Colin Harris, PE, LEED AP
- Principal
- Based In Minneapolis
I am a Professional Engineer with experience planning and designing in the Upper Midwest and Pacific Northwest. I have a passion for Active Transportation, Complete Streets, and Safe Routes to School. You can find me biking throughout the Twin Cities with my daughter on my cargo bike.
Biography
Colin is a civil engineer and leader of Alta’s Minneapolis-St. Paul office. He is a graduate of Brown University with a BS in Civil Engineering. From high-level concepts to specific technical solutions, Colin has extensive experience developing safety improvements in a variety of contexts including school zones, urban arterials, and roadways in small towns. He also wields experience with truck, bus, and streetcar driving. Colin brings deep technical knowledge of design best practice as a professional engineer but has also worked to support innovation for bicycling and walking in the region as a local advocate. Colin lived and worked in Seattle and Bellingham, Washington before moving to Minneapolis in 2008.
In 2009, Colin co-founded the Minneapolis Bicycle Coalition (now Our Streets Minneapolis) and started the city’s first Open Streets initiative. After many months of planning and organizing, the first Open Streets Minneapolis event took place in 2011. Colin continued to lead the initiative through 2014 and grew it to six routes per year. Colin is also involved in multiple artistic endeavors. One of his projects, The Really Big Table, is a twenty-five foot long, foldable table with benches that can be transported by bicycle. Additionally, Colin is an active musician, playing traditional old-time music on fiddle and banjo.