Senator Tom Harkin (IA)

Finally the US Congress is following the lead of more than 20 states, including Wisconsin and Minnesota, by introducing Complete Streets legislation at the federal level. This is exciting news as it will work to reenforce the current US DOT Policies that are already having an impact on FHA projects across the country. The bill was introduces by Senator Tom Harkin (IA) and co-signed by a dozen others. It will be a fight to get the legislation through the existing congress and on … Continue Reading

StreetFilms has produced a great new video on Complete Streets that continues the idea that Complete Streets are not just about bike lanes, but benefit all users. The film focuses on several Complete Street projects in New York City.
“We talked to transportation engineers with decades of experience, elected leaders, community board members, people on the street, and business owners to get their take on the new configurations.”
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April has turned out to be a banner month for Complete Streets in the city and county of La Crosse.

On Thursday April 14th the Common Council of the City of La Crosse passed a “Green Complete Streets” resolution. The resolution directs city staff to create an ordinance of the same name within 90 days for the council to consider. This is a big step forward for the city. DRBC members have been working with council member Bob Seaquist and city staff since last … Continue Reading

Last week both the city of La Crosse and La Crosse County took big steps towards adopting Complete Streets. Here are the details:

City of La Crosse
At the Thursday March 10th a Resolution supporting Complete Streets and directing staff to draw up  a “Green Complete Streets” ordinance was read-in. That means that the council will consider the resolution at their April meeting (La Crosse Green Complete Streets 3-7-11 [PDF]). This is a big step forward, if the resolution passes in April then the ordinance should be ready in about 90 days. So we could have an actual Complete Streets ordinance in place as soon as July in the City of La Crosse. The advocacy committee and other members of the DRBC have done a lot of work to help make this happen including contact and talking with almost every member of the current city council, as well as delivering Complete Streets information packets to them. the resolution will go before several city committees before returning to the council for adoption next month. Read the Take Action Now section below for how you can support Complete Streets in the City of La Crosse.

The short video interview below were shot right after the city council meeting on March 10th. Please bear with the poor quality, this was our first attempt at doing our own videos!

Complee Streets Interviews from Driftless Region Bicycle on Vimeo. Continue Reading

The national AARP has been a very vocal supporter of Complete Streets. Their report Planning Complete Streets for an Aging America is an excellent resource that we have had on this site sine the beginning.

Here is a series of three short videos produced by the AARP on why Complete Streets are important for seniors and communities:

Why Complete Streets?… Continue Reading

Downtown La Crosse CC sleepycat5 Flickr

The City of La Crosse is about to take a big step towards adopting a Complete Streets ordinance! Our advocacy efforts are paying off. Read on…

As we told you previously our first attempt in October to get a Complete Streets resolution introduced in the La Crosse City Council hit a few road blocks. As promised we have kept on working to get the process to move forward. As you can see by previous posts we focused on gaining public support from … Continue Reading

Western Technical College is the latest institution to come out in support of Complete Streets and the Driftless Region Bicycle Coalition’s efforts to get ordinances adopted in communities in the Driftless Region. Here are a couple of excerpts from the WTC letter:
The Complete Streets initiative will provide added encouragement for bicycle
transportation on local roads and streets. This will help to relieve traffic and
parking congestion in the central business district, a clear benefit to Western
Technical College and the overall community.
We applaud those visionaries who are advancing the Complete Streets … Continue Reading

The DRBC will be hosting a Public Complete Streets workshop/meeting in La Crescent on Thursday February 10th, 7pm. The meeting will be held in the La Crescent Community Center, 336 S. 1st Street (Fire Station). This meeting is open to the public and everyone who is interested in making their community more livable and accessible should attend this hour-ish long informational session. Lite refreshments will be served. We hope to see you there!

Contact us if you have any questions.

Complete Streets just achieved a great big step forward in building support in the Driftless Region. The University of Wisconsin has officially endorsed Complete Streets and the DRBC’s efforts to achieve it in the region.  Here is a bit from the UW-L letter:
On behalf of the 10,000 students, staff and faculty who make up the UW-L community, I am honored to provide this letter of endorsement for Complete Streets. We wish the Driftless Region Bicycle Coalition all the best with these very important efforts!
We have been working with the UW-L Faculty Senate, Academic Staff … Continue Reading

John Pucher, Phd. an internationally recognized bicycling expert talks about how policy and a comprehensive approach can increase bicycling in even the recalcitrant communities. Complete Streets ties right into what he is talking about in this video:

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