are approaching transportation in Birmingham — prioritizing people, which means giving folks better access, more choices. If you don’t have a car, you should have choices on how you get to where you need to get.
“We’re going to have leadership interact with local students – high school and college students – to be able to have a conversation with city leaders,” Argo added. “T. Marie King is going to be our moderator for that, just really engaging with the next generation. Projects take a long time to pull off … so a lot of the work we’re doing now is really going to benefit the next generation.”
Maps of each district will display the actual projects so people can see what is being proposed.
“We have an hour for that,” Argo said. “Then at 6 o’clock, we’ll have our program and then have more time afterwards where people can ask questions. We’re not going to have a ‘raise your hand question and answer’ thing. We are going to have comment forms, paper copies and then also a digital way that people can give us feedback. You can scan the QR code with your phone, type in your questions or your feedback, and then that will all go into the plan as well.”
The BDOT deputy director acknowledged that events in the 50s and 60s in public transportation just turned people off to the option.
“Especially in the South, there’s a stigma around if you have to use public transportation,” she said. “That means (it is believed) you’re a certain class of citizen, right? It’s not that way in other cities, but they also have options that really make it doable and convenient. We need to have a system that entices people to get out of their car. Whether they decide to walk, they decide to take a bus, or they decide to bike, we’ve got to change people’s minds by providing the infrastructure. That’s exactly what we intend to do.”
Argo said she thinks event organizers have a real shot at changing the minds of folks who are in the next generation.
“Or even people my age – 40s, 50s — who probably didn’t grow up, especially in the South, with opportunities to do ride public transportation,” she said. “Nashville is one of our peer cities. They have a new mayor. Their program is called Choose How You Move, and they are investing billions of dollars in improving not only signals and things that help cars move quicker, but public transportation and infrastructure. Memphis, the mayor there is on a mission to be the most bikeable city for the Southeast, so a lot of our peer cities are really looking at transportation as an opportunity this way.”
Tuesday festivities will begin with an open house at 5 p.m. and a panel discussion at 6 p.m. The panel will include Mayor Randall Woodfin; James Fowler, chief of the city’s Office of Public Infrastructure; and Charlotte Shaw, executive director and CEO of Birmingham Jefferson County Transit Authority.
More information is available on the goBHM website.