City looking for Public Comment on Draft Complete Streets Policy

On April 10, 2015, Mayor Peduto issued an Executive Order on a Complete Streets Policy for Pittsburgh Rights of Way. Recognizing that Pittsburghers get around in many different ways, this Order directs his staff to use Complete Streets philosophies in their work.

The City is now moving forward with creating a more robust Complete Streets Policy that will enshrine the concepts of Complete Streets into law.

The policy will help “develop a safe and accessible multimodal transportation system that will promote enhanced mobility for all users regardless of mode of travel, including people of all ages and abilities.”

This simple vision will require those who are making decisions about our transportation network to prove why they can’t accommodate all users, instead of the existing situation where we all need to prove why it is necessary. The default will be to design our roads for people of all ages and abilities.

After a recent public meeting, the City has released the draft of the Complete Streets Policy for public review.

The policy is broken up into different sections:

Background and Vision – Explains why the City finds this policy necessary and what they hope to achieve with it.

Principles – Includes the specifics on what the City is trying to improve, ie. experience, environment, economy, accessibility, and efficiency.

Applicability and Jurisdiction – Explains how the policy is triggered and that it is applicable to the City itself, as well as developers and agencies who are altering the transportation network within the City.

Exceptions – Explains how applicable parties can get out of the policy

Implementation – Lays out how the policy will be put into practice.

There is a short Google Form to provide your input on these different sections and the policy itself.

The draft policy is also available at the front desk of the Department of City Planning (200 Ross Street, 4th Floor, Pittsburgh PA 15219) with public comment cards.

Public comment will close on Monday, July 25th, 2016.

For more info about Complete Streets in general, check out our website, as well as the Department of City Planning Complete Streets website to learn about the process to date.

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