Policy lever 1-1. Embed Complete Streets in routine project development

To work toward creating a complete network of activity-friendly routes to everyday destinations that enable people to safely travel wherever they need to go, Complete Streets needs to be a core part of routine, everyday decision-making. Rather than treating activity-friendly routes or Complete Streets as an “opt in” process that only applies to specialty projects, this approach should be embedded in each and every project, unless specifically determined otherwise.

There are two components to embed Complete Streets in routine project development: a) requiring all projects and phases to follow a Complete Streets approach, and b) providing a clear, accountable process for granting exemptions where appropriate.

Policy language in Little Rock, Arkansas requires all types of projects, including routine maintenance and repavement, to comply with Complete Streets. This allows the city to make transformative improvements that support walking, biking, and moving actively at relatively low incremental cost when streets are already being resurfaced, rather than simply putting the street back the way it was before.

Neptune Beach, Florida’s policy language provides clear guidance about when it is appropriate to formally exempt projects from complying with a Complete Streets approach. These exemptions require specific justification and documentation, and they must follow a clear process for approval, including a public review period that allows the community to weigh in before granting an exemption. This clear, codified language for both the exemption process and the exemption criteria is extremely important, because policies with vague exemption criteria can create major loopholes that allow projects to easily bypass a Complete Streets approach, which many times results in dangerous gaps in the sidewalk and bikeway networks.

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Policy lever 1-2. Require private development to support activity-friendly routes

In many communities, private developers play a major role in building or rebuilding key destinations, including housing complexes, commercial job centers, and more. Holding private developers accountable to comply with Complete Streets is an important policy lever, particularly to ensure continuity of the sidewalk network. Too often, jurisdictions are hesitant to place any requirements or restrictions on private development, for fear of deterring investment in their communities. However, when private developers are exempt from complying with Complete Streets, the result is often a patchwork active transportation network where sidewalks stop and start without warning, making it difficult or even impossible to safely reach key destinations on foot or especially using a mobility-assistive device.

Plymouth, Indiana’s policy language includes an unambiguous requirement that both public and private projects support the active transportation network by adhering to the Complete Streets policy. The policy also requires Plymouth to form partnerships with other organizations and jurisdictions, to ensure the active transportation network provides safe, complete connections to key destinations, even across municipal borders.

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Policy lever 1-3. Establish equitable project selection criteria

In many communities, decisions about where and how to invest funds in transportation are made informally, based on political will or based on “squeaky wheel” complaints from residents. However, the result of this informal process for prioritizing projects often exacerbates existing disparities in the built environment: wealthier, whiter communities with expectations of political responsiveness continue to receive investment in infrastructure to support active transportation, while lower-income communities of color who have been neglected by elected leaders and transportation decision-makers continue to be marginalized.

To ensure activity-friendly routes to everyday destinations are implemented equitably, and to ensure investments in safer, healthier communities are made where they are needed most, communities should adopt a formal project selection criteria. These criteria can be used to grade proposed projects according to key metrics such as health, safety, and proximity to key destinations. In addition, these criteria can explicitly prioritize neighborhoods that have experienced underinvestment, neighborhoods with higher than average rates of chronic disease, neighborhoods with lower than average car ownership, and neighborhoods with a high share of vulnerable users.

Complete Streets policies do not usually establish these equitable project selection criteria within the codified policy language; rather, strong policies typically require a community to develop and adopt such criteria within a specified time period as a next step to implement the policy. For example, Milwaukee, Wisconsin’s policy commits to explicitly prioritize “equitable investment in underserved communities” where infrastructure to support walking, biking, and moving actively are lacking, as well as to prioritize investments based on health and safety data.

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Policy lever 1-4. Create inclusive oversight

When a community adopts a policy committing to Complete Streets, creating or appointing a committee to oversee implementation is an important next step to ensure that commitment turns  into action. An oversight committee empowered to make binding decisions can guarantee that all of the various policy and practice changes necessary for the success of this initiative move forward in a timely, coordinated fashion. This is particularly important for activity-friendly routes to everyday destinations, where collaboration happens across sectors, including transportation, land use, and public health.

To ensure equitable implementation of Complete Streets, this committee’s membership should include both the various departments and organizations collaborating on this initiative, as well as representatives from the vulnerable communities this initiative will prioritize, such as people living with disabilities, low-income families, people who do not have access to a car, or Black, Latino/a/x, or Native communities. Ensuring these groups are represented at the table can support more equitable  implementation of activity-friendly routes to everyday destinations, by creating an opportunity for these communities to directly contribute to the decision-making process.

Importantly, this oversight committee should have the authority to make binding decisions, rather than non-binding recommendations. For example, the policy excerpt below from Tucson, Arizona ensures its Coordinating Council’s work translates to “accountability, communication, and action” by requiring senior staff from key departments to participate in meetings. In addition, Phoenix’s policy establishes a Council inclusive of “communities of color, older adults, youth, low-income communities, and people with disabilities.”

