Here’s what we mean by Complete Streets, and how your town can benefit
Communities across Long Island came together in late March for the Complete Streets Summit hosted by Vision Long Island, a non profit that seeks to create smart growth and development. The well attended event gave municipalities the opportunity to spotlight the collaborative approach of Safe Systems and Complete Streets that can reduce death and injury from motor vehicle crashes. As new housing and reinvigorated downtowns call for better transportation options, road users must accept the need to improve traffic and transit for all. Making communities bikeable and walkable makes for healthier communities. And fewer preventable tragedies.
Too often in New York, we focus on the money spent as prohibitive, but with US Department of Transportation funding so accessible, it was refreshing to hear of traffic safety grants as nothing but positives.
In October 2022, New York State Senator, Church Schumer addressed bike and pedestrian safety on Long Island by saying “I have worked to appropriate funds that can work towards a myriad of improvements, a federal grant program called Safe Streets for All, which I negotiated. This is a $5 billon national pot and I’m here to say; Long Island could tap it. As could any area in the U.S where humans, cars, bikes and busses interact.
Dan Burden, the keynote speaker of the Vision Long Island event is one of “100 Urbanists of all time”. He knows how to transform communities. He’s advised policymakers in over 3,500 cities.
Burden notes that Complete Streets merely asks that “we consider the mobility of all public street users”. Another way to say it is, Complete Street can “support business, retail and social life of the street in a way which works better for every mode of transportation.”
Here’s are some guiding principals of Complete Streets that urban planners are utilizing to redesign good old rusty America.
- Safe Systems. The main tenet is that human beings are fragile, their abilities need to be honored every time we build a road. If they are driving an elderly or handicapped person, is there parking? Can a senior citizen cross the street in the time afforded? Is there a wide median if one gets stuck? If a drowsy driver nods off and leaves the road, is there space for correction? Will the city bus be efficient or will one person double parking delay the 50 on their way to work?
- Build a Forgiving Design. People must feel safe and comfortable on these routes. Make sure the speeds are correct for the district amenities such as schools, retail, scenic and of course safety. Turns must be safe and taken slowly. Does the design of the road represent this? Is it safe to jog or bike on such a road? The Complete Street toolkit would provide benches to sit and wait for a bus, a wider shoulder on a road, traffic circles over dangerous turns, or even more trees and landscaping to slow traffic down.
- Support the Most People. Many take offense at the term Car Culture, but one only need trade places with another who is walking in a cold, dark rain because the bus didn’t come to have empathy. Imagine two teachers in 2 separate classrooms at the same school. One drives, one bikes to work. Shouldn’t they both have the right to a safe and efficient route?
- Make Connections. The built environment all around us. We must be able to get from one place to another regardless of mode, (car, bike, bus or walk). How easy is it to go from soccer practice to the grocery store, to take grandma for a walk by her nursing home, to our homes, to a place of employment for a teenager? We can connect all these routes with all these road users in mind. The existing road designs are antiquated and we’ve outgrown them. Main streets and residential streets are bursting with car priority and it’s killing us or putting us in danger. Micromobility, the dependence on smaller vehicles with less speed and space will further challenge the old design as they may need separate lanes, new speeds, charging stations and parking.
- A “highly engaged public process”. Laying out a map of the area that could use improvement is monumental in realizing there is ALWAYS room for improvement. Participating in a walkability study will quickly prove that if there is no place in walking distance to get to, people can’t walk…that is unless there are bikes, busses, or parking near by. During the public process people can learn of hidden dangers such as locations that suffer from excessive speeds, or not enough crossing time, or the possibility of putting in a bike lane without losing any travel time for other modes.
- Protect Our Assets. Many towns have a lot of aging and decaying infrastructure that is both an eyesore, and a tax black hole. However, if a town created safe routes to retail, commuter trains, and parks those areas would be rehabilitated and perhaps transformed into lush parks or trails, housing opportunities, or community space. Of all the tax money attached to streets, drivers get about .92 cents of every dollar. Let’s not think highway, lets think residential. Around home, school, store, baseball field, or ice cream shop. Our beloved communities demand we keep them vibrant, safe, beautiful places for those who come after us. Burden noted that were anyone to buy an acre of Central Park, it would cost $620 million. That’s based on the cost of real estate surrounding it. Let’s look at our communities the very same way.
Spring has sprung, and with it, we all crave the great outdoors, nice walks in the evenings, or getting home safe and without traffic in order to mow the lawn or have some quality time with family. I hope this primer on Complete Streets has you looking at your role in it all and the choices we make together that matter when we are behind the wheel of a car. Though it’s sometimes frustrating to see the road change so quickly out of our windows, knowing how and why and participating in it can make all the difference.
In June we host the Walk Bike Long Island Summit on June 8th in Farmingdale. Hope to see you all there. Keep an eye on this page for more information.