Recently,
staff and elected leaders of nine municipalities from Prince George’s
County and one from Wicomico County attended a National Complete Streets
Coalition workshop to learn more about the steps needed to write,
adopt, and implement an effective Complete Streets policy. The workshop
sought to bring together multiple communities in order to capitalize on
the strong network of cities and towns in the county, and create a
network for peer support as communities work to adopt Complete Streets
policies.
The State of Maryland and Prince George’s County both
have Complete Streets policies. Most of the communities in the county
have state and county roads within their boundaries and some do not own
any of their roads. The workshop attendees indicated they wanted their
policies to align with the state and county policies. A Complete Streets
policy will help these communities clearly articulate their commitment
to multi-modal travel when the state and county undertake roadwork in
their jurisdictions.
Also discussed was the importance for a
pedestrian or bicyclist to have the ability to easily travel from one
community to another. For example, Mt. Rainier is known for public art
and Hyattsville has an abundance of restaurants. These communities are
adjacent to one another, but there is currently not a pleasant or safe
way to walk or bicycle between them. Adopting Complete Streets policies
will aid the communities in creating a multi-jurisdictional network that
facilitates safe and easy travel for bicyclists and pedestrians.
The workshop was co-hosted by the Greater Washington DC Safe Routes to School Network and the HEAL Cities and Towns Campaign of the Mid-Atlantic.
Taking advantage of their related missions, the greater Washington DC
network and the HEAL Cities and Towns Campaign were able to support
communities with a pre-workshop Complete Streets 101 webinar. The
communities will also be provided with technical assistance conference
calls and webinars to ensure they have the support they need for policy
adoption.
Partnerships, both in hosting the workshop and in
policy adoption, are a key outcome of the Complete Streets workshop. We
look forward to many of these communities adopting Complete Streets
policies in the future, and improving safety for walking and bicycling
in Prince George’s County and the cities and towns within the county.
This blog post is cross posted on the HEAL Cities and Towns of the Mid-Atlantic and the greater Washingington DC network websites.