Smart Growth Around America

Half of all trips taken in metro areas are three miles or less and 28% are one mile or less — yet 65% of those trips take place in a car.

A recent poll from the National Association of Realtors found that 83% of respondents would prefer communities where they can use their cars less. Incomplete streets — streets that don’t take all users into account — are not only dangerous, but also a barrier preventing people from being able to walk more and drive less.

“Transportation planners and engineers know how to design roads that are safe for everyone, but many places will only do so for ‘special’ projects,” said Stefanie Seskin of the National Complete Streets Coalition. “Complete streets policies fundamentally alter the way roadways are designed, constructed, and maintained by helping end the project-by-project struggle to include bicycle, pedestrian, and public transportation facilities,” said Seskin.

The Complete Streets Act of 2009, proposed last month in both houses of Congress, would ensure that Departments of Transportation and Metropolitan Planning Organizations in each state are required to consider the needs of all users during the planning and design of all federally-funded transportation projects within the next two years. This federal complete streets policy will “result in better state and local projects and better use of the billions of dollars invested every year in roads,” according to Seskin.

Complete Streets aren’t just a good idea, but a good practice that makes a difference out in the real world.

Take Rochester, Minnesota. Rochester is one of the communities funded by Blue Cross Blue Shield Minnesota to implement Healthy Living Initiatives. These initiatives attempt to integrate physical activity — specifically walking and biking — into daily life. Because of this, Rochester was already encouraging walking and biking, with policies in place to ensure bikers and pedestrians had safe access to roadways.

City planner Mitzi Baker led the year-long effort to implement explicit complete streets policies, to amplify Rochester’s existing efforts to encourage biking and walking. After staff-level discussions on what policies would make sense for Rochester, Baker organized a steering committee of Rochester residents from various sectors in the community. The committee spent months carefully crafting their recommendations but encountered some resistance at a city council meeting over costs to developers.

A sample before and after of a street altered to accommodate all users. (Not Rochester)

“The truth is that every larger community will probably have people trained to think of roadways as for cars and trucks,” said Baker. “Complete streets is not just a way to serve users more equitably — it’s a paradigm shift in the way we think about roadways.”

The policies took a year of continuous discussion and revision, going through 14 drafts and several discussions with developers. Baker set up round-table discussions with developers in attempts to ease their concerns, and even figured out the additional costs that the developers would incur if two proposed developments followed the new policies. The cost was minimal, but during city council meetings and public hearings, the developers remained resistant.

Building streets right the first time, however, is significantly cheaper than the cost of tearing up an incomplete street and starting over.

The developers may have been skeptical, but the residents of Rochester were not.

“There was some coalition-building in the city rallying for support that I wasn’t even aware of at the time,” said Baker. “People were being encouraged to participate and show their support. The result was, when we got the public hearing, there was a very diverse group of people who showed up — the Pedestrian and Bicycle Commission, Vital Aging Community, disabled individuals, pedestrians, and people who simply cared about complete streets. It made a big difference.”

Vayong Moua, of the Minnesota Blue Cross Blue Shield, was responsible for much of the grassroots support for the complete streets policies. Moua made a few phone calls to BCBS partners and agencies informing them beforehand both of the city council hearing and vote.

“I come from a tobacco-control background,” he said. “My experience with that is that even with public support and overwhelming scientific evidence, if you have three or four vocal opponents, they can trump logic and overwhelming public support — just because they showed up.” He added that the number of people who testified in favor of complete streets is a testament to a high order of civic engagement.

The city council approved the policies unanimously.

Baker says though the policies have only been in place for about a month, there have already been some exciting results. Discussions are underway for improved bicycling facilities. In response to state plans for resurfacing a state highway that runs through Rochester, the city council was already asking if there would be any complete streets elements to the plans.

Rochester has a big leg-up in implementing their policy. In December, the City hosted a Complete Streets Implementation Workshop, offered by the National Complete Streets Coalition and the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals. At the day-long workshop, two national experts worked with elected officials, planners, and engineers to better understand how to better balance the needs of all users on Rochester’s roads. This kind of workshop is an important part of a successful complete streets policy, and they have benefited communicates nationwide have benefited. To learn more about the workshops, download a flyer here. (pdf)

Baker advises, “If anybody else is taking on policy initiative similar to this, you should keep in mind that conflict is often necessary when we make progress. There is a need to be patient with the process, but a need to be persistent too.”

Tags: Action Alert, Complete Streets.
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