Complete Streets

The latest developments, events, and resources from the National Complete Streets Coalition:

Learn about building walkable commercial districts at the National Walking Summit

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Decatur, GA
Downtown Decatur, GA, one example of a walkable commercial district.

The National Complete Streets Coalition, a program of Smart Growth America, will be at the first National Walking Summit in Washington, DC on October 1-3, highlighting how communities are using Complete Streets to pursue walkability and support their local economies. The three-day summit will convene business, civic and nonprofit leaders to develop strategies, increase momentum and showcase best practices to increase investments in walking and walkability in communities throughout the country.

The National Complete Streets Coalition will be leading a session at the Summit called “Walkable Commercial Districts: Making the Case and Design Principles,” at 2:30 PM on October 1. The session will include a panel of local leaders—elected and otherwise—who make or influence transportation decisions.

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Completing Our Streets: It takes more than facts to achieve the Complete Streets conversion

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Nashville, TN Mayor Karl Dean signed a Complete Streets Executive Order in 2010, joined by former Councilmember Erik Cole and former city staffers Toks Omishakin and Chris Bowles. Photo by Gary Layda, City of Nashville.

This post is the second in a twice-monthly series of excerpts from Completing Our Streets: The Transition to Safe and Inclusive Transportation Networks, the forthcoming book from Island Press by Barbara McCann, founder of the National Complete Streets Coalition. The book discusses the keys to the movement’s success, and how places and practitioners in the United States are tackling the challenges of putting a new transportation paradigm into daily practice. Look for the book out on October 14, 2013.

All National Complete Streets Coalition Platinum Partners and those who upgrade to the next Partnership level will receive a signed copy of Completing Our Streets. Become a Coalition Partner today!

From Chapter 6: Practitioners as Champions

After we started the National Complete Streets Coalition, I spent a lot of time developing a series of focused fact sheets that brought together the best and most specific answers we could find on every topic related to Complete Streets. The website was soon overflowing with reports and resources on every aspect of the benefits of Complete Streets. But somehow they were never enough. They never slaked the hunger from people around the country for very specific information about how to answer a challenging question with an indisputable fact. Over time, I realized I was learning how to overcome barriers not by regurgitating facts but by hearing stories about how others had made change happen.

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FHWA Supports Flexible Design Guides – Complete Streets News, September 2013

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Policy Adoption Deerfield Beach, Florida officially adopted Complete Streets Guidelines on August 20. With these Guidelines, city staff will be better prepared to plan and design streets that work for all users, regardless of age, ability, or mode of transportation. In 2012, the National Complete Streets Coalition facilitated a Complete Streets workshop with Deerfield Beach. … Continued

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Learn how Memphis, TN, is creating Complete Streets with new policy and implementation brief

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Broad Ave., Memphis, TN
The reconfigured Broad Avenue in Memphis. Photo by Justin Fox Burks.

Earlier this year Memphis, TN, passed the 500th Complete Streets policy in the United States. In a new policy and implementation brief, we detail how Memphis achieved its Complete Streets successes so far, the ongoing efforts in the region and the work that remains to be done.

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Completing Our Streets: Why do so many communities build incomplete streets?

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An incomplete street. Photo via Flickr.

This post is the second in a twice-monthly series of excerpts from Completing Our Streets: The Transition to Safe and Inclusive Transportation Networks, the forthcoming book from Island Press by Barbara McCann, founder of the National Complete Streets Coalition. The book discusses the keys to the movement’s success, and how places and practitioners in the United States are tackling the challenges of putting a new transportation paradigm into daily practice. Look for the book out on October 14, 2013.

All National Complete Streets Coalition Platinum Partners and those who upgrade to the next Partnership level will receive a signed copy of Completing Our Streets. Become a Coalition Partner today!

From Chapter 1: Why We Build Incomplete Streets

The first chapter of Completing Our Streets outlines how the history, political standing, habits, and orientation of the transportation industry in the United States have made it difficult for any policy movement to shift the way transportation projects are planned and built. Undertaking a Complete Streets approach is a challenge because of long-standing divisions: between modes, governing structures, and people.

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Join the National Complete Streets Coalition at the 2013 National Walking Summit

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Walking Summit
Complete Streets features make this street in Bellingham, WA safer and more accessible for pedestrians. Photo by Walkable Communities, via Flickr.

