A Complete Street is a roadway that is designed, planned, and implemented to provide safe mobility for people of all ages and abilities. This includes people walking, biking, scooting, using assistive mobility devices, and taking transit. Complete Streets are essential in creating a safe and comfortable transportation experience. Each Complete Street looks different depending on the surrounding context, community needs, and type of mobility device.
New in Complete Streets
In 2024, Caltrans released its 2024-25 Complete Streets Action Plan, which outlines key efforts to implement the Director’s Policy for Complete Streets (DP-37) from January 2024 to December 2025. The policy requires nearly all Caltrans projects to create equitable, sustainable transportation infrastructure that addresses the needs of pedestrians, bicyclists, and transit users — particularly through the inclusion of complete streets elements. The 2024-25 CSAP is accompanied by a dashboard on the Caltrans website.
In March 2022, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) released a new report to Congress, “Moving to a Complete Streets Design Model: A Report to Congress on Opportunities and Challenges” outlining the agency’s commitment to advance Complete Streets to help improve safety and accessibility. On December 20, 2021, Caltrans announced a new Complete Streets Policy for all new transportation projects it funds or oversees to include “complete street” features that provide safe and accessible options for people walking, biking and taking transit. This builds upon the California Complete Streets Act of 2008 which requires all cities and counties to modify their circulation element to plan for a “balanced, multimodal transportation network that meets the needs of all users of [the] streets.”
Explore the Complete Streets Policy Inventory
Visit the Complete Streets Policy Inventory to access a selection of policies found at the city, regional, and statewide level in California, as well as links to federal Complete Streets policies
Please note that this section is continuously being updated and does not reflect a complete listing. Do you know of a complete streets policy we can add to the list? Please let us know at safetrec@berkeley.edu
Resources
- Caltrans to Require ‘Complete Streets’ Features in Planning and Design of All New Projects (December, 2021)
- Caltrans Complete Streets, Director’s Policy. DP-37 (December, 2021)
- Moving to a Complete Streets Design Model: A Report to Congress on Opportunities and Challenges. FHWA. (March, 2022)
- Complete Streets. FHWA.
- National Complete Streets Coalition. Smart Growth America.