Completing Our Streets: The Transition to Safe and Inclusive Transportation Networks - Softcover

Barbara McCann

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1610914317 ISBN 13: 9781610914314

Publisher: Island Press, 2013

Synopsis

Across the country, communities are embracing a new and safer way to build streets for everyone--even as they struggle to change decades of rules, practice, and politics that prioritize cars. They have discovered that changing the design of a single street is not enough: they must upend the way transportation agencies operate. "Completing Our Streets" begins with the story of how the complete streets movement united bicycle riders, transportation practitioners and agencies, public health leaders, older Americans, and smart growth advocates to dramatically re-frame the discussion of transportation safety. Next, it explores why the transportation field has been so resistant to change--and how the movement has broken through to create a new multi-modal approach. In "Completing Our Streets," Barbara McCann, founder of the National Complete Streets Coalition, explains that the movement is not about street design. Instead, practitioners and activists have changed the way projects are built by focusing on three strategies: reframe the conversation; build a broad base of political support; and provide a clear path to a multi-modal process. McCann shares stories of practitioners in cities and towns from Charlotte, North Carolina to Colorado Springs, Colorado who have embraced these strategies to fundamentally change the way transportation projects are chosen, planned, and built. The complete streets movement is based around a simple idea: streets should be safe for people of all ages and abilities, whether they are walking, driving, bicycling, or taking the bus. "Completing Our Streets" gives practitioners and activists the strategies, tools, and inspiration needed to translate this idea into real and lasting change in their communities.

About this title

Review:

"McCann's writing recognizes the common disconnect between vision and implementation of complete streets, and highlights how it is possible to make positive change in a less-than-ideal environment. Her book is a call to action for interdisciplinary cooperation in balancing the important physical, cultural, and policy changes necessary to reach complete streets." --Gabe Klein "Commissioner, Chicago Department of Transportation "

About the Author:

Barbara McCann served as the founding Executive Director of the National Complete Streets Coalition and Director of Information and Research at Smart Growth America (SGA), where she authored the report Measuring the Health Effects of Sprawl. McCann is also a co-author of Sprawl Costs and editor of The Option of Urbanism by Chris Leinberger.

About this edition

• Publisher: Island Press
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1610914317
• ISBN 13: 9781610914314
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224