What We Do

*In September 2010, LYKAH Consulting joined forces with
Alta Planning + Design (www.altaplanning.com), opening the Chicago office to better serve clients in the midwest.  The new Chicago office will help Alta, a 70-person national consulting firm providing bicycle, pedestrian, and trail/greenway services, provide enhanced service to its clients in Illinois and surrounding states. “As one of the pioneering cities in the non-motorized transportation field, and a hub of the Midwest, Chicago is a great location for Alta to compliment our office in Madison and serve our Midwest clients,” says CEO Michael Jones. 

Alta Planning + Design is the national leader in active transportation consulting. With 14 offices and more than 70 professional staff Alta provides bicycle and pedestrian project research, planning, facility design, programming services, landscape architecture and greenway planning to clients internationally. Alta Bicycle Share operates and provides consulting services related public bike systems internationally.

Alta, together with LYKAH, specializes in multi-modal transportation planning.  The Chicago office has more than 3 decades of experience with transportation planning and design, including roadways, railroads, transit and airports - both in moving goods and moving people.  Nearly 20 years of our experience has focused on improving conditions for 'vulnerable roadway users*.' 

A unique perspective that we provide is our broad transportation background;  we understand the operations of roadways, and the requirements of highway agencies, but we also understand how to provide workable modifications to traditional roadway design in order to make your streets more “Complete.”

We also recognize that great plans for communities can’t be done in a vacuum.  They are most often collaborative efforts that embrace urban spaces, green spaces, with an appropriate interweaving of a transportation network that stitches the community together - rather than dividing it, as they all too often have done.  Our role in broader community efforts is to analyze transportation needs from an overall perspective and deliver a recommended system that satisfies the needs of ALL users.  

Joining with Alta allows the full force of Alta’s extensive skill-set to support the leadership in Chicago.  Alta has GIS skills, graphics capabilities, report writing, outstanding analytical skills, a broad background of innovative solutions to problems.  Together with our sister office in Madison, Wisconsin, we are fully prepared to offer the best one-stop shop for non-motorized solutions in the Midwest.

*’vulnerable users’ is a term used to describe the inherent vulnerability of humans who use the roads without being encased in a protective steel shell.  Typical users are pedestrians, including those who are physically-challenged, children and elderly, bicyclists, and often motorcyclists.