CS is a school of thought which strengthens and promotes streets to be useful and safe for combinations of motorists, pedestrians, bus/transit riders, bicyclists, and even truck drivers. The thought is to have government units (cities, communities, counties, states, and even Federal) set forth policies which enable and provide for new construction, refit, and maintenance on streets and roads to accommodate a balance of various transportation modes. In addition, CS is to help create and accommodate nodes and a sense of meaningful place for citizens in various locales. For more info seek www.completestreets.org.
Examples are found throughout Indiana, namely in the sidewalks, crosswalks, and blocks around the courthouses in county courthouse cities, where pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists, and in some cities, bus riders are found easily moving and transporting themselves on various kinds of business and constructive activities. Some examples include…
In Lafayette the Main Street-Columbia Street-South Street Corridor coupled with the State Street Corridor in West Lafayette altogether extending from the courthouse node to the Purdue University Union node provide a broad base of multi-facetted transportation and dense land use.
Kirkwood Avenue linking the Monroe County Courthouse Square with the Indiana University gates is a good example of a complete street, as the end nodes and the many dense businesses make for a well developed mix of walking, motoring, bicycling, and bussing.
Main Street in Ft Wayne from it’s east end at Clay Street, westward a half mile to Maiden Lane exemplifies a complete street with its long median strips, which reduce left turning traffic, and also provide for pedestrian islands for those walking across at intersections.
In the downtown mile square, Indianapolis has rebuilt and/or refurbished several streets with “bump-outs” narrowing the width pedestrians need to walk across such streets as Massachusetts and Michigan. Soon Complete Streets will come to Broad Ripple and Irvington. Michigan also has a five mile bike lane. These accomodations coupled with enhanced bus stops and calmer traffic, and with the extensions of the Cultural Trail are all showing Indianapolis’s policies and attitudes are making the city an ever increasingly pedestrian and bicycle friendlier community.
These cities, and more to mention later, are showing policies and concern for pedestrians, bicyclists as well as transit riders, car drivers, and even truckers, in trying to accommodate a healthy mix of transportation means for many types of users. If your Indiana community has a CS policy and/or is implementing the policy and/or is building CS features, let "HRTC" know, and if you can send some pics of the street or project.
