National Association of City Transportation Officials

The National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO) is a coalition of the Departments of Transportation in North American cities.

Founded in 1996 by former New York City Transportation Commissioner Elliot Sander, NACTO's mission is a commitment to "raising the state of the practice for street design and transportation by building a common vision, sharing data, peer-to-peer exchange in workshops and conferences, and regular communication among member cities." Since its founding, NACTO has participated in a number of research initiatives dealing with surface transportation in urban areas. Past campaigns have focused on bicycling, bus rapid transit, light rail, bike share, and freight. Its design guides have gained the endorsement of numerous cities, states, and other organizations, in addition to gaining FHWA acceptance for use in conjunction with other mandated guidance and resources. NACTO is headquartered in New York City.

NACTO’s Cities for Cycling project launched in 2009 to advance the state-of-the-practice in bikeway design in the United States.

NACTO’s Designing Cities Initiative launched in 2012 with the goal of drastically advancing innovative street design and transportation engineering practices in the United States. The initiative works with government officials to improve street design in urban environments. One facet of this Initiative is the Urban Bikeway Design Guide, whose purpose is provide cities with state-of-the-practice solutions that can help create complete streets that are safe and enjoyable for bicyclists.

Since 2012, NACTO has held an annual Designing Cities Conference, convening hundreds of "transportation leaders and practitioners from across the country to discuss key trends in urban street design and transportation policy." Conference sites have included:

In October 2014, the Global Designing Cities Initiative was launched as a subsidiary of NACTO to bring guidance for safe streets to an international audience. It focuses on the critical role of streets within urban environments in cities around the world. The initiative facilitates the exchange of transportation ideas, insights and best practices among large international cities, while committing to working with a variety of stakeholders to help them shape streets in a manner that promotes public health and safety, economic development, environmental sustainability, and social and cultural value. The Initiative paired with Bloomberg Philanthropies' Initiative for Global Road Safety, which seeks to reduce traffic deaths, particularly in developing countries where traffic death rates are very high [1]. The Initiative was announced at NACTO's 2014 Designing Cities Conference in San Francisco.

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