What Are Complete Streets: Tackling Cars’ Primacy in All Corners of America
While we may not immediately realize it, our perceptions of cities are shaped by streets. If I told you to picture your hometown —whether you’re from a major city with millions of people or a small town with just a few thousand — the image that comes to mind is likely not the inside of a store or a local landmark. That image is likely standing by a street. If this perspective looks interesting and inviting, we likely think of the city as exciting and welcoming. If this street appears drab and uninviting, we likely think of the city as boring and dangerous. Streets play a critical role in shaping the identity of the places we call home.
Beyond their overlooked role as a city’s identity, streets also secretly house an incredible wealth of America’s public space. While parks and town halls are probably what comes to mind in regards to “public spaces,” streets are the public setting that connects the world together, from serving as transportation links to important social destinations.
For an element of space so ubiquitous to our everyday lives and so rich in possibilities, it’s strange that streets are thought of largely as the natural domain for automobile traffic. This definition becomes even more strange when you consider the relatively recent invention of the car compared to that of the street.
Cars’ Rise to Power
Cars fueled the creation and expansion of the suburbs, allowing people to separate their work lives and home lives in a way that physical distance hadn’t previously allowed them to do. However, more than anything, cars proved to be the ultimate symbol of American individualism. Convenience is undeniably a factor at play in this adoration, as few inventions give us as much autonomy and individual agency compared to that of the car. The car goes exactly where you want to go when you want to go. However, these mobility-centered characteristics were not unique to cars in the early 20th century. Streetcars and other forms of mass transit were available on nearly every street in large cities, and trains provided frequent connections to destinations further away. Rather, looking through a lens of American individualism provides a much more interesting picture of cars’ takeover of American streets.
The car’s rise to power and continued hold on American transportation — regardless of cost, inconveniences with traffic, or environmental impact — arises from the fact it privatizes what was once public space. Your car is your own little world. You don’t have to share with others. While streets were once places shared by all people and all purposes, from transit to commerce to human connection, cars gave us the ability to compartmentalize streets and bring them into our own personal bubble. While this may be great for your passionate car karaoke, it’s not great considering the huge amount of space a car takes up for a single person. On a more individual level, that space is nearly unusable for any other transportation mode or general purpose due to the danger, noise, and other factors they bring in their usage.
This appeal of personal and private space to call your own is what drew Americans to the suburbs and what lead them to choose cars as their way to get around as they moved there. As cities sprawled into suburbs, cars became symbols of prosperity. As redlining began to enforce the racial and economic status quo in these new neighborhoods, other modes of transportation quickly fell out of favor. This shift in perception was coupled with the massive expansion of the interstate system that heavily subsidized driving for those commuting (often at the expense of women and communities of color). Mass transportation fell out of favor, and lacking the ridership or government investment car infrastructure was receiving, the private companies that ran mass transit systems crumbled. Pedestrians and cyclists were rarely considered in designing these new transit corridors, making them unreliable alternatives. Cars had become America’s way to get around.
A Different Approach
While this shift to cars may seem like a natural progression, the end effect is a country with few areas where getting around without a car is a viable option. This shift led to a huge amount of what was once public space to gather being delegated and wasted exclusively on cars. Given the negative environmental effects, the cost and access barriers they present, and the danger posed to other street users, cars shouldn’t be the only thing we use street space for. Consider, as opposed to just a slate of concrete for the automobile, streets as an equitable place for everyone and a place to build stronger communities. Complete Streets is a design approach that prioritizes making the public space streets comprise be safe, inviting, accessible, and functional for all. Re-imaging both the present and pre-car landscapes, these re-imagined streets serve all people, regardless of age; ability; or purpose, and all modes of transit, including cars; pedestrians; public transit riders; and cyclists. Further, this design philosophy aims to dismantle the car dependence that has for decades plagued America.
