Funding Approval Expected for First Calm Street Project in St. Louis City - a new type of STL street encouraging more biking & walking | nextSTL

Headlines are quick hits from media outlets from Missouri and around the world. Follow the headline link for the full story. The source of this headline says:

Tomorrow the East West Gateway Council of Governments (EWG) Board of Directors will vote to approve Transportation Alternative Program (TAP) grant funding to the St. Louis region. Expected award winners include the top rated project, and only project within the city limits: nearly $1-million to design and construct St. Louis’ first Calm Street along Louisiana Avenue from Gravois to Meramec, connecting Benton Park West, Gravois Park, and Dutchtown.

Calm Streets are streets with low motorized traffic volumes and speed, that provide safe and accessible routes for walking and biking. These routes are important to the City of St. Louis as we continue to promote a robust multimodal transportation system that supports users of all abilities and ages. There are direct benefits associated with promoting walking and biking, and further developing the Calm Streets vision and network buildout ensures St. Louis can grow from these benefits, while supporting economically vibrant, safe and sustainable communities.

Link: 

Funding Approval Expected for First Calm Street Project in St. Louis City - a new type of STL street encouraging more biking & walking | nextSTL

MoBikeFed comment: Please click through for an excellent discussion of what Calm Streets are, why they are a new thing to St. Louis (and to Missouri) and why they are important.

A challenge in any developed city our town is that the density of population destinations exists to make a really walkable and bicycleable area. But the existing road network is designed to be almost completely oriented towards automobiles. And there is simply no space to add an additional transportation network to meet the needs of people who bicycle and walk--and even if you do,there are still many, many desirable destinations on existing city streets, where development and commerce clusters.

Calm Streets solve this problem by creating streetscapes that are accessible by motor vehicle, walking, bicycling, AND transit. Yet they are far more inviting for bicycling, walking, and transit than our current streetscapes.

The end result is a much more vibrant street--a destination street--that fully integrates all needed transportation modes.

This is a big step forward for St. Louis and for Missouri. Please take a look--because our next move should be to see Calm Streets in every Missouri community.