A Complete Streets Plan from New York
To almost no fan fare, last week Governor Schwarzenegger signed Assembly Bill 1358, Assemblyman Leto's Complete Streets Legislation, into law. According to a press release from the Complete Streets Coalition, this legislation requires:
...citiesand counties to include complete streets policies as part of theirgeneral plans so that roadways are designed to safely accommodate allusers, including bicyclists, pedestrians, transit riders, children,older people, and disabled people, as well as motorists.
While the new law is a major victory for Livable Streets Advocates, especially the California Bike Coalition who listed the passage of this legislation as their top priority in recent years, advocates' work is far from over. Jim Brown, the Communications Director for the CBC, commented in a recent Streetsblog post about complete streets:
Caltrans has an internal policy called Deputy Directive 64 thatcalls for consideration of the needs of bicyclists and pedestrians forstate highway projects, including design, construction and maintenance.That policy is being updated and strengthened to more clearly alignwith Complete Streets principles and could be unveiled in the next fewweeks.
In both cases everything depends on implementation. For AB 1358 theGovernor's Office of Planning & Research will develop general planupdate guidelines that will (ideally) carry out the policy expressed inthe bill. And DD-64 is just a statement of policy -- next will comedevelopment of specific implementation guidelines. The work is justbeginning!
Image: Streetsblog
