Complete Streets policy moves forward in St. Louis County

The St. Louis County Complete Streets bill received its first nod of approval from the St. Louis County Council at a meeting Tuesday.  It is set for a final vote at the County Council meeting next Tuesday. A St. Louis Post-Dispatch story has more details.

Complete Street in a city--this is just one possible way out of many that a Complete Street might be designed

The result of months of work by County staff, elected officials, and citizen groups--led by local bicycle and pedestrian advocacy group Trailnet--the St. Louis County Complete Streets policy will be a major change for the county, which has not had a reputation for being friendly or accommodating to bicyclists.

The County Complete Streets bill came at the behest of cities in the County--who were trying to implement their own local bicycle plans and Complete Streets policies, but found themselves stymied by opposition from the County Highway Department and its policies.

The St. Louis County Complete Streets bill is one of the best we have seen in Missouri.  It includes many of the elements recognized nationwide as best practice for a Complete Streets policy:

• A comprehensive definition of what Complete Streets is about:
  
  to ensure that the safety, convenience and comfort of all users of the transportation system are genuinely considered, including pedestrians, bicyclists, users of mass transit, people of all ages and abilities, motorists, emergency responders, freight providers and adjacent land users; and to continue to encourage safe walking, bicycling, transit and vehicle use for all users, regardless of age or ability, in efforts to create an interconnected network of complete streets, linking communities together.
   
• A reasonable yet strong statement of support for the County's inclusion of Complete Streets elements in its street planning, design, and maintenance:
  
  The Department of Highways and Traffic and Public Works ("Department") will, where practicable, economically feasible and maintainable, routinely incorporate one or more complete street elements into County transportation projects to create a safer, more accessible street for all users. These elements provide appropriate accommodation for bicyclists, pedestrians, transit users, motorists, and persons of all abilities, regardless of age, while promoting safe operation for all users, in a coordinated manner consistent with, context sensitive to and supportive of, the surrounding community. 
   
• Full evaluation of needed Complete Streets elements in every road project.
   
• An updated and modernized definition of 'pedestrian' that includes people using personal assistive devices and wheelchairs--clarifying that good pedestrian design always include accommodation for people with disabilities and mobility impairment
   
• A requirement to follow national best practice in design and planning
   
• Creation of an internal advisory commission to guide the development of the County's Complete Streets policy and implementation, as well as a peer advisory commission to allow citizen input into the implementation of Complete Streets.  Creation of these committees, and creating a regular process to incorporate citizen input in decision-making, is one of the top recommendations of the National Complete Streets Coalition.  We have observed that Complete Streets policies in Missouri that include the creation of some combination of citizen and staff committees fare better over the long run.
   
• A requirement for county personnel to educate themselves about plannign and design for Complete Streets--another very important element that is a national best practice

Read more about Complete Streets in the St. Louis area from Trailnet, who has been hard at work bringing parties together to make the St. Louis County Complete Streets policy happen and has been the leader in this important advocacy effort.  Trailnet's long-term work with cities across the metro area, helping communities across the region develop their own bicycle and pedestrian plans, has been one of the primary forces driving the need for change at the county level. Cities that are working to implement the bike/walk plans supported and approved by their citizens, staff, and elected officials become frustrated when that work is stymied by county policies and staff. 

Coming at the same issue from the other direction is the Gateway Bike Plan, a comprehensive regional plan that identifies a 1000 mile bicycle network. Funded by Great Rivers Greenway and created in cooperation with numerous municipalities and agencies throughout the region, the steady progress in implementing the plan both inside St. Louis County and in neighboring counties helps create an expectation that St. Louis County streets--which are key to complete connectivity throughout the entire region--will accommodate bicycling just as surrounding streets do.

The current version of the St Louis County Complete Streets bill, set for a final vote next Tuesday, is available here as a PDF file.

St. Louis metro area bicycle and pedestrian advocacy group Trailnet has done an excellent job in helping the St. Louis County Complete Streets policy make its way through months of complex negotiations, bringing key parties together around difficult issues, and providing the resources and information that have helped make this proposed St. Louis County Complete Streets policy one of the best we have seen.  Your support of Trailnet helps make positive change like Complete Streets happen in the St. Louis region.

MoBikeFed support groups like Trailnet around Missouri--and hopes that you will, too--because creating a unified statewide movement in support of better bicycling and walking is among of the primary goals of MoBikeFed's Vision for Bicycling and Walking in Missouri.  Another of our primary objectives is developing a world-class bicycle and pedestrian network--and work like that done by Trailnet on the St. Louis County Complete Streets plan is what moves that objective forward.

You can find sample Complete Streets policies and links to the information you need to move a Complete Streets policy forward in your own community on our Missouri Complete Streets page.

And--your membership and support for MoBikeFed helps make our statewide vision a reality, and helps bring Complete Streets policies to more communities across Missouri. Right now your membership or donation to MoBikeFed will be DOUBLED by a group of 38 generous donors.

File: 

st-louis-county-complete-streets-ordinance-final-2014-01-15.pdf