Complete Streets

A Tennessee trio wins our first Complete Streets Consortium award

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A green lane for bicyclists in Knoxville, TN. Photo via the Knoxville Mercury.

Building a connected network of streets that is safe for everyone, no matter how they travel, takes region-wide collaboration. Our newest technical assistance award is designed to help three agencies in Tennessee do just that.

Smart Growth America and our program the National Complete Streets Coalition are proud to announce that a partnership of agencies in Chattanooga, Knoxville, and Nashville, TN is the winner of our first-ever Complete Streets Consortium technical assistance.

Complete Streets Technical assistance

How is the FAST Act being implemented? Complete Streets are among its successes.

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At the end of 2015, Congress passed a five-year $305 billion federal transportation bill — The Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act. It was the first transportation bill to ever include Complete Streets language, and the first law enacted in more than 10 years to provide long-term funding certainty for surface transportation.

The Complete Streets provisions in the FAST Act represent a great step forward in the effort to make streets across the country safer for everyone who uses them. Notably, the bill requires National Highway System roadway designs to take into account access for all modes of transportation. It also makes NACTO’s Urban Design Guide one of the standards for when the U.S. Department of Transportation designs roads, and it permits local governments to use their own adopted design guide if they are the lead project sponsor, even if it differs from state guidelines.

Complete Streets

“Creating Value: Assessing the Return on Investment in Complete Streets” webinar recap

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Last week the National Complete Streets Coalition hosted the second installment in our monthly webinar series, Implementation & Equity 201: The Path Forward to Complete Streets. “Creating Value: Assessing the Return on Investment in Complete Streets,” held on March 23, 2017, discussed ways for advocates to quantify and communicate the diverse benefits of Complete Streets projects. Watch the full video recording of the webinar above, or download the PDF of the presentation.

Complete Streets

Register now for “Integrating Complete Streets, Vision Zero, and Transportation Equity”

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The National Complete Streets Coalition is excited to continue our monthly webinar series, designed to help professionals from a variety of disciplines put Complete Streets principles into action. Implementation & Equity 201: The Path Forward to Complete Streets is exploring a new issue each month related to creating safer, healthier, more equitable streets.

Our next webinar in the series, Integrating Complete Streets, Vision Zero, and Transportation Equity will take place during National Public Health Week on Wednesday, April 5, 2017 from 1:00-2:00 PM EDT. Speakers from Livable Memphis and the Memphis Medical District Collaborative will join the Coalition and our co-host APBP in answering questions such as: How do Complete Streets and Vision Zero fit into a comprehensive planning approach? And what can planners and advocates do to support Transportation Equity in community development?

Complete Streets

Complete Streets Partner Spotlight: AARP St. Louis

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Left: Sheila Holm (AARP Missouri) presenting at the Complete Streets Networking Breakfast in St. Louis. Right: Sheila Holm, Emiko Atherton (NCSC), and Coralette Hannon (AARP) gather for a photo.

The National Complete Streets Coalition was in St. Louis, MO last month for the New Partners for Smart Growth conference. While we were there we had a chance to collaborate with AARP St. Louis, the local chapter of our Steering Committee member AARP. AARP St. Louis is working to improve walkability, increase transportation options, and encourage healthy, active living, especially for people aged 50 and older, and we wanted to take a moment to highlight some of the great work they’re doing in St. Louis.

Complete Streets

“The Role of Public Health in Complete Streets” webinar recap

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Last week we hosted the first webinar of our new series, Implementation & Equity 201: The Path Forward to Complete Streets. Together with Voices for Healthy Kids and the American Public Health Association, we explored “The Role of Public Health in Complete Streets”. Watch the full video recording of the webinar above, or download the PDF of the presentations.

Complete Streets

Register now for “Creating Value: Assessing the Return on Investment in Complete Streets”

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The National Complete Streets Coalition is excited to continue our monthly webinar series, designed to help professionals from a variety of disciplines put Complete Streets principles into action. Implementation & Equity 201: The Path Forward to Complete Streets is exploring a new issue each month related to creating safer, healthier, more equitable streets.

Our next webinar in the series, “Creating Value: Assessing the Return on Investment in Complete Streets” will take place on Thursday, March 23, 2017 from 1:00-2:00 PM EDT. Co-host Stantec will join the Coalition in answering questions such as: How can benefit-cost analyses emphasize the value of Complete Streets? And what can advocates do to make Complete Streets a higher priority in city and state budgets? This webinar will explain how to plan and design Complete Streets projects to make them more competitive for grants. It will also teach participants how to use basic return on investment analysis to measure the benefits of Complete Streets. Registration is now open—we hope you’ll be able to join us.

Complete Streets

Complete Streets lessons in Central Florida can apply to any community

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Ever since the first edition of Dangerous by Design came out in 2009, Florida has had the dubious distinction of having the highest rate of people being struck and killed by cars while walking of any state in the nation.

In light of that problem, municipalities and public agencies across Florida have been working to make streets safer. Now, communities in Central Florida specifically are coming together to make progress on those goals.

Over the past nine months, Smart Growth America, in partnership with the Winter Park Health Foundation, has worked with municipalities and agencies in Central Florida on a series of workshops to implement Complete Streets—streets that are safe and comfortable for everyone, no matter their age, ability, race, income, or how they chose to travel. Changing the way streets are designed, particularly in places with chronic collisions like Florida, is one of the most important steps public agencies can take to prevent people from being struck and killed while walking.

Complete Streets DOT Innovation

Complete Streets in Central Florida

The Winter Park Health Foundation engaged Smart Growth America to help the Central Florida region identify and address specific barriers hindering local decision-makers’ ability to build Complete Streets: roadways that are safe and comfortable for all users – people walking, bicycling, and taking transit, people driving and truck drivers making deliveries. This project includes representation … Continued

Complete Streets DOT Innovation
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