In July 2012, with funding from the Ontario Trillium Foundation, TCAT launched the Complete Streets for Canada policy and design hub website. The website features research, best practice policy language, and design guidance for municipalities interested in adopting Complete Streets policies and guidelines.
A Complete Street is designed for all ages, abilities, and modes of travel. On Complete Streets, safe and comfortable access for pedestrians, bicycles, transit users and people with disabilities is not an afterthought, but an integral planning feature.
A Complete Streets policy ensures that transportation planners and engineers consistently design and operate the entire street network for all road users, not only motorists.
Complete Streets offer wide ranging benefits. They are cost effective, sustainable and safe.
The link between Complete Streets and public health is well documented. Jurisdictions across North America already include Complete Streets policies in their suite of preventative health strategies. Complete Streets also promote livability. Human-scale design treatments such as street furniture, trees and wide pedestrian rights-of-way animate our public realm and encourage people to linger.
Complete Streets can exist in communities of all shapes and sizes; from downtown Montreal to Corner Brook and more suburban communities such as Surrey. There is no singular approach to Complete Streets. However, Complete Street policies ensure that transportation planners and engineers design and manage infrastructure for all ages, abilities, and modes of travel across the entire transportation network.
