St Louis aldermen unanimously pass Complete Streets bill

The St Louis Regional Bicycle Federation sent the following announcement today:

Today the St. Louis Board of Aldermen passed, in a unanimous vote, Board Bill #7 - a Complete Streets ordinance.

A summary of the bill from the Board of Aldermen website:

An ordinance relating to a "complete streets" policy for the City of St. Louis, stating guiding principles and practices so that transportation improvements are planned, designed and constructed to encourage walking, bicycling and transit use while promoting safe operations for all users.

While the City of St. Louis has had an unwritten policy of working toward complete streets in practice for a few years, having a written policy in place will help to ensure that you will continue to see our streets improved so that they actually favor a human presence.

Elements that contribute to complete streets include sidewalks and raised medians, traffic calming measures, bike lanes or shared lane markings, comfortable and accessible transit stops, frequent pedestrian crossing opportunities, and more.

This written policy ordinance will help to ensure that the Streets Department budget is designated with all users in mind, and that features that favor human beings (whether in or out of cars) rather than machines will have adequate funding.

Please contact your alderman to thank him or her for voting for Complete Streets!

To get a full list of sponsors and complete text of the ordinance click here.