''For decades, we in Louisville -- and cities around the nation -- have built roads only for vehicles,'' said Metro Mayor Jerry Abramson in endorsement of its proposed ''Complete Streets'' design guidelines, which also focus on sidewalks, bike lanes and curbs easy for wheelchairs and baby-strollers, confident the new policy will rectify that old ''urban planning mistake.''Promoted by the Washington-based National Complete Streets Coalition and the Prescott, Arizona-based Thunderhead Alliance of bicycle and pedestrian advocacy organizations, the Complete Street guidelines are in force in 22 cities so far.
For Louisville Metro, writes Louisville Courier-Journal reporter Marcus Green, they were drafted and explained in a 163-page manual by a broad-based area committee, which included neighborhood activists, transit champions and advocates for the disabled.
They agreed that all new streets should have dedicated lanes or paths for cyclists, along with pedestrian-oriented and wheelchair-friendly sidewalks -- requirements also applicable to street realignment and improvement wherever possible.''You have to think about that at the time of construction,'' said Louisville Metro Planning & Design Director Charles Cash, to make local residents aware that they will have ''alternative means of getting where they want to go.''
Set as a key goal at the city's bicycle summit two year ago, the reporter notes, the anticipated Complete Streets policy has already prompted officials to earmark $1 million in federal money for planning work on a seven-mile bikeway on River Road, the future top cycling corridor along the Ohio River.
''Bike paths and bike lanes are good,'' observed local cycling advocate David Morse, who lived for several years in the bike-friendly Los Angeles and San Francisco bay areas, ''because they inform drivers that, yes, bicyclists are legitimate transportation users just like car drivers.''
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