Complete Streets Resources
Transportation professionals use a Complete Streets design model to integrate safety for all users into planning and analysis. By understanding how a street fits within the multimodal network, they can identify infrastructure needs to better serve the community. To address safety and connectivity concerns, professionals may:
- Engage with community members
- Analyze crash risk through data-driven safety methods
- Assess needs for safety infrastructure
- Monitor and measure outcomes.
New data and performance tracking help guide investments and evaluate success. This page offers tools and examples to support corridor and network-level safety-focused planning.
- Complete Streets Waiver - Memorandum: Waiver of Non-Federal Match for State Planning and Research (SPR) and Metropolitan Planning (PL) Funds in Support of Complete Streets Planning Activities (BIL § 11206)
- Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program
- Federal-aid Programs and Special Funding – Provides links to information on specific funding programs and related program guidance.
- Highway Safety Improvement Program
- Safe Streets and Roads for All Grant Program
- Surface Transportation Block Grant Program
- Transportation Alternatives
- Federal Transit Administration (FTA)-Flexible Funding for Transit and Highway Improvements
Also, check the list at Pedestrian and Bicycle Funding Opportunities
FHWA/FTA
- Accessible Shared Streets: Notable Practices and Considerations for Accommodating Pedestrians with Vision Disabilities – Reviews notable practices and considerations for accommodating pedestrians with vision disabilities on shared streets. It focuses on streets where pedestrians, bicyclists, and motor vehicles are intended to mix in the same space.
- Bicycle and Pedestrian Planning, Program, and Project Development Guidance - This memorandum provides background information and guidance on Federal legislation, policies, and reference materials related to bicycles, pedestrians, and shared micromobility programs and projects.
- Complete Streets for Planners – Directs transportation planners to Complete Streets resources.
- Context-Sensitive Design – Provides information on a collaborative, interdisciplinary decision-making process and design approach that involves all stakeholders to develop a transportation facility that fits its physical setting.
- FHWA ADA Guidance and Technical Assistance – Provides guidance, resources, useful links, and memos on ADA requirements for State and Local agencies.
- FHWA Small Towns and Rural Multimodal Networks (report) – This idea book helps small towns and rural communities support safe, accessible, comfortable, and active travel for people of all ages and abilities.
- Guidebook for Measuring Multimodal Network Connectivity – Focuses on pedestrian and bicycle network connectivity and provides information on incorporating connectivity measures into state, metropolitan, and local transportation planning processes.
- Memorandum: Complete Streets Planning Provision Guidance - Increasing Safe and Accessible Transportation Options Implementation Guidance Under Section 11206 of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
- National Resources and Technical Assistance for Transit-Oriented Development – Access on-the-ground and online technical assistance to support transit-oriented development, improve access to public transportation, and build new economic opportunities and pathways to employment for local communities.
- Pedestrian & Bicycle Information Center – Allows you to watch free past recordings and register for upcoming webinars on a variety of topics related to Complete Streets provided by the Pedestrian and Bicyclist Information Center.
- Pedestrian & Bicycle Program Planning Process – Multiple publications that provide MPOs and State DOTs with practical information and examples on including pedestrian and bicycle transportation in their regional and State planning activities.
- Performance-Based Planning and Programming – Defines the characteristics of performance-based planning and programming and presents the information that FHWA, FTA, and their partners have developed to date. This information should help assess the effectiveness of plans and programs in meeting state and regional performance goals.
- Promising Practices for Meaningful Public Involvement in Transportation Decision-Making: The purpose of this document is to promote promising practices for transportation professionals to incorporate meaningful public involvement into each stage of the transportation decision-making process and project lifecycle, including operations and service provision. This guide is intended to support practitioners in all modes of transportation in various roles, including those working in policy, planning, engineering, operations, civil rights, environmental justice, and public involvement.
- Complete Streets - Safety Analysis Phase I Report – This report provides transportation practitioners and other stakeholders with a resource that identifies and describes current capabilities, best practices, and future data and analysis needs to quantify the safety performance effects of the multiple safety treatments agencies implement simultaneously during Complete Streets projects.
- Design Decision Documentation and Mitigation Strategies for Design Exceptions (Technical Brief) – provides information to transportation practitioners, especially planners and designers, about FHWA’s 10 controlling criteria, their impacts on safety and operations, the inter-relationships with other controlling criteria, and potential mitigation strategies for design exceptions. The report also includes an overview of concepts such as nominal and substantive safety, performance-based and context-based design, equity in transportation, Complete Streets, transportation systems management and operations (TSMO), Safe System Approach, risk management, and design documentation practices. Appendix A in the guide includes real-world examples of noteworthy practices from States’ projects and procedures.
- How Do You Know You Have a Strong Road Safety Culture video shows what a strong organizational safety culture looks like through an illustration of two transportation agencies implementing their road improvement projects.
- Implementing the Proven Safety Countermeasures in Work Zones Informational Guide - The purpose of this guide is to provide information to State and local agencies on work zone fatalities in the U.S. and the application of Safe System Approach principles to work zone planning, design, operations, and management. This includes describing work zone applications of FHWA’s Proven Safety Countermeasures (PSCs), a collection of countermeasures and strategies effective in reducing roadway fatalities and serious injuries on U.S. highways and streets.
