As part of the Complete Streets Leadership Academy in Kentucky, Smart Growth America traveled to Winchester, KY to host an in-person workshop, bringing together local teams from Winchester, Morehead, and Bowling Green and partners from the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC). Participants learned more about implementing quick-build demonstration projects, conducted a walk audit of Winchester’s project site, and supported each other’s work by providing ideas and feedback. The teams are now ready to finalize their designs and implement their quick builds to improve safety conditions in their communities.
SGA’s Complete Streets Leadership Academy partners state departments of transportation with local jurisdictions to design, install, and measure the impact of quick-build demonstration projects on state-owned roads. Across the U.S., state-owned roads are some of the most dangerous for people walking and biking, which requires a deep partnership between the state and local teams to improve the safety conditions. This program brings those key partners together to test innovative methods and provide near-term safety improvements. By working with other partners like health departments, schools, and planning agencies, these temporary projects can improve connectivity, build local engagement, and support cross-sector collaboration.
The workshop brought Academy participants—from the Kentucky cities of Bowling Green, Morehead, and Winchester—together in person to learn about each other’s projects, get to know each other, and use these new partnerships to help each other overcome challenges in their projects. The teams had already attended a series of virtual trainings hosted by SGA that set a foundation for Complete Streets, quick builds, data collection, engagement, and related topics for their projects. This foundation gave participants a shared starting point to understand the active transportation challenges in each other’s communities.
Highlights of the workshop included project presentations from each team, a walk audit of the Winchester project site, and collaborative project design sessions. Each team presented their project site, local safety and access challenges, and the goals of their quick build to the whole group. Through questions and discussion, the teams learned from each other, including how to frame their projects within the context of a larger active transportation plan and strategies to measure how many people currently walk on the project sites.
The walk audit of Winchester’s Boone Ave/KY-627 corridor allowed Winchester city staff, residents, school officials, KYTC, and other regional partners to discuss specific issues on the site together. Challenges the team observed included trucks using the road as a cut-through, drivers speeding, and confusing crossings at intersections. The Morehead and Bowling Green teams used this walk audit to compare Winchester’s challenges to their own, such as the issue with trucks cutting through, and to offer shared strategies, including different approaches to sidewalk maintenance to keep walking paths navigable.
The second day of the workshop was dedicated to project design, where each team built on their knowledge of their site’s challenges and came up with a proposed quick-build project to achieve their goals, drawing ideas on aerial maps. Participants then offered feedback to each other’s proposals, asking questions and making suggestions to strengthen each project. With ongoing support from SGA and Urbe Studios as technical experts, the teams are now ready to turn their drawings into concept designs, gather the necessary materials, and install their projects.
Once the projects are in place early this summer, the teams will engage the community to learn how people feel about the new street design and measure the safety impacts of the projects. SGA will conclude with recommendations for how KYTC can bring this quick-build process elsewhere to advance safety, access, and Complete Streets across the state. The relationships across cities and with the state that have been built and strengthened by this program will help Kentucky continue this work going forward.
Once the projects are in place early this summer, the teams will engage the community to learn how people feel about the new street design and measure the safety impacts of the projects. SGA will conclude with recommendations for how KYTC can bring this quick-build process elsewhere to advance safety, access, and Complete Streets across the state. The relationships across cities and with the state that have been built and strengthened by this program will help Kentucky continue this work going forward.
“This is another step toward making Kentucky’s transportation system safe and comfortable for all users.” –Keith Lovan, KYTC State Bicycle and Ped Coordinator
This publication was made possible by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (Cooperative Agreement CDC-RFA-PW-24-0080). Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of CDC. These efforts are part of the CDC’s Active People, Healthy NationSM Initiative that is working to help 27 million Americans become more physically active by 2027.