So You Have a Complete Streets Policy. Now What?

The new reality, says Toth, will ask traffic engineers to consider ‘quality of place’ and to remove the blinders on such context sensitive issues as how is land being used.

Cities like Cleveland are discovering that they can create more value in this tumultuous funding landscape, he assured, when items like bike lanes are baked in to the design.

Engineers have a key role to play in leading the charge. Done right, complete streets can be good for cars, too.

“Completing the street does not change travel times,” Toth said, citing data from the addition of a bike lane on Prospect Park in New York City. “They decreased crash rates. Travel time is pretty much the same, but more cyclists are getting more value out of that road.”

Toth spent the better part of his career making the case for more highways and wider roads as an engineer for the New Jersey Department of Transportation until his revelation that ‘context’ and ‘quality of place’ don’t have to be pitted against the flow of motor vehicles.

Now, he helps cities design and use ‘multi-modal’ guidelines. He helps engineers gain the confidence to challenge assumptions that might work at odds with the new emphasis on vibrant places. For example, most engineers are padding in more ‘design speed’ which leads to wider roads even though street design standards already have a margin of error.