Upcoming webinar: Impact of Emerging Technologies on Complete Streets — With the emergence of advanced new technologies, we have reached a pivotal point in transportation planning. How will technologies such as connected and autonomous vehicles change the way we design and use our streets? And what are cities doing today to prepare for these innovations? Join the National Complete Streets Coalition, Stantec, and Transportation for America’s Smart Cities Collaborative to explore these questions and more. Tune in September 12, 2017 at 1:00pm EDT. Register today!
Safe Streets Academy winners announced — After a very competitive application process, we are excited to announce the winners of the Safe Streets Academy: Orlando, FL; Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government, KY; South Bend, IN. These three jurisdictions will learn from national experts, collaborate with one another, and discuss best practices in engineering, tactical urbanism, creative placemaking, and community engagement.
Intersections: Creating Culturally Complete Streets — Earlier this month we announced our second national Complete Streets conference, this time in partnership with Transportation for America’s Arts & Culture team. Save the date and take part in the Complete Streets and creative placemaking movement on April 3-4, 2018 at the Nashville Music City Center.
NTSB released full report on speeding-related crash study — For the first time in its 50-year history, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has released a landmark study on speeding aimed at reducing speeding-related injuries and fatalities. After NCSC released a statement last month we had an opportunity to to ask NTSB board member, T. Bella Dinh-Zarr, PhD, MPH about the study. Read the Q&A available on our blog.
Implementing Complete Streets in small towns and rural communities — The National Complete Streets Coalition recently spoke with Andrea Clinkscales, Senior Planner at Alta, to learn about some of the obstacles smaller communities may face, along with potential solutions to implementing Complete Streets. Federal Highway Administration’s Small Town and Rural Multimodal Networks helps suburban and rural towns apply Complete Streets principles within the specific contexts of their communities.
Miss our July webinar on Green Streets? — Recordings of all the webinars in our Implementation & Equity 201 series are available on our blog, along with links to additional resources. So far, we’ve explored the intersections between Complete Streets and public health, economic development, Vision Zero, and walkability.
Send us your policies — Has your community passed a new Complete Streets policy? The National Complete Streets Coalition is collecting city, county, regional, and state policies for documentation in our Policy Atlas and Inventory and our Best Complete Streets Policies reports. For inclusion in these resources, please send a PDF copy of your policy to [email protected].
This month we are introducing a new section of our newsletter. Listen will highlight all of the Coalition’s and Steering Committee speaking engagements during the month. If you are on the Steering Committee and will be speaking or presenting in the coming months, let us know! Send event details to Nimotalai Azeez.
America Walks will host the National Walking Summit in St. Paul, MN September 13-15, 2017. NCSC Director, Emiko Atherton will lead a session on day two titled: From the Ground Up: How the Built Environment Influences Community Health. This session explores how different elements of the built environment can inform and influence the physical, mental, and social health of community members.
Steering Committee members Richard Weaver (APTA), Mike Rutkowski (Stantec), Corinne Kisner (NACTO), and Emiko Atherton (NCSC) will be presenting on day two of Rail-Volution that takes place September 17-20 in Denver, CO. The session, Curb Appeal: Green and Healthy Complete Streets will answer the question: how can you integrate green principles into your complete streets design? As well as, explore environmental justice and its role in supporting health and equity.
The 2017 International Cycling Conference will be hosted in the US for the first time in Davis, California on September 21-22. NCSC Director, Emiko Atherton will open the conference on Thursday as a keynote speaker. The conference will bring together a truly international group to discuss the most relevant topics on the safety of bicycling through topical social sessions and interactive presentations.
America Walks new webinar series — Walking Towards Justice, a new social equity-inspired online discussion will be identifying potential solutions to improve walkability and the intersections of mobility, race, class, gender, and politics. The first session on September 27, 2017 2:00pm EDT will discuss the intersection of walkability and residential segregation. Register here and be part of the conversation with nationally-known experts.
ITE Protected Bikeways Practitioners Guide — The guide is intended to provide transportation professionals with an easy-to-navigate document for planning, designing, operating, and implementing protected bikeways in the United States and Canada. The guide provides references to the critical design standards and guidelines in these two countries that direct the geometric and operational design of protected bikeways, including international best practices and research, and fills current gaps in guidance based on best practice examples.
AARP Where We Live: Communities for All Ages — Order/download your free copy of this book today. The Where We Live series highlights inspiring ideas and solutions from America’s community leaders to improve their communities, respond to pressing issues, and build partnerships.
This June, the Town of Salisbury, MA launched an ambitious program to improve and activate their beach center. They brought in a carousel, reclaimed a lane of traffic to create more space for pedestrians, installed a parklet, and set up programs like free outdoor movies — but it might be Salisbury’s garbage cans that best show how this community came together to take ownership of their public spaces. As visitors walk through the area, they are greeted by more than 60 garbage cans decorated by local artists with mini murals; a statement that colorfully shows how excited locals are to engage in a collaborative experiment to imagine what their town can be.
Bike Easy created its #IBikeNOLA campaign to demonstrate how New Orleans, LA streets can be safer for pedestrians, bike riders, and drivers. From July 31-August 11 people who ride their bike enjoyed a temporary bike lane on St Bernard Avenue, between North Claiborne and St Claude avenues. “We’re looking forward to seeing the city implement a strong policy that leads to a low-stress bike network throughout the city that allows everyone to travel safely,” says Dan Farve executive Director of Bike Easy.
“Public Square” has emerged as the winning entry, selected for Blank Space’s “Driverless Future Challenge”, which was announced last month, with a plug-and-play scheme to transform New York, NY’s public realm. Designed by FXFOWLE and Sam Schwartz Engineering, the proposal was selected by a panel of New York City commissioners, for its response to the competition brief with a flexible system that accommodates a variety of public space typologies, while creating a harmonious coexistence between pedestrians, cyclists, and vehicles.
Steering Committee Highlights: Stantec
Upcoming webinar: Protected Bikeways: A Dive into Design and the New Practitioners Guide — During this webinar, the guide’s authors, Ryan Martinson and Tyler Golly, along with other bikeway planners and engineers, will give participants an insider’s look at what design guidance is provided in this new guide, and the various considerations and inputs that helped to shape it as a useable guide for transportation and city planners and engineers across North America. They’ll also provide real-world examples of Protected Bikeways and provide tips on how to make them more mainstream in planning and design practices. Tune in September 7, 2017 at 3:00pm EDT. Register today!
Read Creating great streets–for all users — A good policy is necessary for a Complete Streets initiative and can lead to successful outcomes—but what’s the next level? Mike Rutkowski, senior transportation associate at Stantec writes: “Design guidelines are key. They will provide physical guidance on how to redesign a street. Let’s face it, 95 percent of Complete Streets projects are ‘retrofitting’ a problem—an unsafe, economically depressed, or neglected roadway. Guidelines do exist, but they are very limited and one size does not fit all.”
Stantec is hiring! — Like to work on Complete Streets? Stantec Consulting, a National Complete Streets Coalition partner is looking for bright and creative individuals to join our team. Planner, Urban Designer or Engineer. Click on the following link to apply: http://bit.ly/2wEDDbq Contact [email protected] for more info.
New Partners
Welcome to our newest Bronze-level partner! Barge Waggoner Sumner and Cannon, Inc. is an employee-owned engineering and architecture firm with locations in Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Ohio, and Texas. They work with diverse market sector clients on various levels: industrial, municipal, commercial, and government agencies. Some of their specialties include land planning and design, transportation, environmental, and water.