Implementing your "Complete Streets" policy

Source: en.wikipedia.org

Last night I had the opportunity to attend a regional transportation forum in Greater Lansing which dealt with how you go about implementing “Complete Streets” once your community has adopted a resolution, policy, and/or ordinance.  Since eight communities in Mid-Michigan have adopted one and/or the other and seven others are looking into doing so, the topic was quite pertinent and timely.   Given attendance by 30 or so participants, including representatives from a number of communities, organizations, and area agencies, apparently others thought so too.

The meeting was very informative and useful, with insights coming from a number of presenters and stakeholders. Here is a summary of useful recommendations which were identified by the City of Lansing’s Transportation Engineer  (with additional input from attendees) for successfully implementing “Complete Streets”/non-motorized plan:

• Locate an individual or group to champion for the effort – in Greater Lansing, one person led the effort to collect more than 5,000 signatures!

• Seek out or establish a non-motorized organization to be an ongoing advocate for “Complete Streets.”

• Co-locate the non-motorized staff with the engineering staff.

• Adopt an ordinance, not just a resolution or policy – this will need citizen support.

• Seek public input on all projects early in the process.

• Coordinate with other jurisdictions, agencies, and organizations.

• Build success and momentum by going for the easy, low-hanging fruit projects before tackling the complicated and difficult ones – but don’t wait too long otherwise you may end up with difficult gaps to fill.

• Dedicated funding is the best route.

• Develop a maintenance policy.

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