Apply now for the Safe Streets Academy— The National Complete Streets Coalition is excited to offer a new, free opportunity for technical assistance. The Safe Streets Academy will bring together engineers, planners, and related professionals from three jurisdictions for a year-long series of intensive, hands-on trainings on interventions to address traffic safety. Jurisdictions with populations of at least 100,000 are eligible to apply. Applications will be accepted through Sunday, July 16. Join us for an informational webinar tomorrow, June 23 at 1:00 PM EDT for an overview of the Academy and a chance to ask questions.
The Best Complete Streets Policies of 2016 report is here — In 2016, more communities adopted Complete Streets policies than in any other year, and these policies were the strongest ever passed. Communities adopted a total of 222 new Complete Streets policies in 2016, and 51 policies scored a 90 or higher including perfect 100’s in Brockton, MA, Missoula, MT, and Wenatchee, WA. For the first time this year, the Best Complete Streets Policies report analyzes income and racial demographics. These data showed that communities that passed Complete Streets policies in 2016 were, on average, slightly more white and more wealthy than the United States as a whole, highlighting the need to help communities of all income levels and ethnicities benefit from this progress equitably. To learn more, read the report or watch the recording of our kickoff webinar.
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].
Webinar next week on Rethinking First & Last Mile: Transit-Driven Complete Streets — The next installment in our Implementation & Equity 201 webinar series is on Thursday, June 29 from 1:00-2:00 PM EDT. Join the National Complete Streets Coalition and co-host APTA for our webinar “Rethinking First & Last Mile: Transit-Driven Complete Streets.” The webinar will feature a presentation by Fred Jones from Michael Baker International on how transit agencies can leverage system redesigns to promote Complete Streets. Participants will also learn how transit-driven Complete Streets can address the first mile/last mile problem.
Missed any of our previous webinars? — You can watch recordings of all the previous installments in our Implementation & Equity 201 webinar series on our blog. Last month, co-host America Walks and speakers from Langley, WA joined the Coalition for “Making the Most of Main Street: Complete Streets & Walkable Communities” to discuss how small towns can use walkability to stimulate economic development and revitalize their main streets.
Thoughts from the road: Walkability in Knoxville — The Complete Streets team recently traveled to Knoxville, TN to participate in the Walkability Speaker Series. While there, we met with planners, engineers, developers, elected officials, and local champions of smart growth. We also spent some time in Market Square, the heart of the city’s thriving, walkable downtown. Read more about our experience in Knoxville including the city’s local successes and ongoing challenges to promoting walkability and smart growth development.
Hundreds of mayors pledge to uphold Paris Agreement — More than 320 mayors (and counting) have pledged to uphold the Paris Agreement by taking action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Smart Growth America has outlined some strategies these local leaders can utilize to achieve this goal by building compact, walkable neighborhoods served by transit.
2017 National Walking Summit — America Walks and the Every Body Walk! Collaborative are excited to announce the 2017 National Walking Summit, “Vital and Vibrant Communities: The Power of Walkability.” The 2017 National Walking Summit will expand what is meant by the term “healthy” to include not only physical health, but also social, economic, and civic health. The exciting two-and-a-half-day event will be filled with seminars, break-out sessions, and Learning-From-Place Mobile Workshops that will bring together the walking community.
Participate today in a unique crowdsourcing initiative: Video Analytics toward Vision Zero — A new crowdsourcing initiative is using technology to predict where vehicle collisions involving people walking and bicycling will occur. You can be a part of this unique effort by analyzing traffic camera footage to teach computers how to identify and track people using wheelchairs, bikes, and other modes of transportation as they navigate intersections. Take action now to help us make our streets smarter and safer!
Research evaluates equity in bike share systems — Ongoing research by Portland State University is evaluating efforts to improve the equity of bike share systems. This project identifies key barriers to bike share use for underserved communities and seeks to understand how to integrate bike share systems into disadvantaged communities to improve travel options and support economic opportunity and community revitalization.
North Las Vegas, NV became the first municipality in Clark County to adopt a comprehensive Complete Streets policy, and the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada also adopted a regional bike and pedestrian plan. These accomplishments are part of an ongoing partnership with the Southern Nevada Health District. “By making our streets more walkable and bike-friendly, we are encouraging people in our community to live healthier lives and working together to reach our shared public health goals,” stated the District’s Chief Health Officer Dr. Joe Iser.
The mayor and business owners of South Bend, IN have high hopes that the city’s Smart Streets project will spur economic development downtown and make the area more vibrant and friendly to pedestrians. The project includes planting trees, installing brick pavers at intersections, and narrowing the streets. Some people are less than enthusiastic about the few additional minutes the project adds to their commutes. In response to these concerns, Mayor Buttigieg highlighted the economic and safety benefits of the project. “It’s slower and that’s the point,” he said. “No great downtown is a through-way.”
St. Petersburg, FL‘s Complete Streets program envisions a city in which bicycles travel from place to place with the same ease as cars. Last Saturday, 50 area residents and business owners participated in a guided group bike ride. The “BlockbyBlock: Minimum Grid” tour traveled existing bikeways and explored potential new routes that could be used in attaining Complete Streets goals. “It’s really exciting to see a city and community be mutually invested in coming together to examine what Complete Streets can mean for St. Petersburg,” said Vanessa Wheeler, executive director of ShiftStPete, a bicycle and pedestrian advocacy organization that co-hosted the ride.
The cities of Lewiston and Auburn, ME have established a joint Bike-Ped Committee to oversee implementation of their Complete Streets programs. Auburn passed a Complete Streets ordinance back in March, and after a divisive first vote, Lewiston’s ordinance was adopted earlier this week. Lewiston has been grappling with pedestrian-safety issues ever since a string of recent fatalities, and work has already been done on some problem intersections with more to come. Craig Saddlemire, a leader of the Lewiston-Auburn Bike-Ped Committee, said having Complete Streets in city ordinance makes the standards more visible for state engineers and adopts a model that “allows all users to safely, conveniently use that street.”