Should every street be designed for fast-moving cars?
A proposed rule from USDOT rule would measure success in outdated ways and prioritize fast driving speeds over all other modes of transportation and their associated benefits.
Complete Streets
The latest developments, events, and resources from the National Complete Streets Coalition:
Complete Streets News — June 2016
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Registration is now open for Street Lights — Join the National Complete Streets Coalition at Street Lights: Illuminating Implementation and Equity in Complete Streets, our first-ever Complete Streets conference, taking place on November 15, 2016 in Sacramento, CA. This day-long conference will be a chance for transportation planners and engineers, community, equity, and health advocates, local officials, and Complete Streets practitioners to share ideas, brainstorm solutions, and celebrate the success of the Complete Streets movement nationwide together. Conference registration is $150 for National Complete Streets Coalition Partners and $195 for non-Partners. Become a Partner today and one complimentary registration is included!
Complete Streets News — May 2016
Indianapolis Cultural Trail, Photo Credit: Downtown Indy
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Registration is now open for Street Lights — Join the National Complete Streets Coalition at Street Lights: Illuminating Implementation and Equity in Complete Streets, our first-ever Complete Streets conference, taking place on November 15, 2016 in Sacramento, CA. This day-long conference will be a chance for transportation planners and engineers, community, equity, and health advocates, local officials, and Complete Streets practitioners to share ideas, brainstorm solutions, and celebrate the success of the Complete Streets movement nationwide together. Conference registration is $150 for National Complete Streets Coalition partners and $195 for non-partners. Become a partner today and one complimentary registration is included!
Ask USDOT to #MakeMeCount this Bike to Work Day
This Friday, thousands of people across the country will put on their helmets and take to the streets for National Bike to Work Day, an annual event promoting active commuting options and safer streets.
Will you be joining the event? If so, make your ride even more impactful by telling USDOT to #MakeMeCount when it comes to measuring how well a street works.
Five things to read and share during #InfrastructureWeek
This morning kicked off this year’s Infrastructure Week, a chance for political leaders and advocates to talk about how to make our nation’s roads, bridges, sidewalks, water, and digital infrastructure better for everyone.
Looking for ways to get involved? Here are five things to read and share this week:
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1. Two big moves for safer, more complete streets
Federal Highway Administration has a lot of influence over our nation’s infrastructure, and last week the agency made two big moves to clear the way for states, metro areas, and local communities to use federal dollars to design safer, more complete streets. Read more >> |
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2. Mapping structurally deficient bridges
Do you drive across a bridge each day? There’s a good chance it’s structurally deficient. That’s according to The Fix We’re In For, our report about bridge conditions across the country. Find structurally deficient bridges in your area with our interactive map or get an overview of the national findings with this infographic. |
Feds get out of the way of communities that want to design safer, more complete streets
The Federal Highway Administration made two big moves this last week to clear the way for states, metro areas, and local communities to use federal dollars to design safer, more complete streets.
Both of these updates are great news for anyone advocating for streets that better meet the needs of everyone that uses them, as well as better serving the goals of the surrounding community. FHWA deserves a big round of applause for making these changes.
If you are working on a local transportation project and your DOT or some other agency cites vague federal rules when refusing to build a safe and complete street, show them the FHWA memo below. Their guidance makes it extremely clear: there’s wide latitude to design streets to best suit local needs, and old regulations that treat all roads like highways have been rolled back.
Introducing Street Lights, our first-ever Complete Streets conference
A Complete Streets approach can help Americans improve our health, our daily commutes, our local economies, and our communities.
How can advocates encourage Complete Streets, and work with engineers and practitioners to get these projects built?
Join us to answer these questions at Street Lights: Illuminating Implementation and Equity in Complete Streets, the first-ever Complete Streets conference, taking place on November 15, 2016 in Sacramento, CA.
We want you to join us. This day-long conference will be a chance for transportation planners and engineers, community, equity, and health advocates, local officials, and Complete Streets practitioners to share ideas, brainstorm solutions, and celebrate the success of the Complete Streets movement nationwide together.
Webinar Presentation: Complete Streets Implementation and Design
Complete Streets integrates people and place in the planning, design, construction, operation, and maintenance of our transportation networks. Hundreds of communities across the country have already adopted Complete Streets policies—the next step is to implement them.
Last week the National Complete Streets Coalition held a webinar that offered transportation planners, engineers, and practitioners insights about turning policies on paper into changes on the ground. The webinar provided an overview of the Complete Streets planning-to-design process; how Complete Streets and active transportation are impacting communities’ health and economy; get tips on what to consider when starting a Complete Streets project; learn strategies for design retrofits; and hear case studies of places that have done it successfully.
Tell USDOT that #WeAllCount
If someone takes the bus to work, and no one is around to count them, do they still matter?
We say yes, but the U.S. Department of Transportation seems to disagree.
Last week, USDOT issued a draft rule that will govern how states and metro areas will have to measure and address congestion, along with freight movement and emissions. These new requirements will help measure what America’s transportation dollars are actually buying us—which is great.
However, the rule as it is currently written would measure success in outdated ways. Using old measures will lead to the continued use of outdated strategies, such as prioritizing fast driving speeds above all other modes of transportation and their associated benefits.
Complete Streets News — April 2016
ICYMI: The Best Complete Streets Policies of 2015 — Each year, the National Complete Streets Coalition tracks and analyzes newly passed Complete Streets policies. In case you missed it, this year’s rankings came out last week. The City of Reading, PA’s policy took home the top spot, with the first-ever perfect 100 score. As part of the kickoff, we hosted an online panel discussion, featuring Senator Brian Schatz; Mayor Mark Stodola of Little Rock; Craig Peiffer of Reading; and Hildy Kingma of Park Forest, IL. The recorded webinar is now online. We also took a few minutes to answer your questions from the webinar.
Save the Date: Complete Streets Conference — Join the National Complete Streets Coalition as we host our first-ever Complete Streets Conference on November 15, 2016 in Sacramento, CA. This national discussion will convene leaders and practitioners to share best practices, tools, and expertise, as well as celebrate the successes of the Complete Streets movement. Attendees will strategize on the future direction of Complete Streets, as the Coalition gears up to celebrate the 1000th national Complete Streets policy. Registration opens in May, stay tuned for an alert.