Planning: Complete Streets

Designing safe streets for all road users

Complete Streets is a transportation approach for streets that are planned, designed, operated, and maintained to enable safe, convenient, and comfortable travel and access for all road users, regardless of age, ability, or mode of travel. It is a paradigm shift from traditional traffic engineering principles, which focus primarily on moving as many vehicles as possible, as fast as possible.

Complete Streets is a crucial element in achieving a modern, efficient, and sustainable transportation system. When streets are designed with this approach, they impact desired behaviors, which can reduce the need for enforcement activities to ensure safety.

Complete Streets Toolkit

The Complete Streets Toolkit is a guide for local planning, design, and construction processes. The Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) created this toolkit in partnership with the Active Transportation Alliance and the National Complete Streets Coalition.

Basics

Complete Streets: The Basics provides an overview to achieve a modern, efficient, and sustainable transportation system.

Policy development

The policies that make Complete Streets most effective reflect input from a broad group of stakeholders, including transportation planners and engineers, elected officials, transit agencies, public health departments, and community members.

Implementation

An effective implementation process identifies the systems, routines, and assumptions in current decision-making (download a sample Complete Streets policy implementation plan).

Design concepts

Successful implementation requires rethinking roadway design concepts and considerations to fully accommodate all anticipated users. These concepts represent starting points in the design process.

Facility types and design treatments

Key facility types for bicyclists, pedestrians, and transit users help planners and designers create Complete Streets. Engineering and design treatments help accommodate travelers, calm traffic, and manage speeds.

What do Complete Streets look like?

For more information on designing for Complete Streets, visit Pace’s Transit Supportive Guidelines and NACTO’s design guides.

A Chicago Department of Transportation case study for Milwaukee Avenue from Western Avenue to California Avenue found that protected bike lanes boosted local economic metrics and safety, with a 66% increase in sales tax revenue, a 37% jump in private sector employment, and a 44% reduction in crash costs.