In January, U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx launched the Mayors’ Challenge for Safer People and Safer Streets—inviting mayors and other local elected officials to take significant action to improve the safety of their constituents who walk or bicycle in the next year. The first call to action is to take a complete streets approach. For the past seven years the Heart Network has been working with North Country communities to facilitate complete streets policies, plans and projects. This has put some communities at the forefront of the complete streets movement in New York State.
In 2010 Creating Healthy Places program staff started working with the Malone Complete Streets Partnership whose members are dedicated to improving the walking and biking infrastructure in the community. The Complete Streets Partnership has facilitated the adoption of a Complete Streets Policy (2012) and drafted the Malone Complete Streets Plan (2014). The town and village created a joint Complete Streets Advisory Board to oversee implementation of the policy and plan. Several complete streets projects have already been implemented since the plan was adopted. Members of the Complete Streets Advisory Board will be sharing their successes at the Annual DASH-NY Conference on March 19th in Albany.
Saranac Lake has also made significant improvements to walking and biking facilities in recent years. Heart Network staff served on the advisory committee to create the Saranac Lake Bike and Pedestrian Plan and have worked in partnership with the village to implement several of the project recommended in the plan using both local funding and federal grants. The Village’s Healthy Infrastructure Advisory Board has plans to recommend a complete streets policy to the Village Board so that this progress will be codified. The community is well positioned to take the Mayor’s Challenge.
Is your community ready to take the Mayor’s Challenge for Safer People and Safer Streets?
Stay informed, sign up for our monthly E-news
Leave a Reply