Complete the Streets News

12/13/2006 www.completestreets.org

COMPLETE STREETS POLICY PROGRESS  Colorado Springs proves support for complete streets CAMPAIGN NEWS  Bikes Belong affirms support  Donate to the National Complete Streets Coalition!  Thunderhead Alliance hires new Complete Streets Campaign Coach COMPLETE STREETS NEWS  Public health researchers encourage complete streets  Complete Streets supported as part of new Urban Arterials Design guide  Parents desperate for safe routes to school in New Jersey  NCBW’s CAT tools gather data and organize communities for safer routes  Georgia DOT takes steps to include bicyclists and pedestrians in plans  Ten Toe Express program in St. Louis promotes feet, metro, and bus RESOURCES  New York Model Policy Report includes Complete Streets Models  STPP Issues Guidebook, Workshop Report  Rail~Volution 2006 presentations are now available on-line!  U.S. Department of Transportation formally adopts latest accessibility guidelines COMPLETE STREETS QUOTES

COMPLETE STREETS POLICY PROGRESS

Colorado Springs proves support for complete streets The design of a new bridge in Colorado Springs will include sidewalks for pedestrians as well as bicycle lanes, in accordance with the city’s complete streets policy. Read the full story here: http://www.thepbj.com/story.cfm?id=10064.

CAMPAIGN NEWS

Bikes Belong affirms support Bikes Belong is once again providing financial support to the National Complete Streets Coalition for fiscal year 2007. Thanks to Bikes Belong (www.bikesbelong.org) and others who are helping to complete the streets!

Donate to the National Complete Streets Coalition! In addition to large donors such as Bikes Belong, we need your financial help to make sure that America’s streets are complete. This holiday season please consider making a tax-deductible donation to the National Complete Streets Coalition. To make it easy we have a new, secure online donation system! Click here: www.completestreets.org/donate.html. And thank you!

Thunderhead Alliance hires new Complete Streets Campaign Coach The Thunderhead Alliance has added capacity to their Complete Streets campaign with the hiring of Dominic Liberatore as a full time Complete Streets Campaign Coach. According to the Thunderhead “Weather Report” newsletter, “Tapping his extensive experience in campaign strategy and leading transportation reform non-profits, Dominic will work directly with the leaders of Thunderhead member organizations to assist them in the complete streets policy campaigns they craft for their states and communities.” For help with a state or local complete streets policy campaign, contact Dominic at: [email protected]. For more on Thunderhead's National Complete the Streets Campaign, visit: http://www.thunderheadalliance.org/completestreets.htm.

COMPLETE STREETS NEWS

Public health researchers encourage Complete Streets Public Health researchers have created a top-ten list of steps to take to create ‘activity- friendly communities’ to fight obesity – and a couple of the recommendations relate to complete streets. The study in the December issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine calls for improving all alternative modes, and for policies that use mainstream transportation funds to create sidewalks and bike lanes. See http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_41452.html.

Complete Streets supported as part of new Urban Arterials Design guide At a recent meeting in Denver, the Institute of Transportation Engineers and the Congress for the New Urbanism presented the draft document Context Sensitive Solutions in Designing Major Urban Thoroughfares for Walkable Communities and provided an open forum for discussion among more than 100 practitioners in attendance. One participating coalition member positively reports that complete streets were well supported in this forum, though work remains to develop final guidelines for a few very specific street features.

The CSS guide is a joint effort between ITE and the Congress for New Urbanism, with support from FHWA and EPA, and is intended to support design of urban thoroughfares that do more than carry automobile traffic, such as encouraging walking and bicycling, supporting local businesses, and showing sensitivity to adjacent land use. ITE and CNU are accepting comments until December 31. Read more about the draft guide, or obtain a complete copy here: http://www.ite.org/css/.

Parents desperate for safe routes to school in New Jersey New Jersey’s school children are facing increasing peril on their neighborhood streets as traffic increases and safe areas to walk decrease. Statewide pedestrian deaths are on the rise and parents want to ensure their children are safe. They often resort to driving them to and from school or demanding busing, both costly and inconvenient options especially at a time when children don’t get enough exercise. The federal Safe Routes to Schools program is a start and a complete streets policy could do a great deal more. Read the full story here http://tinyurl.com/yxnfq7.

