Completing Rural Highways: Maintaining assets in California and North Carolina
The state DOTs in California and North Carolina have found innovative ways to manage and maintain Complete Streets projects.
State DOTs
Completing Rural Highways: Managing and maintaining assets
Whenever an agency plans to develop new community assets—whether it is a road, utility, or sidewalk—they must have systems such as funding and coordination for regular maintenance in place to preserve them in the long term. Having those systems in place and a concrete plan to coordinate with local agencies can preemptively address unique challenges related to Complete Streets projects.
Completing Rural Highways: Funding Complete Streets
Even with a strong commitment to Complete Streets principles, many state agencies and their local partners lack dedicated and consistent funding streams to add the necessary elements to existing road projects. Rural infrastructure can be particularly difficult to fund, costing more per capita, so adding new elements is often seen by state and local agencies as a burden. Smart Growth America and the State Smart Transportation Initiative worked with practitioners to illustrate how their peers have found ways to overcome these obstacles.
Completing Rural Highways: Making the case in Massachusetts and Washington
State DOTs in Massachusetts and Washington used new tools and strong communication to make the case for Complete Streets projects.
Completing Rural Highways: Making the case
Gaining widespread support for Complete Streets projects can be a challenge. Agencies sometimes face resistance from within or they face opposition from local businesses and community members. Smart Growth America and the State Smart Transportation Initiative worked with practitioners to identify obstacles to making the case for Complete Streets and illustrate how their peers have found ways to overcome them.
Four states selected for the 2022 Complete Streets Leadership Academies
The National Complete Streets Coalition is pleased to announce the selection of California, Connecticut, and Tennessee for Complete Streets Leadership Academies. In these Academies, three local jurisdictions in each state will learn about Complete Streets, explore new ways to coordinate with their state DOTs, and then plan and implement “quick-build” temporary demonstration projects on state-owned roads.
Seeking state DOTs and local communities for Complete Streets Leadership Academies
Applications are now open for up to three state Complete Streets Leadership Academies. These free technical assistance programs are designed to help state DOTs and local communities work together to put Complete Streets into practice…
State safety targets show need for Congress to further prioritize safety
For decades, state departments of transportation have treated pedestrian and cyclists fatalities like weather events: something that increases simply as people drive more, putting these deaths outside of the control of DOTs. But with COVID-19 proving this to be false, it’s past time for state DOTs to implement performance measures to reduce the number of people killed while walking or biking. Here’s our comparison of state safety targets.
Improving safety by making it a priority throughout the INVEST Act
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As noted in Transportation for America’s scorecard, the House’s INVEST Act transportation bill takes important strides to make safety a priority, from the inclusion of new performance measures all the way down to making changes with how agencies set speed limits. Here are five things to know.
If that road feels out of place, that’s probably because it is
State DOTs often use guidance and a project selection process that leads to overbuilt projects that don’t fit their context and are ill tailored to the needs of the community. To build better projects that fit in the areas they serve, state DOTs need to acknowledge land use and context and update their project selection process to focus on outcomes.