While you might imagine this as being a road that has “all-encompassing” car lanes, bike lanes, bus lanes, and sidewalks, Complete Streets are defined differently based on the environment in which they’re built. Complete Streets are designed to facilitate both the volume and type of activities being accomplished by each person using them, ranging from those in cars trying to get somewhere quickly to pedestrians on a leisurely walk with friends. Although they vary widely in implementation, a few key principles remain constant: streets must have sufficient space, must feel safe for all users (which is largely attributed to enough space for each mode, be it by separation or pure area), provide sufficient connectivity, and must be human-centered and attractive. This final point is especially important in considering the goals of Complete Streets as a whole. Complete Streets should be active streets; places that by themselves are interesting and comfortable to be in.
Today, Complete Streets practices are being implemented by nearly every state and countless cities around the country, with each being uniquely tailored to the area they are built in. Many focus on adding dedicated right-of-ways for cyclists through things like bike lanes. Other programs focus more on creating low-speed roads and large sidewalks to facilitate pedestrian activities. Many cities are also prioritizing public transit through design elements such as dedicated bus and streetcar lanes and stops that provide for quicker and more accessible boarding. However, looking beyond just transportation, Complete Streets provide a starting point to shift streets back to their historical place as centers for personal and professional connection. They allow forms of transportation other than cars to be practical and feasible alongside providing greater space for community building and civic engagement.
Complete Streets Elements
Given the seeming-mutually exclusive requirements most transportation modes have, it certainly seems logical to take a street, take the percentage of people using each mode of travel, and divide up the space of a street proportionally. However, equality rarely equals equity. Simply dividing up roadway space ignores the fundamental difference between these different modes of transportation. For example, one of the primary features of cycling is that it allows a huge amount of people to move in a relatively small area. Pedestrians, on the other hand, are doing much more on the street than just walking, so it could be argued more space should be distributed accordingly. Designing Complete Streets is a vastly more complex process than just setting percentages to different transit modes, and the process requires a careful analysis of the context around where a street is located.
The fundamental philosophy of Complete Streets design is applying the aforementioned principles of space, safety, connectivity, and attractiveness to the specific area a street is in. What is the unique combination of activities and destinations that comprise that street? This process can be applied to all types of settings, from the biggest cities to rural towns, to determine how communities can be best served by their streets. Moving from definition to case studies, this is what Complete Streets may look like in every corner of America.
Urban Residential Areas: Longfellow Street, Santa Monica, California
Long before Complete Streets projects were being widely discussed, in 2006, the residents of Longfellow Street had a problem. As detailed by NACTO (the National Association of City Transportation Officials), the narrow, 40-foot-wide street was already paved from property line to property line and still didn’t provide enough space for both sidewalks and parking for the street’s residents. Combined with a lack of street lighting, this made the road dangerous for pedestrians, leading to little pedestrian use and a large number of crimes taking place in the area.
Following a feasibility study conducted by the city council and numerous meetings with residents, the Longfellow Street of today was born. As opposed to implementing diagonal parking on one side of the street and a sidewalk on the other, designers opted for a completely level street where all transportation modes share the same area. Cars pass over a warning strip to indicate they should slow down, and navigate to parking spots that alternate with greenery to further promote slow speeds. Pedestrians can safely and accessibly traverse the street given the slow speed of traffic around them. Landscaping and ample street lighting make Longfellow an inviting place. Bikers need not worry about curbs or fast-moving cars. All the while, emergency vehicles, garbage trucks, delivery vans, and other infrastructure vehicles can still easily traverse the street.
Longfellow Street is an example of shared space, an area where there is no formal allocation of different spaces to different transportation modes. As such, all users become distinctly more aware of each other, which creates a safer space for all. Shared space streets are the perfect choice for areas like Longfellow Street which are very limited in space, and have relatively low car volume, but still facilitate pedestrians moving about. While the limited space would normally lead to a lack of accessible and public space for people to gather, shared space streets instead encourage people to join their neighbors in what essentially becomes an extension of their parks and front yards. Without the danger of fast-moving, loud cars, communities are drawn outside and closer together through their streets.
