by Jennifer Baron
January 30, 2008, Pop City Media

On Jan. 30, sites in Pittsburgh and Greensburg will simultaneously offer the region's first Complete Streets training. The free web seminar (a.k.a. webinar) will train planners and citizens to develop roadways that effectively accommodate transit users, walkers, bicyclists, wheelchair users, and shopkeepers.

Developed by the American Planning Association, the national Complete Streets movement is rethinking the physical design of streets in order to improve cities and towns. The program provides resources, workshops and policy recommendations.

“It's a subject whose time has come. We must look at infrastructure in multimodal ways. A street is incomplete if it doesn't accommodate pedestrians, bikes and cars. It's fortuitous because it ties into our Route 30 master plan,” says Alex Graziani, with Smart Growth Partnership of Westmoreland County, which is offering a session at University of Pittsburgh-Greensburg's Millstein Library at 4:00 p.m. A Pittsburgh session will take place at Downtown's City-County Building at 3:45 p.m.

The webinar will present models for funding Complete Streets programs. “The concept is to make this an everyday practice—to teach people to design our roads for all of the different users,” adds Complete Streets founder Barbara McCann, who says the federal transportation bill comes up for reauthorization in September of 2009. “We formed a coalition in order to promote policies at the state and local level. It's really taken off in the last few years.”

McCann adds that in 2007, Pennsylvania strengthened its Complete Streets provision. Helping on that front is advocacy group Bike Pittsburgh, one of the first area organizations to push for Complete Streets legislation.

To register in Greensburg, call 724-836-7048. To register in Pittsburgh, e-mail Jacklyn Crail.

Writer: Jennifer Baron
Sources: Alex Graziani, SGPWC; Barbara McCann, National Complete Streets Coalition; Scott Bricker, Bike Pittsburgh