The Connecticut Department of Transportation (CTDOT) recently implemented that Complete Streets design criteria must be incorporated into all projects.
Complete Streets Policies ensure the needs of pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists, and transit customers, improve safety and create a stronger transportation network.
“This change will solidify and ensure that pedestrian, bicyclist, and motorist safety is incorporated into the billions of dollars worth of projects we have planned in our Capital Program,” Scott Hill, CTDOT Chief Engineer and Engineering and Construction Bureau Chief, said.
Complete Streets design criteria ensures projects include pedestrian and bicyclist facilities and public transportation operations. The criteria focuses on three areas to improve safety and mobility: bicycle facilities, including bike lanes, paved outside shoulders, separated bike paths, or shared use paths on both sides of the roadway; pedestrian facilities, including sidewalks, shared use paths, or side paths on both sides of the roadway; and transit provisions, including benches, crosswalks, shelters, and other ways to make existing or proposed transit stops more accessible.
If a project does not meet these three criteria, Hill must issue a formal design exemption and approval.
The new design criteria is part of CTDOT’s strategy to improve safety and mobility to reduce roadway crashes and injuries. There were more than 360 fatalities, including more than 70 pedestrian deaths, in 2022 on Connecticut roadways.