A Complete Streets Plan from New York

To almost no fan fare, last week Governor Schwarzenegger signed Assembly Bill 1358, Assemblyman Leto’s Complete Streets Legislation, into law.  According to a press release from the Complete Streets Coalition, this legislation requires:

…cities
and counties to include complete streets policies as part of their
general plans so that roadways are designed to safely accommodate all
users, including bicyclists, pedestrians, transit riders, children,
older people, and disabled people, as well as motorists.

While the new law is a major victory for Livable Streets Advocates, especially the California Bike Coalition who listed the passage of this legislation as their top priority in recent years, advocates’ work is far from over.  Jim Brown, the Communications Director for the CBC, commented in a recent Streetsblog post about complete streets:

Caltrans has an internal policy called Deputy Directive 64 that
calls for consideration of the needs of bicyclists and pedestrians for
state highway projects, including design, construction and maintenance.
That policy is being updated and strengthened to more clearly align
with Complete Streets principles and could be unveiled in the next few
weeks.

In both cases everything depends on implementation. For AB 1358 the
Governor’s Office of Planning & Research will develop general plan
update guidelines that will (ideally) carry out the policy expressed in
the bill. And DD-64 is just a statement of policy — next will come
development of specific implementation guidelines. The work is just
beginning!

Image: Streetsblog