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Policy lever 1-5. Measure what matters

As the old adage goes, “What gets measured gets done.” In a traditional transportation planning approach, the sole and most important metric—level of service—measures delay for vehicles due to congestion or waiting at intersections. When this is the only gauge of a roadway’s “success,” the result is typically wider and wider roads. In addition, projects that support activity-friendly routes to everyday destinations tend to allocate more space to people walking, biking, and moving actively or provide more time to cross the street, typically undermining level of service. Often, this can prevent these projects from moving forward to implementation.

The strongest, effective Complete Streets initiatives begin by setting clear goals and establishing performance measures to evaluate achievement of those goals on a regular, recurring basis. For example, a goal of safety might be measured by crash and injury reductions; a goal of health measured by increased share of active transportation trips; or a goal of connectivity by percentage of key destinations within a quarter mile of the active transportation network. Establishing performance measures that correspond to your goals is essential to demonstrate success and to generate support and momentum for continued investment in activity-friendly routes.

Another critical aspect of measuring what matters requires embedding equity in performance measures: by disaggregating these data by race, income, car ownership, income, age, or ability depending on who is most vulnerable in your community, a jurisdiction can ensure that the benefits of activity-friendly routes are distributed fairly, and that these benefits work toward alleviating disparities rather than exacerbating them. Some jurisdictions have also embedded equity in performance measurement by evaluating the implementation process itself. For example, jurisdictions might compare the location of Complete Streets improvements by neighborhood income level to ensure investments are being distributed fairly to the places where people stand to benefit the most. Another approach to embed equity in performance measurement is to track the demographics of people reached through community engagement to identify gaps in outreach and ensure the engagement process is representative of the whole community as well as inclusive of those most vulnerable.

Baltimore, Maryland’s policy models a clear, detailed approach to embed equity in performance measurement, as well as establish clear metrics with available data sources, as shown in the excerpt below.

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Policy lever 1-6. Design for safety over speed

A traditional transportation planning approach prioritizes free flow of vehicle traffic above all else, as measured through level of service, with disastrous results for safety: this approach produces wide, overbuilt roads designed exclusively for cars, resulting in dangerously high speeds. Creating activity-friendly routes to everyday destinations requires a paradigm shift to prioritize the safety of all people using the street over high speeds for people in cars. As a result, policies to support activity-friendly routes must include the adoption or revision of design guidelines that value safety over speed to protect people walking, biking, and moving actively.

In this respect, Missoula, Montana’s policy language stands out. Not only does this policy formally adopt “best and latest” design guidance by name, the policy also commits to prioritize safety over speed in situations where a traditional approach commonly fails to do so. For example, the excerpt below references “turn radii” which pertains to the width and angle of intersections. In a traditional transportation planning approach, turn radii would be designed generously wide, to allow a large vehicle to turn without infringing on the adjacent lane; however, this overbuilt design allows people driving personal vehicles to easily turn without slowing down, resulting in dangerous—potentially deadly—situations for people crossing the street. By committing to prioritize a safer, human scale in design, Missoula’s policy sets an important precedent for accepting the trade-offs that come with narrowing turn radii: improved safety for all, even if it means larger vehicles may occasionally infringe on adjacent lanes while turning.

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Policy lever 2-1: Stop building seas of parking that separate destinations

In many communities, land owners and developers are required to provide a specific minimum amount of off-street parking which is often excessive. These rules, called parking minimums, encourage car trips to reach destinations while making other modes of travel less convenient by physically spreading out and separating housing, businesses, and other everyday destinations with seas of underused parking spaces. Parking minimums can also raise the cost of housing and commercial space, as developers recoup the cost of parking they were required to build, making communities less affordable.

Reducing or eliminating parking minimums allows destinations to come closer together, encourages more activity-friendly developments, and mitigates housing costs. It reduces the time and distance needed for active travel and transit trips, making it more convenient for people to walk, bike, or move actively using assistive devices to reach key destinations. This is particularly important for people who cannot afford or cannot operate a personal vehicle, and who may rely on public transit or active transportation to get around.

Sandpoint, Idaho’s city code exempts much of the downtown core from residential and commercial parking minimums. Adopted in 2009, this change coincided with new compact development and growth within the exempt district. In 2019, the city’s director of planning provided a retrospective in which he reported that the decision to adopt the policy was initially contentious, but the change enabled millions of dollars worth of development, including rehabbing buildings and expanding local small businesses, previously not possible due to parking minimums.

