How you can help make streets safer via Complete Streets Policy
On May 25, over 20 dedicated bicycling advocates from across Santa Clara County attended Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition’s webinar to learn about how cities are creating safer streets through Complete Streets. The speakers were staff members from Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) (Lauren Ledbetter, Jane Shinn) and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) (Kara Oberg).
The speakers explained what the regional Complete Streets policy is, why it was created, and how it is making our streets safer. The speakers educated us on how Complete Streets policy is implemented by requiring cities and other jurisdictions to submit Complete Streets checklists when major funding sources are used. Both VTA and MTC require jurisdictions to submit Complete Streets Checklists when they request/receive funding through each agency for transportation projects like repaving, freeway overcrossings, and more. The speakers also taught us how to read the checklists that are submitted by jurisdictions and understand how local projects comply or have exceptions. SVBC hopes that volunteers from various cities can monitor their cities’ checklists and make sure that they are implementing safe biking and walking facilities with larger projects.
If you missed the training but want to help review Complete Streets Checklists training, here is the link to the video of the meeting including the presentation and Q&A (56 minutes). Please contact advocacy@bikesiliconvalley.org if you’d like to help review Complete Streets Checklist and we will follow up with you when future checklists come out.
Here is a link to the PDF of the presentation (28 slides)
If you want to contact Kara Oberg at MTC to provide input for the upcoming MTC Complete Streets policy update, you may reach Kara at koberg@bayareametro.gov.
For questions about how VTA is implementing Complete Street’s policy, please contact Lauren Ledbetter, lauren.ledbetter@vta.org.
For any questions about Santa Clara County 2016 Measure B, please contact the team at 2016MeasureB@vta.org