Session Guide

MON-FS-03: Bike Tour of New Orleans: Low-Stress Bikeways to Bike Easy

Monday, October 13, 2025

7:45 AM - 11:00 AM CT

Location: New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, Room 225

2.00 PDH, LA CES/HSW, AICP, NY/HSW, FL
Ticket Price: $180 per person

Field Session Leader(s)

Sarah Johnson, ASLA, PLA, AICP (she/her/hers)

Landscape Architect
Toole Design Group
Raleigh, North Carolina
Susannah S. Barton

Senior Planner
Toole Design
Memphis, Tennessee

Field Session Presenter(s)

Jennifer Ruley, PE (she/her/hers)

DPW Mobility and Safety Division Manager
City of New Orleans
New Orleans, Louisiana
Allene La Spina (she/her/hers)

Executive Director
Bike Easy
New Orleans, Louisiana

New Orleans ramped up its bikeways in the late 2010s and is working to create a public realm complete with low stress bike connections. Explore the city’s bikeways on a 7-mile e-bike ride along using buffered bike lanes and greenways. Learn the city’s bicycling history and discuss design considerations.

Experience an exclusive, hands-on field session—limited to just 20 participants. Includes electric bike and helmet rental.

Accessibility: This bike tour requires participants to be comfortable riding in mixed-traffic conditions.

Learning Outcomes:

Learn about the history of New Orleans’ bike infrastructure and key development phases.
Learn best practices when designing bicycle facilities, including accessibility, streetcar access, and maintenance considerations related to street-level and sidewalk-level bicycle facilities as well as off-street greenways.
Discover first-hand how bikeway intersection and crossing design affects user experience including grade-separated highway crossings, Pedestrian Hybrid Beacons (PHBs), and intersection daylighting.
Discover lessons learned in the implementation process and the realities of building bikeways on complex urban streets and how tradeoffs are identified between other modes, on-street vehicle parking, loading and delivery, and street trees.