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Policy lever 2-2. Create urban growth boundaries to reduce sprawl

By concentrating development within a defined boundary, communities can make transit and active transportation more convenient by keeping everyday destinations closer together. Clustering development within a defined boundary not only makes active travel more viable, it also improves access to jobs and economic opportunities for people who cannot afford or cannot operate a motor vehicle.

Clackamas County, Oregon’s policy seeks to accommodate growth over a 20-year timeframe within the development zone while prioritizing human as well as local, and state needs. This compact development makes it easier for people to access nearby job centers and amenities, as well as makes it more cost-effective to deliver public services and utilities. Land outside of the development zone is either classified as areas for future growth when the existing urban growth boundary is expanded, or as urban or rural reserves to preserve green spaces and agricultural land uses.

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Policy Lever 2-3: Provide density bonuses aligned with community development goals

Traditional zoning codes restrict land use by type, meaning homes are separated by design from jobs, shops, and commercial areas. Zoning codes can also limit the density of places, prohibiting denser, more attainable multi-family housing. One policy tool decision-makers can use to incentivize more of this is the density bonus, which allows developers to build higher or larger places (increasing their profit margins) in exchange for supporting a community’s policy goals, such as providing more housing or commercial space, mixing land uses, or creating or improving public space.

Mixing land uses keeps origins and destinations closer together, which can make it easier to take daily trips on foot, bike, or with assistive devices. Adding in more density can also place more jobs and essential services within reach for those without reliable access to a car.

In Orlando, Florida, the city’s density bonus policy incentivizes developers to bring more entertainment and activity to places that historically only included office buildings and other traditional commercial uses. The city’s policy also encourages a variety of important community amenities, including attainable housing, childcare, and green space in close proximity to job centers.

Guadalupe, California’s policy provides density bonuses in exchange for developing attainable housing (five or ten percent of units), senior housing, and for incorporating childcare facilities within or adjacent to the development. Guadalupe specifically recognizes the need to increase the supply of housing for older residents who benefit from living in places where they can walk, roll, or move actively to nearby destinations. Similarly, the city recognizes the importance of providing attainable housing and childcare in close proximity to one another, to support the needs of working families. By providing a density bonus to developers in exchange for including these amenities, Guadalupe is working to create places where key destinations, opportunities, and amenities are located within a short, walkable distance of their most vulnerable older or low-income residents who may not have access to a car.

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Policy lever 2-4: Allow accessory dwelling units

Accessory dwelling units, or ADUs, are secondary residences on the same lot as another home. These might be a physically separated structure, such as a smaller building behind the main residence, or they might be attached to the main house, such as a “granny flat” in the basement or above or in a converted garage. In many zoning codes, ADUs are strictly prohibited; however, revising zoning codes to allow ADUs is becoming increasingly popular across the United States. This is because ADUs have several important benefits, especially for older adults who want to age in place.

Left, an accessory dwelling unit behind a home in Washington, DC. Photo by WAMU/NPR. Right, an ADU in Oakland, CA. Photo courtesy of the City of Oakland.

First, ADUs increase the affordability and variety of housing choices. This helps to offset the cost of homeownership by providing supplemental income from renting the ADU. Second, ADUs can provide space for an older adult and a caregiver to live very close together but still maintain separate, independent spaces. Finally, ADUs increase the density of housing, which is an important component of creating places that support active mobility as well as makes public transit more viable to operate by increasing the number of people who live near possible transit routes.

Typically ADUs are located in residential places zoned for single-family homes, but increasingly ADUs have also become a part of mixed-use developments. This arrangement is especially beneficial to active mobility, because it brings a variety of trip origins and destinations close together. For example, Menlo Park, California revised its zoning code to allow the construction of ADUs near job centers, transit, and other key resources. This provides affordable housing within a very short trip of everyday destinations, which is especially helpful for lower-income residents who may not have access to a car.

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Policy lever 2-5: Upzone from single-family to multi-family residences

Zoning codes and policies typically restrict land use types (residential versus commercial) and intensities (one- to two-story buildings versus larger structures). As discussed in 2-3, density bonuses allow landowners and developers to build higher or larger structures in exchange for providing a public benefit. However, providing bonuses on a case-by-case basis one at a time and requiring review for each individual project by city staff can make widespread change much slower and more laborious. In these cases, it can be much more efficient to rezone an entire area to permit greater intensity, opening the door to broader change.

Upzoning policies can designate an area previously zoned for single-family homes to allow multi-family residences, which increases housing variety and affordability, especially near high quality transit. This allows a wider variety of residents to live in a neighborhood and makes transit and active mobility more convenient for everyone.

