Complete Streets Workshop Wrap-up

http://www.completestreets.org/

Both G. & I attended the Complete Streets Workshop (previous post) this past Wed. night at the old Pickford Theater (now the Limelight Cinema). The turnout seemed positive at around 50 folks in the theater. The presentation started with short intros from Cathy Lehman of Futurewise - Whatcom, Kim from the City (didn't catch her full name & title), and one gentleman from the Bellingham Transportation Commission (I think it was Frank Ordway). Then they screened two videos:

• Casey Neistat's "Bike Lanes" (3 min. @ YouTube) about cycling in New York City
• Streetfilms' "Complete Streets: It's About More than Just Bike Lanes" (11 min. @ Vimeo)

Then Peter Lagerway gave a talk about the idea of Complete Streets, complete with lots of great example photos showing good and bad transportation infrastructure design. He was a bicycle & pedestrian transportation planner with the City of Seattle for some 25 years, and now is with a design firm in Seattle. He works with cities all over the country to improve their transportation environment.
After the talk he took a few questions, and then some of us went on a walk around downtown in the rain. He was pretty positive about the current state of downtown, but did offer a few suggestions for improvement. How would you like to see back-in angle parking on Railroad, for example?

The key thing I took away from his talk is that the heart of the 'Complete Streets' concept is changing the rules of the transportation planning game so that all modes of transportation are automatically given consideration in EVERY project. If the rules present a level playing field for all modes of transportation, then it's not a fight to be included at the design stage of every project. Instead the default design for any project is supposed to already take everybody into account.

This makes so much more sense than just doing one-off retrofit projects here and there. Over time, as development projects happen and roads get rebuilt, the city will transition into a place that's more friendly for all modes of transport.

It was also very encouraging to see two City Council Members at the talk -- Michael Lilliquist and Jack Weiss -- as well as Ted Carlson, the Director of the Public Works Dept.
And Cathy Lehman is running for City Council, Ward 3.
This all bodes well for passage and happy implementation of a Complete Streets ordinance.

Bellingham Bike Blog will be keeping an eye out for such an ordinance...

For more info. about Complete Streets, visit http://www.completestreets.org/ 
According to their map, Sedro-Woolley has a Complete Streets Ordinance, passed in June 2010....