St. Louis Complete Streets Bill PASSES!!!
Photo Caption: The St. Louis Board Chamber this morningWe are thrilled to announce that the St. Louis Board of Alderman just voted to pass the Complete Streets bill (Board Bill 7)!
Congratulations to the bill's sponsor Shane Cohn, all of the co-sponsors, and all the city staff who have worked hard to draft and promote this important bill! The Mayor will likely hold a signing ceremony in the coming week(s) to formalize the bill into St. Louis law.
We do not have the final vote tally; however, we believe the bill passed with unanimous support.
This is phenomenal news for St. Louis. In the next few weeks and months, we will continue to work with the City to develop a plan to implement Complete Streets throughout the City. As you might expect, implementation will happen gradually as the City undertakes street projects. We will keep you in the loop every step of the way.
Stay tuned...
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My alderman tells me that there is a clause in the bill that says Clean Street changes will be "considered" but not mandatory if doing it causes undue costs. In a budgetary environment where the City is closing fire stations and starting to charge for trash collection, are they really going to spend to re-stripe streets and for new signage to prohibit parking to accommodate new bike lanes?
ReplyDeleteIt's true that there is an opt-out clause for cost considerations. Every CS policy I have seen includes such a clause and for good reason. Understand that this policy represents a shift in street design philosophy moving forward, not a pledge to immediately change St. Louis streets at the peril of important basic services. In a bad economy, Complete Streets implementation will be slower than in a good economy. However, even in a bad economy, the City will still have a number of opportunities to implement Complete Streets principles. Remember, a large part of the stimulus funding focused on transportation infrastructure. If pedestrian and bicycle considerations are included from the very beginning of a project (this policy seeks to ensure that is the case), there are often negligible extra costs. Higher costs come into play when ped and bike considerations are left out of early designs and need to be added late in the game.
ReplyDeleteIt's also important to know that transportation and basic services have different funding sources. The USDOT issued a Complete Streets policy commitment in March, and they will be looking for states and cities to do the same. By adopting a Complete Streets policy now, St. Louis is wisely positioning itself to access additional funding. Potential funding sources include traditional sources such as federal transportation funding AND new non-traditional sources like public health funding, environmental funding, and so on.