Trent Lethco: Streets, Mobility, and How We Experience Our Cities

Abstract

Streets play a prominent role in how we understand our urban spaces, live our lives, and reach the opportunities we desire. With the advent of modern street design standards, our streets are becoming more livable, sustainable, and equitable. As we rethink how we design our streets and bring new systems into our urban centers, how are the needs of women being woven into design thinking and transportation system development? In what ways can we achieve equity outcomes addressing historic injustices and proactively address the needs of marginalized groups so that access to opportunities grows, the burden of transportation to meet daily needs lessens, and the environmental impacts of transportation networks are appropriately addressed? Using New York and international cities as case studies, we will examine current directions in street redesigns and where they have succeeded, could be improved, or failed to deliver on their stated purpose. 

Biography

Trent Lethco is a Principal with Arup's New York-based Integrated Planning team with a background in transportation planning, land use policy, and urban design. He has over 25 years of experience, of which 20 have been with Arup. His main focus is on the New York Tri-State area, but he is also actively involved with planning across the U.S., Canada, and other international locations. When working in the Tri-State area, his activities span transport strategies and business case analysis, logistics programs for large-scale development, decarbonization plans, multimodal corridor studies, Bus Rapid Transit studies, downtown and station area plans, technology and innovation in the transport sector, and capital plans and programs. His strong background in transportation planning, land use policy, and infrastructure funding allows him to effectively link transportation and land use policy to create sustainable fiscal, social, and environmental outcomes for his clients. He has worked in both the public and private sectors, which gives him a unique perspective as a consultant in the planning field. In addition to his responsibilities at Arup, Lethco regularly teaches at Columbia University, serves as a board member to the Regional Plan Association, and guest lectures throughout the world.