Crews are pictured in August 2020 in Brooklyn Square in Jamestown. P-J file photo

Road projects receiving any federal or state assistance may have to use the “Complete Streets” idealogy.

Sen. Sean Ryan, D-Buffalo, and Assemblywoman Didi Barrett, D-Poughkeepsie, have introduced S.8394/A.8624 to require use of Complete Street principles for transportation projects that use federal or state funding.

The Complete Streets policy, which has been adopted by Chautauqua and Cattaraugus counties and several area municipalities, recommends all modes of travel be considered in the design of projects. Projects are evaluated by the County’s Complete Streets interdepartmental task force for the feasibility of installing sidewalks, paving of shoulders, lane striping, bicycle lanes, share the road signs, crosswalks, road configurations, traffic calmers and other similar initiatives.

Lake Shore Drive in Dunkirk is about to undergo a Complete Streets retrofit, with the city’s Common Council approving $369,368 for the city’s share of a $1,477,.471 project. The rest is paid by the state and federal governments. Lake Shore Drive will soon include separated bike lanes, a median, curbing, green infrastructure and pedestrian amenities. Construction will begin in the spring and be completed sometime this fall.

Complete Street principles can also be seen in projects done throughout Jamestown for the past several years, including bike path markings installed in 2019 on Third and Steele streets and on Jones and Gifford Avenue.

While Complete Streets principles are being used throughout much of the state, Ryan and Barrett said the pace of change has been too slow in part because compliance with Complete Streets policies isn’t required for enough projects. His change is simple, changing the phrase transportation projects receiving “federal or state” funding to “both federal and state” funding. Doing so, the legislators reason, will bring more projects under Complete Streets guidelines.

“The current law, however, hampers its application due to language that only requires the complete street design principles on transportation projects undertaken by the DOT or that receive both federal and state funding,” Ryan and Barrett wrote in their legislative justification. “Instead of being an all encompassing policy that would provide for wide-spread usage at all levels of transportation projects, truly impacting pedestrians, cyclists, mass transportation riders and furthering the state’s commitment to climate leadership actions, its limited scope has allowed for transportation projects not receiving federal and state funding to go forward and be completed without this holistic planning and construction approach. This has caused many communities who would have likely included non-motorized transportation options, such as walking or bicycling, out of the planning and construction of their transportation projects.”