1. Planning a Great Region
  2. Transportation Planning
  3. Complete Streets

Complete Streets

People walking on the sidewalk and vehicles moving in the street.

DRCOG has developed a Regional Complete Streets Toolkit for the Denver region. Complete Streets are safe, context-sensitive, inclusive, equitable and flexible. The Complete Streets approach gives pedestrians, cyclists, transit riders and other multimodal travelers the same access to safe comfortable streets as motor vehicles.

Adopted by the DRCOG Board in October 2021, the toolkit will provide guidance for local governments to plan, design and implement Complete Streets. It will provide strategies and give support to decision makers, planners and designers to ensure that multimodal elements are incorporated into transportation projects. The toolkit will also:

  • Support the development of a safe and comfortable transportation network for all modes and all users.
  • Promote the use of the latest Complete Streets design criteria and guidelines.
  • Establish a vision for how and local governments could adopt and apply a Complete Streets policy.
  • Develop a multimodal street design typology to supplement the traditional functional classification systems by identifying design elements linked to all modes of travel.
  • Develop a Complete Streets toolkit to create awareness and provide guidance on a variety of street design measures available to local jurisdictions in planning and engineering safe and comfortable Complete Streets for all users of the regional transportation system.

The project kicked off in August 2020, the project kickoff presentation is available below under Links and Resources.

Story Map

DRCOG staff has developed a story map to serve as a companion resource to the toolkit. The story map introduces the toolkit, describes the street typology and provides context around the 10 street types.

Prioritization Analysis

Following the completion of the Regional Complete Streets Toolkit, President Joe Biden signed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act into law. This federal legislation also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, includes a requirement to develop a Complete Streets prioritization plan that identifies a specific list of Complete Streets projects to improve the safety, mobility or accessibility of a street.

DRCOG worked with Toole Design Group to execute a prioritization analysis. The results of the analysis were mapped to illustrate locations and segments in the Denver scoring the highest for being ideal areas to take action and invest in funding that addresses multiple planning priorities, including safety, accessibility and mobility.

This prioritization analysis is another tool intended for member governments to use to identify priority project candidates for funding programs such as the Transportation Improvement Program and federal grant programs.

Take a look at the tool by navigating to the “Prioritizing Complete Streets” section added to the story map.

Steering Committee

To ensure that this toolkit is an essential resource for DRCOG’s local jurisdictions, the project team organized the Regional Complete Streets Steering Committee by asking each local jurisdiction to select a representative to assist in developing and reviewing the toolkit. Materials for the Regional Complete Streets Steering Committee can be found below under Steering Committee Materials.