A scoring approach for evaluating and ranking Complete Street projects

Complete Streets (CS) is an approach for planning and designing streets that can accommodate all types of users safely and equitably to share the roadway. Several agencies in the US have developed CS policies as a vital strategy to create more inclusive, accessible, and multimodal environments for all road users. The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) recently developed its Complete Streets, Roads, and Highways Manual and an accompanying Policy, aiming to enhance a safe and equitable transportation system throughout the state. This generated the need to develop an approach to evaluate and assess potential CS projects. The primary objective of this study is to develop an assessment tool that KYTC can use in the planning stage to assess a project’s compliance with the CS Policy and to further facilitate decision-making and implementation. A scorecard was developed to evaluate a project's ability to meet the CS goals KYTC has established. The scorecard contains metrics focused on different user types (i.e., pedestrians, bicyclists, transit users) allowing project teams to determine the adequacy of CS policy compliance and identify potential areas for improvement in the subsequent project development process.