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Complete Streets Multimodal Level of Service Workshop at St. Louis

By Ms. Jina Mahmoudi P.E posted 07-21-2011 03:26 PM

  

As you may be aware of, ITE is holding a workshop on the topic of Complete Streets-Multimodal level of Service at the St. Louis ITE Annual Meeting. The session is sponsored by the ITE Pedestrian and Bicycle and co-sponsored by the ITE Traffic Engineering Council and the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals.

We are posting the following questions to stimulate conversation and solicit ITE member comments on the type of issues they are dealing with regarding complete streets policies/implementation as well as the type of questions they would like to have addressed/answered during the workshop. Your responses to these questions will be used to develop presentations/discussion points for the workshop.

Here are the questions:

  • How do you view “complete streets” policies influencing the design of transportation infrastructure?
  • What is the difference/relationship between “complete streets”, “sustainability”, “livability”, “context sensitive design” and “connectivity”?
  • Are there performance measures for any of the above and if so, how should they be reflected in capital improvement programs?
  • How do you achieve “complete streets” with no additional design/engineering budgets?
  • Are there examples of the above and if so, where?
  • What implementation barriers are you facing in your local area?
  • What is your agency doing to include “all users” in the design standards?
  • How do we change attitudes  to encourage the routine application of a complete streets approach, even for maintenance projects?

We would really appreciate your comments.

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Mr. Jeffrey Riegner AICP,P.E.,PTOE,RSP1
07-22-2011 06:40 PM

Paul's comment on design speed is right on the money. However, we need to go even further and consider whether design speed is a useful tool on urban streets at all. Some of the most successful streets in the world from a livability perspective are slow for cars. In many urban areas, total travel time or number of stops are more useful measures of effectiveness as perceived by drivers.
The Pedestrian and Bicycle Council is currently working on evaluation tools for complete streets, and the clearest message we've heard from dozens of workshop participants so far is that there isn't one common denominator to measure the completeness of streets. We'd like your input, both here and at the Annual Meeting in St. Louis!

Mr. Paul Mackey RSP1
07-22-2011 01:55 PM

Complete streets policies will require us to rethink the design speed approach as recommended by the AASHTO Green Book.
One performance measure is the difference between the design speed and the operating speed (85th percentile, even 95th percentile).
It should not be assumed that designing complete streets is any more expensive than conventional streets, but it is true that there needs to be authoritative manuals that help designers work expediously.

Mr. Jimmy Westmoreland P.E
07-21-2011 05:14 PM

I recently participated in the development and on-going implementation of a Complete Streets policy for the State of North Carolina DOT. Keys to success include leadership (DOT Board, Secretary, and Senior Mangement support and buy-in), broad stakeholder involvement in the development of policy implementation guidelines and products (both internal and external stakeholders must be involved), and good ole patients and perseverance (takes time to develop good products and to retool/retrain a very large organization and other state partners). As for achieving Complete Streets projects with exisitng or no additional resources, the answer usually lies in what the community values and how it chooses to reprioitize its existing resources and requests. As a colleague of mine from the City of Charlotte once said, "our Council decided to use our transportation resources to build 9 great streets versus 10 mediocre streets". Complete Streets, it can be done!