Below are comments we gave before Detroit City Council:
We are continuing to advocate for the city council to adopt a Complete Streets ordinance.
Complete Streets are those that are designed for all users – motorists, transit users, pedestrians, people with disabilities, bicyclists, and more. Complete Streets make it easier for everyone to safely travel along and across the street.
We began our ordinance work 15 years ago and much has changed. Back then, we saw the ordinance as a tool to get the city to build Complete Streets.
While we weren’t successful in passing that initial ordinance, we were successful in pushing for change. Detroit now has a Complete Streets Department and an excellent Streets for People Transportation Plan. It’s built some amazing Complete Street projects including streetscapes. Thousands of speed humps and other traffic calming features have been installed. And, DPW has been very successful tapping into state and federal funding to make this happen.
So why do we need an ordinance today?
We believe a Complete Streets ordinance can codify what the city is doing today, while giving the city more leverage in getting the state and county to do the same.
We don’t expect the ordinance to change course or have any major effect on the DPW budget. Those changes have already occurred.
Still, we believe this ordinance is as important as ever.
As we’re seeing right now in Washington DC, a new administration can abruptly shift a transportation department’s direction away from best practices. An ordinance could dissuade this from happening in Detroit.
Detroit had 130 traffic fatalities in 2023 with 28% being pedestrians, so clearly there is a continued need to emphasize safer street designs.
We believe an ordinance would help keep us on that path.