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San Antonio’s Complete Streets Policy is the result of a year of deep collaboration among partners, including a coalition of dedicated Complete Streets champions. By working closely together to build consensus among community members and partners, the city updated its previous policy to better address the community’s needs with the necessary structure that can lead to improvements in how streets are built and maintained. The shared purpose of improving safety and comfort for all helped to maintain the momentum this robust team needed to pass a strong policy that scored very high according to our framework.

Part 1: Background

San Antonio first passed a Complete Streets policy in 2011, but there was frustration that the policy did not easily or consistently lead to the outcomes it promised, especially as pedestrian and cyclist crashes and fatalities increased (San Antonio is the 25th most dangerous metro area for pedestrians).

Inspired by peer cities like El Paso and Tucson that had recently passed high-scoring policies, San Antonio decided to revise its Complete Streets policy. The revised policy included an updated system for prioritizing proposed infrastructure projects, which now assigns points (or priority) to proposed projects that increase safety for all road users and multimodal transportation options.

“It was too long since we had first adopted our Complete Streets policy, and all of us were hungry for some clear direction on how we’re creating safer, healthier, more equitable, resilient streets in our city,” said Joey Pawlik, Executive Director of ActivateSA. “There’s unprotected, disconnected bike lanes, and San Antonio is heating up, it’s extremely hot in the summers. We need a clear direction on how we’re remaking our largest public spaces in our city.” – Joey Pawlik, Executive Director of ActivateSA

Part 2: Road to adoption

In 2023, ActivateSA, a local tactical planning initiative and think-tank, assembled the San Antonio Complete Streets Coalition: a group of local, regional, and national champions whose missions would all be advanced by the city improving its policy. This multi-sector coalition included representation from disability rights groups, active transportation organizations, public health agencies, and environmental organizations, as well as support from the American Heart Association staff who had previously supported the creation of El Paso’s Complete Streets policy. ActivateSA, leading the San Antonio Complete Streets Coalition, approached the city about updating the policy. The city was already working on its Bike Network Plan and Vision Zero updates, and with the spark from the coalition, began to update the Complete Streets policy as well.

In early 2024, the city transportation department rewrote the policy based on current best practices and lessons learned from peer cities. Throughout this process, the city transportation team convened a recurring partner group that included the San Antonio Complete Streets Coalition and fourteen city departments. The partner group’s detailed review of the updated policy (at times discussing the draft line by line) ensured the policy met the needs of all road users, including those at greatest risk for injury or death. Partners also worked to ensure that the city departments responsible for construction and maintenance of the new infrastructure, such as the City Attorney’s office and Public Works, were involved in the policy revision process. The partner group worked to build support for the updated policy, including hosting town halls to spread awareness on the policy updates to the public, and coalition leaders meeting individually with community groups to address any concerns. The coalition educated city council members on the updated policy before the policy came to their desks for their signature, allowing them to highlight the benefits of the updated policy to decision makers.

Part 3: What makes this policy great

One of the strengths of San Antonio’s Complete Streets policy is the commitment to serving all San Antonians, including those who have been historically excluded from transportation discussions in the past. This is apparent throughout the policy. However, San Antonio’s policy goes beyond a mere vision statement by using localized community data to prioritize projects based on road user data. The policy also calls for the creation of a Technical Review Task Force, which is responsible for reviewing future policy changes, policy updates, and determining if the city is meeting its stated performance measures.

As part of its commitment to ensure meaningful improvements and outcomes, the city’s policy also includes actions to mitigate the potential unintended effects of Complete Streets infrastructure on rising living costs. The policy calls on departments from across the city to work together to “thoroughly consider measures to preserve housing affordability and increase new affordable housing options,” tying land use and transportation planning together.

Part 4: Putting the policy into practice

Early signs suggest that the city is already translating the policy into action. In May 2025, the San Antonio City Council approved the creation of a multimodal transportation commission as required by the Complete Streets policy. The city is currently updating its Design Guide Manual to set standards for designing Complete Streets based on current best practices. The city is currently updating its Design Guide Manual to set standards for designing Complete Streets based on current best practices. The city is also developing a project prioritization tool, integrating existing community-based data. New projects will also include performance measures to track progress, including tracking any changes in the number and rate of road injuries or fatalities, improvements in comfort for all road users, and the number of infrastructure improvements constructed as a result of this policy.

Part 5: Lessons learned

Build a multi-sector, robust, engaged coalition, including decision makers and elected officials who will implement the policy as well as the broader community. The strength of this policy comes from people and groups with varying perspectives and needs working together to ensure the policy meets everyone’s goals. By including community stakeholders as well as representatives from relevant government departments, the policy has broad support and can be more easily and effectively implemented.

Get to a large consensus through small conversations. Building and maintaining a coalition is not easy, and including everyone’s input in a policy update takes a lot of work. In addition to monthly meetings, ActivateSA and other coalition organizers made sure to have smaller, more personal conversations with partners and coalition members to understand the why behind different perspectives. Reaching out to individuals who may not have been able to speak up in larger meetings made sure their voices were not just heard but that they were included.

Use existing momentum, pointing to peers and standards along the way. This policy update started with the coalition pushing the city to revisit their old work. With peer cities such as El Paso passing Complete Streets policies and getting recognition (including in the 2023 Best Complete Streets Policies Report), San Antonio was sparked to meet and even exceed their progress. With the support of the San Antonio Complete Streets Coalition, dedicated city transportation staff, and American Heart Association support, they had the tools to do so.

Thank you to Zan Marshall and Isaac Levy, Senior Transportation Planners at the City of San Antonio and Joey Pawlik, Executive Director of ActivateSA, for their time and expertise in producing this case study.