GCBL thanks John Gideon, President, Central Ohio Bicycle Advocacy Coalition (COBAC) for the following information and inspiration on 'Complete Streets' and why ODOT should adopt it into policy.

The new leaders of ODOT should promptly adopt a statewide "Complete Streets" policy. They should ensure that the policy is understood by all ODOT workers as well as by all outside consultants and contractors and implemented in all ODOT projects.

What are Complete Streets? The Complete Streets Coalition offers the following definition: "Complete Streets are designed and operated to enable safe access for all users. Pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists and bus riders of all ages and abilities are able to safely move along and across a complete street."

In 1999 and 2000, the Federal Highway Administration issued guidances to all traffic engineers and transportation officials in which it interpreted federal transportation law (then TEA-21) to require "that bicycling and walking facilities will be incorporated into all transportation projects unless exceptional circumstances exist." This came to be known as "routine accommodation."

Pursuant to these guidances a number of states, cities, and metropolitan planning
organizations (including the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission and the Northeast
Ohio Area Coordinating Agency) have adopted "routine accommodation" policies, now called "Complete Streets" policies.

True to form, ODOT adopted a document in April, 2005 called Policy on Accommodating Bicycle and Pedestrian Travel on ODOT Owned or Maintained Facilities that was meant to appear to comport with the spirit of the 1999 and 2000 FHWA guidances on accommodating  bicycle and pedestrian travel. But ODOT's policy was carefully and cleverly written so as to amount to no change. ODOT continues its long-standing policy and practice of not including bikeways and walkways in ODOT projects.

As far as COBAC is aware, not a single ODOT project yet includes bike lanes. In fact, ODOT does not even comply with MORPC's "routine accommodation" policy on ODOT transportation projects in the MORPC region.

The need for ALL streets to be Complete Streets is demonstrated by the remarkably high percentage of short trips that are made by car. The 2001 National Household Travel Survey by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics of the United States Department of Transportation revealed the high percentage of all trips under five miles: Americans (in urban areas) use their car for 66% of all trips up to a mile long and for 89% of all trips between one and two miles long.

If all streets are made to be Complete Streets a large percentage of trips now made by car could be made by bicycle or on foot. And the benefits would be enormous: less traffic congestion, better health, lower energy use, reduced global warming, more localized economic development and more eyes and ears on the street to prevent crime. This is what communities that are known as magnets for young professionals— Portland, Chicago, Seattle, Madison, Tucson, Palo Alto and San Francisco, to name a few—have been doing for a long time.

Complete Streets should be the policy of all state agencies and departments including the Ohio Public Works Commission which dispenses state bond infrastructure funds for the building of roads and bridges.

To read Gideon's complete letter on reforming ODOT, go here.

Resources

• Complete Streets Coalition 
• Columbia University study published in the American Journal of Health Promotion links livable streets to improved public health.
• Oregon bike bill—funding Complete Streets with State Highway Funds since 1971