Redesigning an Urban Residential Area: Pearl Street, Cambridge, Mass.
Pearl St is incredibly familiar in the residential areas of most American cities. Sidewalks and parking spaces line each side of a narrow street interrupted only by the occasional crosswalk and bus stop. However, streets like these — with people who spend a lot of time around them and relatively low vehicle traffic — are prime candidates to become active streets. Active streets, in this location, would provide somewhere for neighbors to meet and get to know each other, kids to play, and for greater access to alternative transportation. While a lack of space may have led to the shared use model that defines Longfellow Street, plenty of space already exists on Pearl Street, and so many others, hiding in plain sight and waiting to be put to better use.
A great deal of power on narrow streets like these can be found in the element of the street that is already stationary: the parking lane. In the rendering above, this space has been repurposed for a wide variety of uses. Storage for bikes (and bike-share) is provided, alongside wider sidewalks and ramps for pedestrians. Trees and greenery can be added and relocated to avoid creating accessibility challenges on the sidewalk. Dedicated space for delivery vehicles is provided to avoid blocking other traffic. A bus bulb, which allows for accessible, level boarding of a bus without the bus having to pull over, increases access to public transit and other micro-transit modes. Single parking spaces can be turned into parklets (shown below, right), which provide sitting spaces for everything from friends getting together to people just wanting to watch the world go by.
While these design elements provide the space to turn streets into active places, they also serve double duty by making streets safer, too. By adding these spaces, designs like chicanes (shown above, left) are created that force drivers to slow down to speeds that are safer and more comfortable for those outside of vehicles. Overall, in residential areas like this, creating Complete Streets is as much about community building as it is about getting around. While it is easy enough to move parking off the street and into a single, dense area, few other spaces in residential areas could prove more valuable in placemaking and community building than the streets that already border our front yards.
Urban Centers: Denver’s 16th Street Mall
In the late 70s, as suburbia and super-sized malls sprung up around America, Denver was looking to attract people to create a thriving downtown area. At the same time, 16th Street faced huge amounts of car and bus traffic, as this streets connected the two main transit hubs in Downtown Denver. As detailed by the Downtown Denver Partnership, the solution was the 16th Street Mall. Reimagined as a pedestrian mall, 16th Street was resurfaced with smooth, granite pavers, sidewalks were greatly expanded, and a plentiful amount of trees and streetlights were added down the center of the street. While providing a safe and accessible space for pedestrian access, 16th Street continues to serve as a transit thruway, with a sidewalk-level busway providing shuttle bus service end-to-end throughout the mall. This busway also provides easy access for emergency services; a necessity that often prevents similar projects from ever getting past the planning stages.
The 16th Street Mall is an example of Streets as Places. Even if you’re not looking to get something done, or on a mission to visit a particular place, streets like the 16th Street Mall are places to visit themselves. It’s easy to window-shop and try something new at one of the many stores and restaurants that line the street. It’s easy to sit outside at one of the mall’s many cafes when road noise from cars isn’t a major concern. It’s easy enough to not have to purchase anything and meet up with friends to hang out or attend one of the many public events spaces like these facilitate. Streets as places redefine what the street is; it isn’t just a stage for transportation. Streets, when they’re easily accessible by people, serve as social gathering spots, economic growth drivers, and perhaps most importantly, civic spaces. Streets serve as important pieces of our civil infrastructure by acting as the primary space where people interact with other members of their communities, from having a free place to meet up to hosting large-scale political protests. Streets that are safe and facilitate easy conversation, play for kids, or meetups with neighbors are bound to lead to people becoming more active members and advocates for their community.
