After conducting a competitive application process with the Michiana Area Council of Governments (MACOG), we are excited to announce the winners of a MACOG-specific Complete Streets workshop. Next month, we will travel to Northern Indiana for a one-day workshop with the three winning cities to help them learn how to design & build safer, more complete streets in their communities.
MACOG, centered around the South Bend, IN, metro area, has been hard at work on advancing Complete Streets in the region and establishing themselves as a hub of Complete Streets information and assistance. Metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) like MACOG have the power to help city and county governments within their borders.
This summer, the National Complete Streets Coalition partnered with MACOG to listen to their local leaders, and developed a new Complete Streets workshop model specific to their needs. Part of the new model included conducting a competitive application process to identify communities in the region who were motivated to learn about Complete Streets. After soliciting and carefully reviewing applications, the City of Goshen, City of Warsaw and Town of Winona Lake, and City of Plymouth were selected to attend to workshop. The winning communities shared their intentions to create more bikeable and walkable communities that appeal to all people, and many of the communities expressed interest in learning how to develop policies with clear guidelines.
In a few weeks, Emiko Atherton, Director, and Mae Hanzlik, Program Associate, at the National Complete Streets Coalition, along with Jeff Riegner, an engineering consultant at Whitman, Requardt & Associates will travel to northern Indiana to work with the winning jurisdictions on Complete Street policy development. The team will also provide a workshop for MACOG staff to help them build out their own Complete Streets policy and implementation strategy for the entire region.
The workshop will provide the communities in the Michiana region with the tools they need to develop active transportation policies that will further their economic, health, safety, and livability goals. During the workshop, participating jurisdictions will learn how to create safe and inviting transportation networks for everyone, including bicyclists, drivers, transit operators and users, and pedestrians of all ages and abilities. Afterwards, each city will work on creating and adopting their own Complete Streets policy, which will make them part of a movement embraced by over 1,000 other communities.
This is a great way for an MPO to bring together communities and create a regional Complete Streets approach. If your region is interested in a similar type of project or would like to learn more, contact us.
To read more about the MACOG partnership, check out this earlier blog post.