Who needs complete streets?

By B.J. Smith

May 24, 2024

Complete streets are about more than streets, so the short answer is all of us need them.

For anyone who is unfamiliar with the term, it’s a model that numerous Colorado cities and others throughout the country have adopted in recent years for designing streets to make them safer for all users.

Even if you don’t drive a car or other motor vehicle, the odds are overwhelming that you are a street user. People who ride the bus use our streets, as do pedestrians, wheelchair users, and others who need to cross those streets safely. Those of us who ride bicycles, scooters, and other means of active transportation often share the streets with people who drive cars and trucks.

Complete street models even include things most of us don’t readily associate with the word “streets.” The city of Grand Junction, Colorado, for example, adopted a complete streets policy in 2018 to develop “a safe, efficient, and reliable travel network of streets, sidewalks, and urban trails throughout the community” to serve all users and modes of transportation.

That complete streets policy was later wrapped into the city’s more comprehensive transportation planning. Most recently, in 2023, the Grand Junction City Council adopted a pedestrian and bicycle plan.

To learn more about the importance of complete streets and improving safety for all of us, take a look at Smart Growth America.

No matter how you choose to get around, remember we all share the streets.

B.J.