Complete Streets and Public Transit: In Both Adopted Policies and Actual Projects, What is Being Done and What More is Needed?

This research focuses on whether California cities are incorporating public transit needs into their Complete Streets policies, studying whether and how actual CS projects have transit components. In order to thoroughly assess whether and how Complete Streets policies in California consider the needs of public transit, the following research methods will be employed: a.) a focused literature review focused on the prevalence of transit analysis, design elements, and transit use outcomes in CS policies and projects in California and the U.S.; b.) data collection and analysis of the adopted CS policies, whether by ordinance, resolution, or in the GP Circulation Element of the General Plan; c.) interview/surveys with agency staff to identify additional insights, including Complete Streets case study analysis of four examples each of basic project types; and d.) review and analysis of the findings and identification of best practices and recommendations for specific improvements in Complete Streets policies on ways in which transit elements can be addressed in complete streets projects. In addition, this research will include an evaluation of some of the cases using methods developed in previous research on transit level of service. Specifically, level of service measures from the Transit Capacity and Quality of Service manual (TCRP Report 165) and NCHRP Report 610 (Multimodal Level of Service Analysis for Urban Streets) will be used to evaluate the case studies on their transit elements (e.g., transit operations, transit amenities).