Infrastructure

▸ What’s a complete street?A complete street is a thoroughfare that provides equal access to all modes of transportation. To wit: LCG’s own complete streets vision: The desired outcome of the Complete Streets Policy is to create an equitable, balanced and effective transportation system where every roadway user can travel safely and comfortably, and where transportation options are available to everyone.

Proponents view complete streets policies as a means of refocusing city development on people instead of cars. Transportation projects designed to meet complete street guidelines include facilities for bike riders, pedestrians and transit passengers from the get go, rather than as retrofits. Complete streets policies have proliferated in the last two decades. The National Complete Streets Coalition boasts 1,200 complete streets policies adopted nationwide (I briefly worked for Smart Growth America, the parent organization for NCSC). Both DOTD and the Lafayette Metropolitan Planning Organization have complete streets policies on the books. 

Lafayette’s efforts to add bike lanes and pedestrian facilities to roadways have not been without controversy. Bike lane projects on W. Bayou Parkway and Moss Street spurred grassroots opposition among nearby constituents. For opponents, accommodating bike traffic is a waste of money that should go to widening or fixing existing roadways. 

One important component in the LCG policy is its emphasis on creating a linked network. Today, Lafayette’s bike and pedestrian pathways are laid out in often baffling and dangerous scatterplots. A policy framework to connect a piecemeal network would, theoretically, increase use and help ease car traffic. People aren’t going to bike if they can’t bike anywhere safely and conveniently.

▸ OK. Bike lanes. I get it. What’s the big deal? Over time, a complete streets policy in Lafayette could be transformative. PlanLafayette, Lafayette’s comprehensive plan, already includes some complete streets language, but a formally adopted policy drives the philosophy deep into the asphalt. The language in LCG’s policy directs inter-agency cooperation among LUS, Public Works, and Development and Planning and emphasizes early inclusion of active transportation facilities — the wonky catchall term for bike lanes, sidewalks and transit lines — in projects across consolidated government’s jurisdiction.

Like anything else, though, this is about money. Aligning with the MPO’s and DOTD’s complete streets policies can expedite projects that meet the guidelines and requirements spelled out by those organizations. Melanie Bordelon, the Lafayette MPO manager, says complete streets projects will score higher in the regional planning agency’s rating system, meaning roadway projects that include bike lanes or sidewalks and so on could be prioritized. That would potentially give LCG projects an edge in competing for federal and state dollars distributed by the MPO. 

“It helps to ensure that we also look at pedestrian, bicycle and transit users as projects are developed,” Bordelon says. “That’s not always been true in the past.”