Complete the Streets News
11/23/2005
Recipients,
This occasional newsletter provides a round-up on news related to complete streets policies --- policies to ensure that the entire right of way is routinely designed and operated to enable safe access for all users. Please pass it around!
-Barbara McCann, Coordinator, National Complete Streets Coalition
Next Steps on Complete Streets
The final federal transportation bill signed into law in August, SAFETEA-LU, launched a new Safe Routes to School program and strengthened existing programs that will make it safer and easier for millions of Americans to bicycle and walk.
SAFETEA-LU did not contain a complete streets provision – as you know, the complete streets amendment was narrowly defeated in a vote on the Senate floor. However, complete streets advocates see plenty of other opportunities to advance our cause.
The national Complete Streets Steering Committee is finalizing a three-year campaign plan and is marshalling resources to launch it. The campaign will spread the word about complete streets; help jurisdictions ‘get it right’ when they adopt and implement new complete streets policies; and continue to build the coalition working for complete streets. The more that complete streets become standard practice in cities and states around the country, the easier it will be to make complete streets a policy in federal law.
And if you’d like to know more about SAFETEA-LU and what is in it for people who walk and bicycle, check out for program fact sheets and funding charts.
Complete Streets at TRB
Complete streets will be prominently featured at the Transportation Research Board annual meeting in WashingtonDC in January, with a half-day workshop and a regular session.
The half-day workshop, “Complete Streets: Balancing User Needs In Suburban Design” will start with a panel discussion featuring the former Director of Caltrans, Jeff Morales, and others working to implement complete streets policies. Tracy Newsome and other officials from Charlotte, North Carolina will direct a hands-on practice session using the new principles they have developed for planning for all modes.
A regular session, “Agency Challenges While Implementing "Complete Streets" Design,” will feature International, state, MPO, and local perspectives, including a presentation by Elizabeth Mabry, the Executive Director of the South Carolina DOT, which is in the process of implementing a statewide complete streets policy. Visit for more information.
Complete Streets Around the Country
Complete streets laws and policies are under consideration or moving toward implementation across the country; here is just a sampling: The Seattle City Council is considering a revision to the City Code to require that any construction or reconstruction activities include establishment of needed bicycle, pedestrian, and transit facilities. The Charlotte, NC Urban Street Design Guidelines are in a public review process; visit for details. The South Carolina DOT is conducting extensive training to implement its new policy, and Virginia has established an implementation team for its existing policy.
Talks and Training
The complete streets concept has been introduced at a variety of recent conferences, meetings, and trainings, including the Association of Metropolitan Planning Organizations, and the Washington State Footprints/Bikeprints conference.
Father of complete streets, Don Stathos, dies
The man arguably responsible for the first complete streets law, Don Stathos, passed away in October at age 81. Stathos was a Republican member of the Oregon State House and the author of Oregon’s so-called “Bike Bill,” which requires that all roads make provisions for bicycle and pedestrian travel, and allocates one percent of state transportation dollars to bicycling and walking.
According to Michael Ronkin, Oregon’s bicycle-pedestrian coordinator, “In 1971 Don Stathos had an epiphany: he wanted to ride the two miles from his home into town with his two young daughters and couldn't do it; the roads were too dangerous. He said to himself ‘there is something very wrong if the richest county in the world can't afford to build a transportation system that young people can use and be healthy’ (he saw the transportation/health link 35 years ago).”
Stathos’ epiphany and his political skill led to the passage of the bike bill in 1971. Since then the law has inspired advocates across the country, and strongly influenced the US DOT policy statement on integrating bicycle and pedestrian travel. You can view both the Oregon law and the DOT policy statement at
Complete Streets Website
Please keep spreading the word about – the one-stop shop for complete streets information! If you’d like to put a link to the site (with logo) on your organization’s website, send an email to .
Complete streets quote:
"Streets are not complete if they don’t provide for a variety of transportation."
-Darwin Hindman, Mayor of Columbia Missouri, commenting on a dispute with the state DOT over sidewalks along a state highway (Columbia Daily Tribune).
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