PLANNING TOPICS

A Complete Street is safe, and feels safe, for everyone using the street. The goal of Complete Streets is to offer an equitable, comfortable, connected, and safe transportation network that serves pedestrians, bicyclists, public transportation users, children, older individuals, individuals with disabilities, motorists, and freight vehicles. Complete Streets are designed with the safety and comfort of all road users, as well as the natural and human environment, in mind. To achieve this, planning, implementation, and evaluation efforts prioritize safety, connectivity, equity, and sustainability throughout the transportation network.

Building Complete Streets involves planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating roadways and public rights-of-way with all users in mind to make the transportation network safer. While Complete Streets use a multimodal approach that factors in a variety of transportation modes (walking, biking, rolling, driving, ridesharing, transit, freight delivery, and more), there is no one-size-fits-all approach for Complete Streets. What a Complete Street looks like in practice will vary depending on community context and needs. It is not always possible to accommodate all modes on a single street due to right-of-way constraints, so a practical approach to Complete Streets also focuses broadly on building Complete Networks to provide connectivity for different modes of travel. Complete Networks may use parallel routes to facilitate access that variously prioritizes different modes throughout an area while ensuring the safety of all roadway users. Creating Complete Streets also requires safety data analysis and safety countermeasure identification and implementation.

Complete Streets is a key component of FHWA’s implementation of the Safe System Approach, which is the framework of the USDOT’s new comprehensive National Roadway Safety Strategy (NRSS) setting an ethical imperative that no one should die or be seriously injured while using the street network. The NRSS provides concrete steps that the Department will take to address this crisis systemically and prevent roadway deaths and serious injuries.

Complete Streets have potential benefits in the following areas:

• Safety: Prioritize safety of all road users to reach zero deaths.
• Connectivity: Provide access to essential destinations so travelers across modes may easily move throughout the transportation network.
• Accessibility: Enable all users to travel safely, comfortably, and conveniently by designing accommodations in compliance with Federal requirements, including the Americans with Disabilities Act.
• Equity: Eliminate disparities in traffic fatalities and serious injuries and improve access to a variety of destinations, especially for road users without a car, reliant on transit, walking, biking, or rolling, particularly for communities that face additional barriers in accessing essential resources and opportunities.
• Sustainability: Achieving comfort and safety for all users, particularly those who use transit, walk, bike, or roll, promotes non-single occupancy vehicle transportation that reduces motor vehicle emissions, leading to a more sustainable and healthier environment.
• Transportation Options: Offer multiple transportation options to make it safe, convenient, and comfortable to walk, bike, or roll.
• Economic Strength: Improve access to local businesses and facilitate the movement of goods.
• Public Health: Encourage a safe way for individuals to maintain an active lifestyle, while also improving air quality.
• Quality of Life: Connect individuals to social, cultural, and economic opportunities, thus contributing to authentic placemaking and more vibrant communities.

Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL)

Section 11206 of the BIL, defines Complete Streets standards or policies as those which “ensure the safe and adequate accommodation of all users of the transportation system, including pedestrians, bicyclists, public transportation users, children, older individuals, individuals with disabilities, motorists, and freight vehicles.” This section of the BIL requires that States and metropolitan planning organizations use not less than 2.5 percent of their planning and research funds for Complete Streets activities that will increase safe and accessible transportation options. Guidance is under development and will be posted here soon.

Complete Street Planning Activities are eligible activities for FHWA and FTA planning formula funds. Under BIL, the non-federal match is waived when planning funds are spent on Complete Street planning.

• Here is a short PSA FHWA Administrator Shailen Bhatt made to share this information: FHWA Highlights Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Removing Financial Barriers to Creating Safer Streets - YouTube.

Grant recipients should refer to the following guidance to utilize these waivers:

• FHWA Waiver of Non-Federal Match for State Planning and Research (SPR) and Metropolitan Planning (PL) Funds in Support of Complete Streets Planning Activities (BIL § 11206)
  • FHWA Implementation Guidance on BIL § 11206 (Increasing Safe and Accessible Transportation Options)
• FTA Waiver of the non-Federal Match for the Metropolitan Planning Program (MPP) and the State Planning and Research Program (SPRP)
  • FAQ: FTA waiver of non-federal match for Complete Street planning

For more information on this topic, please contact your FHWA Division Office and FTA Regional Office.

• USDOT Complete Streets Website
• Federal Highway Administration: Complete Streets Website
• Federal Highway Administration: National Complete Streets Assessment
  • Recording: National Complete Streets Assessment - Summary Webinar (April 12, 2023)
• Case Studies:
  • Athens-Clarke County Georgia’s Comprehensive Approach to Complete Streets
  • Bismarck-Mandan Metropolitan Planning Organization (Bismarck-Mandan MPO) East Main Avenue Corridor Study
  • Broward Metropolitan Planning Organization Complete Streets Initiative
  • Carson City, Nevada’s Multi-faceted Approach to Complete Streets
  • The Kentuckiana Regional Planning & Development Agency’s Complete Streets Policy
  • Pima Association of Governments (PAG) Complete Streets Planning Initiatives
• Safety
  • Federal Highway Administration: Safety
  • Zero Deaths
  • Proven Safety Countermeasures
• Bicycle and Pedestrians
  • Federal Highway Administration: Bicycle and Pedestrian Program
  • Accessible Shared Streets: Notable Practices and Considerations for Accommodating Pedestrians with Vision Disabilities
  • Case Studies in Realizing Co-Benefits of Multimodal Roadway Design and Gray and Green Infrastructure
  • Guidebook for Measuring Multimodal Network Connectivity
  • Pedestrian & Bicycle Safety
  • Strategies for Accelerating Multimodal Project Delivery
  • Transportation and Livability
• Transit
  • Manual on Pedestrian and Bicycle Connections to Transit
  • Improving Safety for Pedestrians and Bicyclists Accessing Transit
• Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (504)
• Other Complete Streets Planning Topics
  • Federal Highway Administration: Planning
  • Community Connections Innovation Handbook
  • Context Sensitive Solutions and Design
  • Urban Freight Case Studies