NCBW’s CAT tools gather data and organize communities for safer routes The National Center for Bicycling & Walking’s Active Living Resource Center has been collaborating with the University of Oregon on a new series of Community Assessment Tools (CAT) to identify barriers to walking and bicycling in communities. Pilot workshops send teams of community members with hand-held computers (personal digital assistants, PDA) to physically assess the negative and positive aspects of specific areas in their community, and then immediately compiles their findings to give a projected view of all data gathered, which is overlaid with other GIS data.

This information is from CenterLines, the e-newsletter of the National Center for Bicycle & Walking. To see some maps generated from pilot workshops: http://www.activelivingresources.org/cat.php.

Georgia DOT takes steps to include bicyclists and pedestrians in plans The Georgia Department of Transportation held its first bicycle and pedestrian workshop in Decatur. Transportation officials from across the state met to study how best to incorporate sidewalks and bicycle paths into road and community design. Future plans include sidewalks and medians along automobile-oriented Buford Highway, in the Buckhead neighborhood, and to narrow Atlanta’s Glenwood Avenue. The DOT also has been more active in its Safe Routes to School Program. However, transportation funding pressures still mean that sidewalks and non-motorist accommodations are considered secondary. See http://tinyurl.com/ykxs5z.

Ten Toe Express program in St. Louis promotes feet, metro, and bus The Citizens for Modern Transit (CMT) in St. Louis, Missouri, with funding from the Missouri Foundation, is promoting the Ten Toe Express Program in St. Louis. This program for an active lifestyle targets senior citizens and work commuters to promote walking to and from public transit. The program includes a walking kit, tours of St. Louis locations accessible by public transit or by foot, and The Guaranteed Ride Home Program. This program is a crucial component of the national Healthy and Active Living Initiative. To read more about it, see: http://www.cmt-stl.org/news/story_3.html.

RESOURCES

New York Model Policy Report includes Complete Streets The Initiative for Healthy Infrastructure at the University of Albany, New York, has issued “Planning and Policy Models for Pedestrian and Bicycle Friendly Communities in New York State,” a short report that includes a discussion of complete streets and model policies for use by New York counties and cities. Download it at http://albany.edu/ %7Eihi/ModelZoningCode.pdf.

STPP Issues Guidebook, Workshop Report The Surface Transportation Policy Project has issued two new reports under the name, “From the Margins to the Mainstream.” One is a guide to transportation funding under SAFETEA-LU, and the other is a report from their series of workshops with people across the country on where transportation policy should go in the future. The workshop report includes numerous mentions of complete streets and recommends gathering and sharing complete streets success stories. You can download both at www.transact.org.

Rail~Volution 2006 presentations are now available on-line! This year's Rail~Volution conference was held in Chicago, November 5-8, 2006. The conference was a valuable opportunity for a various stakeholders to share new ideas on the vital role of transit in livable communities. More than 100 conference presentations are now available on the Rail~Volution website, including the materials from the Coalition-sponsored workshop, "Completing the Streets for Transit," and Randy Neufeld’s Tuesday-afternoon complete streets presentation, under the session, ‘Sustainable Design for Sustainable Mobility.” Presentations are available in PDF format at http://www.railvolution.com/2006conferencepapers.html.

U.S. Department of Transportation formally adopts latest accessibility guidelines Last month, USDOT formally adopted the Access Board's Americans with Disabilities Act Accessibility Guidelines (ADAAG) as regulatory standards for transportation facilities. The standards address sidewalk slope and dimensions, connections to and clearance at bus stops, physical and audible signage, and many other features that provide full access to all modes of public transportation. Read USDOT's Federal Register notice at http://www.tinyurl.com/y7urw7, or go directly to the guidelines at http://www.access-board.gov/ada-aba/final.htm.

COMPLETE STREETS QUOTES

“No matter what time of year, many people travel safely by bicycle. More effort for complete streets, safety education, traffic calming, and enforcement could encourage more people to bicycle to their destinations. More bicycling equals less health problems, traffic congestion and pollution.” --Iowa Bicycle Coalition blog, in a statement on the recent death of a cyclist. http://iowabike.blogspot.com/2006/12/statement-on-bicycle-fatality.html