Whether or not health is ever considered a movement, it is movement that creates health. For better or worse, they way we build and maintain streets strongly influences the ways in which we move.
Streets are a health asset right under our feet. When intentionally designed to accommodate all users and all modes of transportation, they become connectors of people, goods and services. Rather than simply move cars, they become conduits to a healthier life.
Since late 2012, St. Luke’s Health Initiatives has found itself in the same rooms with unlikely and surprising new partners and audiences. A core working group coalesced as the Phoenix Complete Streets Working Group with SLHI’s support. Years of meetings, discussion and efforts helped transform perspectives, build understanding, shape new direction and forge significant policy developments with important results.
What are Complete Streets? SLHI produced this brochure in Winter 2014, as well as a video in the Spring of 2014:
In the Winter of 2014, the Working Group and city staff presented a Complete Streets draft policy to all 16 of Phoenix’s Village Planning Committees. In April of 2014, the recommended draft policy was presented to the city’s Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee. Based on the outcome of that discussion, city staff and the Working Group created two Ordinance drafts, modeled on national best practices and lessons from other municipalities’ implementations, which were approved by Phoenix City Council on July 2, 2014.
Beginning in the fall of 2014, a Complete Streets Advisory Board was formed, with members appointed by the Mayor and the City Council. The Board is responsible for:
- Facilitating development and recommending adoption of a Complete Streets Design Manual
- Developing performance measures to assess the City’s progress
- Providing guidance to the Street Transportation Department in prioritizing street projects
- Making recommendations to other city boards, commissions, and departments for revisions to codes and processes
- Providing regular updates to Council on the City’s progress.
The Ordinances and Advisory Board are evidence of the transformative power of collaboration. Bringing together unlikely partners through the Working Group helped to transform perspectives. At the outset, the principal mindset for streets was one of engineering and maintenance for what exists to move vehicles. Today, city council, city staff and the advisory board are focused on the intentional design and development of what can improve health and well-being. That shift is significant, and it stands as a testimony to the power of collaboration in creating possibilities.