The Best New Complete Streets Policies, Ranked

After a four-year hiatus, Smart Growth America has released a list of the best Complete Streets policies in the country, highlighting the places that have made the most progress in improving street safety and access for all road users. 

Jared Brey describes the rankings in Governing, explaining that Smart Growth America defines ‘complete streets’ as “an approach to planning, designing, building, operating and maintaining streets that enables safe access for all people who need to use them, including pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists and transit riders of all ages and abilities.”

The community at the top, rating a perfect 100 points, is Howard County, Maryland, whose Complete Streets policy emphasizes equity and “is focused on creating a network of roads and paths that accommodate likely trips throughout the county by car, bike, foot and transit, while acknowledging that ‘every street does not necessarily need to provide separate accommodations for every mode.’”

Brey adds that “Cities with high-ranking complete streets policies adopted in the last few years include El Paso, Tucson and Joplin, Mo.” See the source article for a link to the full rankings and an explanation of the method for selecting top policies.