Times Square and Dense Urban Areas
This realm — major urban areas — is one of the urban landscapes where Complete Streets can look the most different. Take Times Square in New York City, for example, one of the busiest streets for pedestrians in the country. While this space has always been one of New York City’s premier tourist destinations — famous for street performers and actors, unique stores, and every tourist’s must-get photo—it hasn’t always been the pedestrian plaza that it is today. The square’s current design is the result of a 2009 project that converted what was previously vehicle space into a distribution of open space, large bench seating, and designated areas for the performance that make the square famous. While both before and after this project Times Square was heavily visited, this project resulted in a 63% reduction in vehicle occupant injuries and a 35% reduction in pedestrian injuries, according to a NYC Department of Transportation report. Complete Streets can serve the important purpose of making streets that are already destinations safer for all modes of transit.
On the other hand, streets are still needed to facilitate high-volume movement on many transportation modes throughout the city. Designs like NACTO’s (the National Association of City Transportation Officials) Transit Boulevard provide a more equable design for major thruways that still facilitate nearly all forms of transportation. Dedicated right-of-ways ensure that busses can move large numbers of people efficiently throughout the city, while in-lane, level boarding makes for more reliable, on-time service. Parking is still provided for those in vehicles and those making deliveries while doubling as a shield to protect bicyclists from faster-moving traffic. Further, pedestrians are set far enough back from the loudest and most dangerous traffic that it is much more accessible to walk without constantly being on guard. Not all streets in cities can be turned into pedestrian or cyclist-only hotspots. However, a wide array of different designs exist such that every street can be made, at the very least, safer for all.
Redesigning Spaces: Boston’s Newbury and Other Temporary Complete Streets Projects
The adaptive nature of Complete Streets projects makes it easy for temporary closures or diversions to redefine what a street looks like. A great example of this is Open Newbury in Boston, where the city’s most popular shopping street is closed to cars and filled with people shopping, exploring, and spending time with friends and family. These temporary, often turning to permeant experiments saw a huge uptick in the past several years as localities looked for better ways to social distance in the era of COVID. The Pedestrian and Biking Information Center tracked over 350 such projects in the US alone. As highlighted by the City of Boston, temporary projects like Open Newbury give communities great avenues to test out Complete Streets concepts and ideas, their impact on existing commutes and traffic patterns, and overall find what better use of street space might be. This increase in Complete Streets experimentation has begun to stretch far beyond the biggest streets in the biggest cities and into the small towns of America.
Rural America: Milan, Michigan
Too often, concepts in city and transportation planning like Complete Streets never make it out of urban centers to enhance the lives of a large portion of Americans: those living in rural, small towns across the country. However, these communities, with their tight-knit and everyone-knows-everyone culture, are arguably the people who would best put the new civic and community spaces that Complete Streets provide to use.
A great example of a city with lively, livable streets is my hometown of Milan, Michigan. Now, Complete Streets look incredibly different in a small farming community like this one compared to more urban areas. Namely, cars are a much greater necessity in these low-density areas. However, that doesn’t mean that they should get left out of the benefits Complete Streets can provide.
Despite Milan being a low-density farming community, Milan is unique among smaller towns in the area because of its walkable downtown. From the “main intersection” of downtown, residents can easily walk to a variety of local businesses, a large local park with various sporting facilities, the town library, and the pathway that lines the town’s small lake. Beyond these local destinations, as part of their downtown development project, Milan converted a small side street into a pedestrian square. Tolan Square now serves as a home for community events ranging from summer concerts to residents looking to meet up with each other.
While acknowledging that cars are still a necessity for those in rural areas, Milan provides a compact downtown that makes it an easy destination to visit and connect with others in the community. Residents and visitors can park their cars once they get downtown and spend a day exclusively walking around this area. While these compact towns are hard to find outside of the areas of the country that were built up around train stations in the eighteen and nineteen hundreds, Complete Streets projects can be implemented to better utilize the space around existing destinations and public infrastructure. Traffic calming measures can be used to make an area still useable by cars while remaining safe and welcoming for those on foot and bike. Lower speed limits enforced by speed bumps, prominently raised pedestrian crossings, and better-utilized street parking spaces are all examples of how to still allow vehicle traffic while ensuring slow speeds that make others feel safe alongside cars. Complete Streets in towns like Milan provide a sense of safety that facilitates semi-urban placemaking, turning towns into destinations.
