The third cohort of Smart Growth America’s Champions Institute recently wrapped up. What have Champions gained from the past three years, and what progress is yet to come? We touched base with past Champions to find out.
Complete Streets ensure safety for all users (with prioritization given to active modes of transportation), support local residents and businesses, and combat the inequities associated with past approaches to transportation. But Complete Streets have an added benefit—they can help communities address the climate crisis in a way that is resource-efficient, equitable, and community-oriented.
Rural communities in America vary across many dimensions including population and demographic trends, economic and health indicators, and others. Some communities have continued to thrive with improving quality of life and stable or growing economies, while others have experienced a long and slow decline. What is clear is that there are many strategies, including improving … Continued
Recently, members of the SGA team visited Soldotna, Alaska, where we met with the fourth cohort of the Complete Streets Leadership Academies. At the convening, we brought together teams from Soldotna and the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities to discuss strategies to make Soldotna’s streets safer and provide more opportunities to walk … Continued
Last month, Smart Growth America and the National Complete Streets Coalition hosted the Best Complete Streets Policies 2023 Webinar. We heard directly from four advocates and practitioners who helped pass some of the strongest Complete Streets policies of the past four years in communities across the country. Read on for the final takeaways from our … Continued
Since the beginning of the Complete Streets movement in the early 2000s, more than 1,700 Complete Streets policies have been adopted in jurisdictions of all sizes and contexts across the United States. Adopting Complete Streets policies is a crucial first step to reducing traffic violence, improving health equity, responding to the climate crisis, and rectifying … Continued
In the face of continuing street safety, health, mobility, and other challenges, a diverse coalition of advocates worked with city planners and decision makers to strengthen and improve the way the City of El Paso designs and builds its streets.
Starting in the early 2010s, Tucson’s Living Streets Alliance organized to change the city’s uncomfortable, unsafe streets. After successfully advocating for pedestrian safety and walkability projects to be included in a county-wide bond package, the organization used their newfound momentum to pursue a Complete Streets policy.
The mid-sized city of Joplin is one of nine cities in Missouri to pass a top ranking Complete Streets policy in this report. To get there, a committee of city staff relied on support from every level—from a diverse set of local advocates, to statewide Complete Streets champions, to national technical assistance programs.
Howard County, Maryland carved out an identity of its own as it developed from a once largely rural county to a locus of suburban and urban growth between Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, MD. A groundswell of local advocacy for safer streets, paired with philanthropic support and county leadership, resulted in one of the strongest Complete Streets policies the Coalition has seen.