Applied Active Transportation Class Aims to Improve Bike and Pedestrian Safety on Campus

In the wake of last fall’s fatal traffic crash near campus, a new studio at CAPLA is turning student interest into action. The course, “Applied Active Transportation: Improving Walking and Cycling Conditions on Campus,” is led by Senior Lecturer in Sustainable Built Environments Joey Iuliano and aims to make the University of Arizona campus safer and more connected. 

“This is the second year for the course,” Iuliano said. “We started it to provide students in planning, civil engineering and sustainable built environments with a course focused on how to plan and design for walking and cycling.”

The class is a collaboration among CAPLA, University of Arizona Parking & Transportation Services and the University of Arizona Office of Sustainability. 

Students conduct on-site observations, review crash and injury data and study best practices from other universities before ultimately developing design proposals.

“Similar to last year, students will work in interdisciplinary groups of four and each group will have one corridor on campus,” Iuliano said. 

Corridors include Second Street from Euclid to Campbell, Olive from Mabel to Sixth Street and Highland from Mabel to Sixth Street.

Potential interventions could include curb-buffered bike lanes, wider sidewalks, raised crosswalks, green infrastructure to slow traffic and targeted improvements that could be implemented with modest budgets.

Linus Friedman, a sustainable built environments student at CAPLA, enrolled in the course because he wants to work in active transportation planning after graduation. 

“Planning for people walking and biking excites me greatly and is something sorely needed in the United States,” Friedman said. “This semester, I’m hoping to learn more in-depth specifics on how to accommodate those using active forms of transport in our cities, as well as how to “sell” active transportation to city governments.”

Collaboration with campus partners is central to the studio’s approach.

“I’m working closely with them on identifying the corridors they see as most problematic based on crash data and previous bicycle and campus master plans,” Iuliano said. “They’re also helping me set the scope of the projects so that we deliver something usable for them.”

For Anona Miller, alternative transportation manager at Parking & Transportation Services, the course offers an opportunity to ground student ideas in institutional knowledge and long-term planning.

“Parking & Transportation’s role is to provide context, insight and guidance for potential project ideas that students might be interested in exploring,” Miller said. “We are contributing knowledge about areas that have opportunities for infrastructure improvements based on department observations, available data and community feedback.”

Miller emphasized the value of student perspectives in shaping safer infrastructure.

“Having the input of people who have direct experience walking, biking or driving through the project area is critical to safe and successful project design,” she said. “Students can contribute valuable insight and new ideas based on their observations, personal experiences and crowdsourced information from other students in addition to their classroom education.”

Interest in the course grew following last fall’s fatal crash near the intersection of Euclid Avenue and Second Street.

“I think students are really motivated about the ability to develop solutions that could get built and make a real impact on campus safety for students and the broader community,” Iuliano said. “A lot of them see this as deeply personal and want to prevent future deaths on campus.”

For Parking & Transportation Services, the partnership is part of a broader effort to take a proactive approach to campus safety.

“The tragic accident at Euclid and Second re-emphasized the importance of maintaining a preventative, not just reactive, approach to transportation infrastructure and design,” Miller said. 

As the semester progresses, students will present corridor-wide proposals along with targeted improvements that could be implemented in the near future. The goal is not only to give students hands-on experience, but also to create actionable ideas that can be integrated into future campus planning efforts.

“Success is based on the students developing plans that directly address the issues identified in the data and that leave our campus partners going ‘this is great – let’s get going on a few of these,’” Iuliano said. “From there, we could start to see an increase in folks opting to leave the car at home for some trips to campus and a decrease in crashes.”