In Conclusion: It’s More Feasible Than Most Think
While Complete Streets may sound like a fever dream in many car-dependent areas of the US, overall, they’re far more feasible than you make think. The great flexibility in adapting Complete Streets principles to different urban and semi-urban environments makes their widespread use possible. However, beyond Complete Streets themselves, the roadblock that is perhaps more interesting to look at is our overinflated sense of the necessity of cars in our cities and towns. The US Department of Transportation has noted all trips taken in cars in the US, 35% are less than two miles and 60% are less than five miles. This is terribly inefficient when you consider 77% of car trips have only a single person in the car, according to a University of Michigan report. While it’s certainly not as simple as telling those 60% of people to walk, bike, or take transit places over taking their car, many of these trips could certainly be converted to more sustainable modes of transportation provided the right resources existed.
The reasons why many of these short trips occur by car in the first place is likely not just because people adore the experience of driving, but likely because better alternatives don’t exist. Sidewalks don’t exist, biking is unsafe due to high speeds, transit is unreliable, and overall, no alternative is a particularly polished or enjoyable experience. By designing streets with more than just the car in mind, even if these other modes of transportation aren’t being heavily utilized today, people will turn to them as worthy replacements for their short commutes. There are countless examples of Complete Streets already having these effects. Usage of Boston’s BlueBike public bike share program tripled at stations alongside one road after a protected bike lane was installed on the street. Walkable places result in a 10–30% decrease in per-capita vehicle travel according to the American Institute of Architects. Increasing schedule frequency results in greater ridership on public transit. The demand and interest are there for other forms of transportation, if provided a safe and reliable avenue to do so.
Looking big picture, more important than anything, Complete Streets are not just something for big cities. Any small, medium, or large town can utilize streets for placemaking and creating walkable and accessible downtown spaces — even if, for now, you might need to drive to them in the first place. While it isn’t feasible to snap our fingers and eliminate the need for cars, parking, and other commonplace transportation infrastructure, progress can be undertaken everywhere to turn streets into destinations and important civic spaces. While many of our civic spaces today are underutilized by increasingly disconnected communities, streets are a ubiquitous element in American society that can help bring us closer together. By moving away from thinking about these streets as places solely for transportation, and more as places for both commuting and forming deeper connections with our neighbors, we can begin to shift the mindset we approach cities from. No longer do cities have to simply be places of commerce and work that we drive to in the morning and leave as quickly as possible each night. Cities and towns can be places to meet with friends (for free in public spaces, I might add), talk with and form greater trust with your neighbors, or simply be somewhere to sit and watch the world go by. Streets don’t have to just get you to places; they can be the places themselves.
Carter Harris is a student at Olin College of Engineering in Needham, Massachusetts interested in the intersection of transit, engineering & urban planning.
Sources and Further Reading
National Association Of City Transportation Officials. Transit Street Design Guide. Washington, Island Press, 2016.
National Association of City Transportation Officials. Urban Street Design Guide. Washington, Island Press, 2013.
Nello-Deakin, Samuel. “Is There Such a Thing as a “Fair” Distribution of Road Space?” Journal of Urban Design, vol. 24, no. 5, 25 Apr. 2019, pp. 698–714, https://doi.org/10.1080/13574809.2019.1592664.
Porter, Jamila, et al. “Complete Streets State Laws & Provisions: An Analysis of Legislative Content and the State Policy Landscape, 1972–2018.” Journal of Transport and Land Use, vol. 12, no. 1, 23 July 2019, https://doi.org/10.5198/jtlu.2019.1512.
TransitMatters. Mobility Hubs Toolkit. Boston, Massachusetts, Transit Matters, Feb. 2023.
