Complete Streets

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

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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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 >>

Complete Streets

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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Memphis adopts the 500th Complete Streets policy in the U.S.

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On August 14th, 2013, the National Complete Streets Coalition will mark the adoption of the country’s 500th Complete Streets policy with an event celebrating the communities across the nation that have committed to building safer, more accessible streets for all users. Please join us for a live video stream of the event’s speakers and panels. In the meantime, we invite you to get in on the conversation at our Facebook page or with the #500policies hashtag on Twitter.

The celebration will be focusing in part on Memphis, Tennessee, whose new Complete Streets measure pushed us over the 500-policy mark. Earlier this year, Mayor A.C. Wharton signed an executive order directing that new road facilities and major renovations in Memphis accommodate all users and all modes. In addition to the development of a new multimodal Street Design Guide, per the executive order, Mayor Wharton announced plans to further expand the city’s bicycle facilities, including construction of 15 miles of new protected bike lanes. This official embrace of Complete Streets is part of a remarkable, citizen-driven turnaround for a city so long built around the automobile that Bicycling magazine twice named it one of America’s worst cities for bicycling.

Remaking streets from the ground up

For years, dedicated Memphians had worked to improve conditions for walking, biking, and transit in the city, but the grassroots movement for safer, more vibrant streets most visibly coalesced a few years ago in the Broad Avenue area in east Memphis. Originally the commercial corridor for nearby railcar manufacturing, Broad Avenue had fallen into neglect by the 1990s, with only a few active businesses in a landscape of fast roads, acres of parking, endless curb cuts, and indistinguishable sidewalks–a bleak environment where nobody would walk if they could help it.

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Join us to celebrate 500 Complete Streets policies

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Live streaming video by Ustream

Over the past eight years, the National Complete Streets Coalition has helped communities across the United States make their streets safer and more accessible for everyone who uses them. Even more communities have learned about Complete Streets and implemented policies on their own. In fact, there are now 500 Complete Streets policies on the books in the United States, and we think that’s worth celebrating!

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Congressional hearing on Safe Streets Act highlights policy flexibility and safety

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“My home district of Sacramento continues to bear witness to too many pedestrian accidents,” said Congresswoman Doris Matsui (D-CA) last week. “The needless and avoidable accidents are vivid reminders of why we need Complete Streets policies.”

Congresswoman Matsui made these comments at a briefing on Capitol Hill on Thursday hosted by the National Complete Streets Coalition. Matsui was there to introduce the Safe Streets Act of 2013, co-sponsored by Congressman David Joyce (R-OH). As Congresswoman Matsui explained to the crowd, “It is far past time for the federal government to step and show it too is committed to improving the safety of our communities.”

Complete Streets

A new bill in Congress would make streets safer and more accessible nationwide

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Phoo courtesy Michigan Municipal League (MML) via FlickrPhoto courtesy Michigan Municipal League (MML) via Flickr.

Complete Streets are designed with all users in mind. Complete Streets strategies help everyone, no matter of age, ability or how they chose to travel, get where they need to go quickly, easily and safely. Nationwide, nearly 500 states and localities have adopted a Complete Streets Policy directing their transportation planners and engineers to routinely design and operate the entire right of way to enable safe access for all users, regardless of age, ability, or mode of transportation.

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