Now in its twelfth year, the NACTO Designing Cities Conference brings together 1,000 officials, planners, and practitioners to advance the state of transportation in cities across North America. 

Miami-Dade is a microcosm of the issues facing North American cities today. In line with NACTO’s values and to advance our movement for safe, sustainable, and equitable cities, NACTO is focusing the 2024 conference around the following intersecting themes:

Safety: Stemming the roadway safety crisis 

The United States’ roadway safety crisis is intensifying, with a person killed on American streets and roads every 12 minutes. This crisis is unique–no other industrialized country has as many road deaths–and unjust, with Black and Indigenous pedestrians nearly twice as likely to be struck and killed as White pedestrians. 

Florida is one of the deadliest states for pedestrians, and the Miami metro region is the 14th-most-deadly in the country. Against this backdrop, Miami-Dade has set an ambitious Vision Zero goal of eliminating traffic fatalities by 2040 and anticipates completing 22 safety projects in 2024.  

NACTO is working to address the traffic safety crisis by advocating for increased funding for commonsense programs like Safe Streets and Roads for All; updates to outdated regulations like the New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) and the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD); and by advancing forward-thinking guidance like City Limits and the upcoming third edition of Urban Bikeway Design Guide, which put safety at the forefront. 

Our conference programming will provide city staff with the training, information, and resources necessary to confront the staggering safety crisis in Florida and around the country. We’ll dive into a range of topics, such as how to access federal funding and grant opportunities; the future of Vision Zero; new approaches to speed limit setting; and major street redesigns that prioritize safety.

Climate Change: Building resiliency and adapting to the global climate crisis

To increase our chances for a livable, equitable future, it is urgent we shift a significant number of trips made in cars to lower-carbon modes: walking, biking, and transit. Across the U.S., cities are the testing ground for this work. They are changing their approaches to designing streets, and creating more options for people to travel safely and reliably without a car.

Florida is highly susceptible to the impacts of climate change, particularly storms, sea level rise and high temperatures. The sea level near Miami-Dade is rising as much as one inch each decade, and heavy rainstorms are becoming more severe. Increasing temperatures not only accelerate the formation of new storms during hurricane season but also make it too hot for people riding transit, biking, or walking.

Miami-Dade County is upgrading infrastructure, protecting communities, and supporting innovative solutions to sea level rise. The County is also working to protect the diverse marine ecosystems off its coast. At #NACTO2024, attendees will learn about the impacts of Miami-Dade’s multi-tier strategy to build climate resilience, including an expansion of the mass transit system, the creation of transit-oriented communities and 70 acres of rapid transit zones, the restructuring of the bus network, and the reforestation of the public right-of-way, among other improvements.   

Equity: Building streets as social infrastructure that broadens access to opportunity and supports the physical and mental well-being of marginalized communities

Streets are not solely physical infrastructure; they’re also a crucial part of a city's social infrastructure. They’re a place where communities come together to celebrate (think: people reveling in the streets when a local team wins a championship), to protest (think: the Women's March or the demonstrations following George Floyd's murder), or even to interact informally with those they pass on the street (think: the neighbors who get to know each other through their daily bus commute). 

Streets can also serve as places of social injustice, from police unlawfully pulling over Black and Brown people, anti-trans and anti-gay policies that incite fear and allow room for harassment, or highway projects that divide communities. In Florida and across the U.S., Black people are much more likely to be killed while walking, and transgender individuals feel–and are–increasingly unsafe in public spaces. The ability to thrive, to access economic and social opportunities, and even to experience joy in cities is under threat. 

#NACTO2024 provides a forum for attendees to think intentionally and collaborate on minimizing harm, advancing joy, and increasing equity. The conference will offer breakout sessions, workshops, and roundtable discussions that allow attendees to strategize ways cities and NACTO can lift up and support the social infrastructure of streets and quell the harmful policies, tactics, and activities that inhibit community-building and a person's ability to move about safely, freely, and thrive. And we’ll explore how Miami-Dade built on one of Florida’s most robust community engagement processes, Thrive305, to inform a transportation action plan rooted in equity. 

NACTO is planning the conference agenda to provide the time and space for those most impacted by these injustices to care for themselves and each other. The pace of our schedule aims to allow for breaks, and we encourage attendees to build their own sustainable schedule,  allowing for rest throughout the week. There will also be affinity group meet-ups, including a BIPOC Breakfast hosted by our Transportation Justice Fellows and an LGBT+ meet-up, as well as a dedicated room in the venue without any conference programming to allow space for rest and reflection. 

See other measures we’re taking for the safety and wellbeing of attendees >

Sustainable Growth: Holistically accommodating and managing population growth and shifting travel patterns

North American cities face interconnected affordability, traffic, and growth management crises, as demand for housing vastly outstrips supply, commute times and traffic congestion increase, and the impacts of pandemic-driven remote work and relocation continue to reverberate. 

Florida is the fastest growing state in the U.S. The Miami-Dade region is experiencing a large portion of this growth, and also ranked as one of the most unaffordable in the U.S.; in August 2023, the median list price for a home was $605,000. In the face of this challenge, Miami-Dade is implementing integrated transportation and land use policies to accommodate growth. The County is working to expand its inventory of workforce and affordable housing, with over 18,000 new and rehabilitated affordable units in financial closing by the end of 2023 and 18,000 more planned for 2024. Many of these units are designed to be built within transit-oriented communities along the County’s re-designed mass transit system, creating a symbiotic relationship between housing and transit. 

At this year’s conference, we will focus on the ways that many cities are responding to a tremendous influx of residents, increased demand for space, and shifting commute patterns. City transportation officials can share strategies for managing growth by collaborating with their zoning, land use, and housing counterparts, and by working with developers not only to mitigate traffic impacts from new housing but to proactively seize new opportunities to help achieve their mobility vision. 

Regional Collaboration: Multiplying impact and addressing challenges by working together  

While innovation largely comes ground-up in cities, impact is achieved by collaborating locally, regionally, and nationally through the NACTO network of cities. 

Miami-Dade County is home to 34 incorporated cities, and neighbors other major cities, including Fort Lauderdale. Regional cooperation is critical in addressing the numerous challenges facing North American cities and communities today, and attendees will see how Miami-Dade agencies are breaking out of silos, reimagining success, and partnering to augment their capabilities.