In early October, the National Complete Streets Coalition, a program of Smart Growth America, will be at the National Walking Summit here in Washington, D.C., sharing information and skills for successful Complete Streets policy and implementation with the many other national and local leaders in attendance.

Walking is the most basic form of travel, an easy way to be physically active and a powerful tool for economic and social well-being of our communities. The Coalition works to improve safety and access to community destinations for people who travel by foot, as well as by wheelchair, bicycle, public transportation, or automobile.

On the Summit’s opening day, October 1, join our 4:00 PM session “Completing Our Streets: Policy and Advocacy Tools to Get You Moving.” Laura Searfoss, our Policy Associate, will open the session with the basics on Complete Streets policy: What makes a good Complete Streets policy? Who has one already? Why does any community even need one?

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View our 500 Complete Streets Policies Celebration in full

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On August 14, 2013, Smart Growth America and the National Complete Streets Coalition hosted a 500 Complete Streets Policy Celebration in which complete streets leaders the 500 communities across the United States that have made their streets safer and more accessible for everyone who uses them with Complete Streets policies, and looked ahead to the … Continued

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Complete Streets News – August 2013

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Policy Action

Concord, California has been awarded funds from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission’s One Bay Area Grant (OBAG) program to redesign Detroit Avenue. To be eligible for OBAG funds, communities in the San Francisco Bay region must show that the project follows a Complete Streets approach, in line with a locally-adopted policy or plan. (Concord Patch)

Sacramento, California’s Complete Streets Coalition brings together community non-profits and regional public agencies to ensure Complete Streets implementation in plans, projects, and processes. WALKSacramento gave an update on its work in a recent blog post. Read more >>

Los Angeles Departments of City Planning and Transportation are working together to develop a Mobility Element of the city’s General Plan that fully considers the needs of all users of the roadways and responds to citizens’ input. Streetsblog L.A. gives an update on their work so far and how community members can engage and share their ideas. Read more >>

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Completing Our Streets: Celebrating 500 Policies

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This post is the first in a series of excerpts from Completing Our Streets: The Transition to Safe and Inclusive Transportation Networks, the forthcoming book from Island Press written by Barbara McCann, founder of the National Complete Streets Coalition. The book discusses the keys to the movement’s success, and how places and practitioners in the United States are tackling the challenges of putting a new transportation paradigm into daily practice. This series will run twice monthly. Look for the book out on October 11, 2013.

Completing Our Streets coverThe passage of the 500th Complete Streets policy was a remarkable moment, especially for those of us who felt bold back in 2005 when we set the first goal for the Completing Our Streets coverNational Complete Streets Coalition: new policies in five states and twenty-five local jurisdictions, more than doubling the policies in existence at that time. Since then the Complete Streets movement has helped bring about a tremendous burst of activity in changing how roads are planned, funded, designed, and built.

The Complete Streets movement, though, is far from the first to point out that roads should be safe for everyone traveling along them, or to argue for more transportation choices. Why did the movement take off the way it did? What does this success teach us about the next steps in creating roads that are safe for all users?

Last year I stepped down from leading the Coalition to take some time to try to answer these questions. I knew that while supporters love the name, many don’t look beyond its definition as a street that is designed to be safe for everyone using it. I also knew that the movement’s success is rooted not in this simple definition, but in the strategies we have used to change transportation practice.

These strategies had little to do with defining exactly what an individual Complete Street looks like. The lack of a design focus may surprise anyone who is following the explosion of exciting new street design guidelines, manuals, books, and individual projects that are getting deserved attention in transportation circles these days.

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Complete Streets leaders celebrate 500 policies and look forward to the movement's future

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On August 14, 2013, Smart Growth America and the National Complete Streets Coalition celebrated the 500 communities across the United States that have made their streets safer and more accessible for everyone who uses them with Complete Streets policies, and looked ahead to the future of the Complete Streets movement.

The 500th Complete Streets Policy celebration honored Memphis, TN for passing the milestone policy, and featured a panel of experts including Rich Weaver of the American Public Transportation Association (APTA); Kyle Wagenschutz, Bicycle and Pedestrian Coordinator for the City of Memphis,TN; Art Guzzetti, Vice President of Policy at APTA; Colleen Hawkinson, AICP, Manager, Strategic Planning Branch, DDOT; Darren Smith, Policy Representative, National Association of Realtors and Jeff Miller, President & CEO, Alliance for Biking and Walking. The panel discussion was moderated by Roger Millar, PE AICP, Director of the National Complete Streets Coalition.

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