Upzoning policies are more frequently applied strategically at the neighborhood level, but Minneapolis, Minnesota passed a city-wide upzoning policy, allowing duplexes and triplexes throughout all residential zones, including zones previously reserved for single-family homes. The policy will lead to a dramatic increase in the housing supply across the city while still preserving the character of residential and mixed-use neighborhoods. Minneapolis’s revised zoning code replaces all instances where only single-family zoning was permitted throughout and replaces this with specific guidance and specifications for single, two-, and three- family lots. The revision also removes lot minimums that led to sprawling land use patterns.

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Policy lever 3-1. Plant street trees

Street trees create a more pleasant walking, biking, and active moving experience for almost everyone while also providing numerous safety and environmental benefits. For example, shade from street trees lowers the temperature along sidewalks, which makes active transportation more pleasant and safer for people who might be more susceptible to heat-related fatigue. On a broader scale, street trees along multiple routes in an area can work together to reduce the overall temperature of a neighborhood by preventing the “heat island” effect that occurs when pavement and buildings absorb sunlight. Street trees also provide visual interest for people walking or moving actively along a route, and importantly depending on their placement can also provide physical separation from nearby vehicular traffic.

Billings, Montana’s form-based code requires developers to incorporate sustainable development measures, chosen from several qualifying options. One of these options entails planting street trees specifically with the goal of reducing the local heat island. When assessing proposed projects, Billings evaluates the expected tree canopy at 15-years maturity and assigns points toward the developer’s overall sustainability score.

Babylon, Tennessee’s form-based code includes illustrated design standards for street tree size, spacing, and orientation relative to the street and sidewalks. The code also includes standards for tree sizes at the time of planting.

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Policy lever 3-2. Create first-mile/last-mile connections to transit stations

Transit trips almost always begin and end with walking or moving actively using an assistive device. Therefore, when decision-makers plan public transit routes, these decisions should not be made in a silo. Instead, to make transit a safe and convenient travel choice, first- and last-mile connections via walking, biking, or moving actively should be incorporated into decision-making processes.

Establishing activity-friendly routes near transit stops can help to attract new riders as well as improve safety, convenience, and accessibility for people who are already using or relying on transit in a community, including people who cannot afford or cannot operate a personal vehicle due to income, age, or disability status.

Thompson’s Station, Tennessee prioritizes transit, cycling, and walking together in its land development ordinance. This comprehensive approach recognizes that these modes are interconnected, and that many trips include a combination of modes. The code designates specific transit routes where bus pull-outs and shelters are required, to make the process of waiting for, boarding, and disembarking the bus more pleasant. Additionally, this code designates “pedestrian sheds” which are areas with a radius of quarter-mile (or a five-minute walk) where key amenities are located, including public transit. By approaching planning in this way, Lacey ensures that amenities such as bus stops and parks are easily accessible within a short active trip.

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Policy lever 3-3. Bring buildings closer to the street and require permeable façades

The places most conducive to walking and active mobility often feature businesses and housing where entrances and windows face the street, and where buildings are located very close to the sidewalk—rather than far away beyond a sea of parking. Orienting buildings in this way creates a more vibrant, attractive active mobility experience with plenty to look at, which can make trips seem shorter.

Where would you want to walk? People walking or moving actively seek out streets that have windows and interesting storefronts to look at and avoid streets with plain, boring blank walls.

Additionally locating buildings close to the street carries an important safety benefit: the sense of enclosure created is not only more pleasant for people walking and moving actively, it also cues drivers to be aware of their surroundings and proceed more slowly.

Birmingham, Alabama’s form-based code establishes zero foot setbacks in certain zones for residential and business uses to create more vibrant places to walk and move actively. (Zero-foot setbacks require buildings to meet the edge of the public space with zero separation, i.e, the way that buildings are typically built in the core of cities and towns of all sizes, right to the edge of the sidewalk.) The code also requires buildings to have easily accessible entrances from the sidewalk as well as permeable facades to provide a visually interesting experience for people moving actively along the street.

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Policy lever 3-4. Provide human-scale lighting

Committing to activity-friendly routes to everyday destinations means providing safe, comfortable space for people to walk and move actively regardless of the time of day. Providing human-scale lighting is an important step to support active mobility during dawn, dusk, and overnight hours, by ensuring people can see their surroundings and can be seen by motorists.

Traditional street lighting, akin to the lighting along a busy highway, is designed primarily to help motorists see the road and other vehicles around them, and is not designed to serve the needs of creating activity-friendly routes. This is because the excessive height and spacing creates shadows that make it harder for people to clearly see what’s around them, as well as make it more difficult for motorists to see people who are walking or moving actively along or across the street. This is especially important for people who may work night shifts such as in the service industry, as well as for people who do not have access to a car and who therefore may need to navigate on foot or with assistive devices at all hours of the day.

Arlington, Virginia’s form-based code for the Columbia Pike corridor requires developers to install street lighting as part of transportation improvements, to ensure those walking, driving, and moving actively with assistive devices can all see and be seen.

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