- Moving to a Complete Streets Design Model 1 (Report to Congress)—The Report identifies recent FHWA rules, guidance, and resources that affect safety and access for users of all surface transportation modes. It also discusses ongoing opportunities and challenges as FHWA moves ahead with its effort to implement a Complete Streets design model. Explore dozens of key resources and references.
- Proven Safety Countermeasures (PSCs)—This site includes 28 proven effective but underutilized safety countermeasures. It also includes fact sheets and tools to assist practitioners with identifying potential safety improvements, such as bicycle lanes, appropriate speed limit settings, and lighting.
- Summary Report on Request for Information (RFI): Improving Road Safety For All Users on Federal-Aid Projects - USDOT published the Improving Road Safety for All Users on Federal-Aid Projects Request for Information (RFI) in the Federal Register (88 FR 7510) to better understand how transportation agencies, stakeholders, and advocates alike could better work together to improve road safety for all users and achieve the goal of zero fatalities. This report summarizes the 1,030 individual RFI responses from 125 unique respondents and is organized by the six categories of questions.
Other Resources:
- Crash Modification Factors – A Clearinghouse of CMFs, as well as additional information and resources. A CMF is an estimate of the change in crashes expected after implementation of a countermeasure.
- Data Driven Safety Analysis (DDSA) – Allows practitioners to look beyond traditional crash analysis by providing predictive and systemic crash analysis tools. DDSA uses crash and roadway data to predict the safety impacts of highway projects, allows agencies to target investments with more confidence, and reduces severe crashes on roadways.
- Pedestrian and Bicyclist Crash Analysis Tool (PBCAT tool) – A crash typing software product intended to assist state and local pedestrian/bicycle coordinators, planners, and engineers with improving walking and bicycling safety.
- Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety/Tools to Diagnose and Solve the Problem – Includes projects, programs, tools, and materials for use in reducing pedestrian and bicyclist fatalities.
- Road Safety Audits – Provides resources to learn about and conduct Road Safety Audits (RSA). An RSA is a formal safety performance examination of an existing or future road or intersection by an independent and multidisciplinary team.
- Roadway Safety Data – Provides advanced data collection and analysis tools to help State and local practitioners with systemic safety analysis and selection of safety countermeasures.
- Safe System Approach for Speed Management helps practitioners understand the impacts of speed on traffic safety and explore the link between speed management and the Safe System Approach by introducing a five-stage Safe System Approach for Speed Management framework. Case studies and examples are interspersed throughout the report and in the appendix, demonstrating how agencies have been able to overcome institutional barriers and rally behind Safe System Approach principles to enact speed management programs with proven, measurable reductions in operating speeds and crashes.
- Safe System Approach for the Urban Core Informational Report outlines how practitioners can apply the principles, elements, and framework of the Safe System Approach in policy, program, and project decision-making processes across the system through proven safety approaches for urban areas. The report includes 10 case studies of noteworthy practices relevant to implementing the Safe System Approach in the urban core. These case studies provide practical examples of how some of the key concepts covered in the report have already been implemented, and the benefits have been realized.
- Safety Performance Management – Includes resources for measuring and assessing safety performance.
- Scale and Scope of Safety Assessment Methods in the Project Development Process: The Federal Highway Administration recently released Scale and Scope of Safety Assessment Methods in the Project Development Process, an informational guide that assists State and local agencies in identifying and applying suitable methods for quantitatively assessing the safety performance impacts of project development decisions such as comparing various design alternatives. The guide suggests assessment methods that may be suitable for answering safety performance-related questions that typically arise during each phase of the development process and for projects of various types. It also provides examples illustrating the process of selecting a safety assessment method. This information on safety performance can then be considered in concert with other project criteria to make more informed highway investment decisions
National Highway Institute (NHI)
- NHI Blackboard® Learning Management System (LMS) - This new LMS provides a more interactive and user-friendly platform, offering easier access to course information, simplified course registration, transcript viewing, and online management of profile information and passwords.
- Designing for Pedestrian Safety (NHI-380091V) – Helps agencies address pedestrian safety issues through design and engineering solutions.
- Design Standards – Alternate Roadway Design Publications - The guidance outlines the flexibility available for NHS and non-NHS projects and links to a website listing alternate roadway design publications that have been recognized by FHWA.
- FTA: Manual on Pedestrian and Bicycle Connections to Transit (manual) – Provides a compendium of best practices to help transit and other transportation professionals improve pedestrian and bicycle safety and access to transit.
- Geometric Design Policy and Guidance: Provides geometric design guidance for roadways on the National Highway System.
- Performance-Based Practical Design – Provides guidance related to the performance-based design of roadways.
- My Street - My Street is a sketch-level planning tool that uses pedestrian crashes, roadway information, and a systemic analysis approach to determine and illustrate the risk of midblock crossings and unsignalized (uncontrolled) intersections and the potential benefits of safety improvements. It provides transportation professionals with a visual to communicate the impact of decisions from a person-based perspective (avatars), so that the needs of people will be considered more effectively by decision-makers and be better understood by the public.
- Pedestrians and Bicyclists Safety Tools to Diagnose and Solve the Problem - FHWA Office of Safety Pedestrian and Bicyclist webpage that provides tools and resources to determine the true nature of a pedestrian or bicyclist safety problem and to focus on the most appropriate countermeasures.
1 Federal Highway Administration. “Moving to a Complete Streets Design Model: A Report to Congress on Opportunities and Challenges.” Accessed June 2022.
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