Browsing by Subject "Complete Streets"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    Assessing the Economic Effects of Context-Sensitive Main Street Highways in Small Cities
    (Minnesota Department of Transportation, 2022-09) Fonseca-Sarmiento, Camila; Zeerak, Raihana; Phinney, Robin; Clausen, Barrett; Jiang, Haiyue; Zhao, Jerry
    Complete Streets is a transportation policy and design approach that requires streets to be planned, designed, operated, and maintained to enable safe, convenient, and comfortable travel and access for users of all ages and abilities regardless of their mode of transportation. While there have been multiple studies on Complete Streets in metropolitan areas, little is known about these projects impacts in small cities. In this research, we assess the economic impacts of Complete Streets projects on small-city businesses through case studies and by comparing economic measures from a group of cities with Complete Streets projects to comparable control groups without these streets. Our findings show that few respondents perceive a direct impact for their business, but many feel that the reconstructions have been (would be) beneficial for the city. Mechanisms through which Complete Streets might impact businesses and the local economy include altering of business practices, changing of city practices, or acting as a catalyst for additional investment. In addition, our results suggest that Complete Streets projects may improve the economic activity of small cities to some extent, particularly when considering revenues from property taxes. The research team also develops a consistent set of economic metrics that MnDOT and local transportation agencies can use to evaluate and communicate the effect of context-sensitive main street highways.
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    Complete streets state laws & provisions: An analysis of legislative content and the state policy landscape, 1972–2018
    (Journal of Transport and Land Use, 2019) Porter, Jamila M.; Bryan, Shenée J.; Lee, Joel M.; Corso, Phaedra S.; Davis, Marsha; Rathbun, Stephen L.
    Across the U.S., states have adopted Complete Streets legislative statutes—state laws that direct transportation agencies to routinely design and operate roadways to provide safe access for all users, including pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists, and public transit users. To date, there has not been a systematic and comprehensive analysis of the content and provisions of these laws. In this study, Complete Streets state statutes were identified using legal research databases. Using established legal mapping methods, a qualitative analysis was conducted of state laws that were effective through December 2018. A codebook and open-source data set were developed to support the public use of the data. Eighteen states and Washington, DC, have adopted Complete Streets legislative statutes. A total of 21 have been adopted, with 76% (n=16) of laws adopted since 2007. While the laws vary in content, detail, and specificity, several common provisions were identified across statutes. Complete Streets legislative statutes may be essential to ensure that road networks throughout states are safe, connected, and accessible for all users. This study provides key insights into the legislative landscape of Complete Streets state laws and makes available a new data set that can support future evaluations of these laws.
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    A needs-gap analysis of street space allocation
    (Journal of Transport and Land Use, 2021) Lefebvre-Ropars, Gabriel; Morency, Catherine; Negron-Poblete, Paula
    Streets have long been designed to maximize motor vehicle throughput, ignoring other street users. Many cities are now reversing this trend and implementing policies to design more equitable streets. However, few existing tools and metrics enable widescale assessment, evaluation, and longitudinal tracking of these street space rebalancing efforts, i.e., assessing how equitable the current street design is, how it can be improved, and how much progress has been made. This paper develops a needs-gap methodology for assessing the discrepancy between transportation supply and demand in urban streets using existing datasets and automated methods. The share of street space allocated to different street users is measured in 11 boroughs of Montréal, Canada. Travel survey data is used to estimate the observed and potential travel demand in each borough in the AM peak period. A needs-gap analysis is then carried out. It is found that bus riders and cyclists face the greatest needs-gap across the study area, especially in central boroughs. The needs-gap also increases if only trips produced or attracted by a borough are considered. This shows the potential of applying an equity-based framework to the automated assessment of street space allocation in cities using large datasets.