Summerville Complete Streets Policy

We are pleased to announce that the Summerville Town Council has become the 11th town or city to pass a complete streets resolution! The policy states that town staff and planners will bring complete streets techniques and ideas into the designs of new projects when appropriate and will seek to update existing roads to accommodate all modes of transportation when feasible. The town’s bicycle master plan has been included in the resolution as an exhibit to give direction and guidelines to Summerville as it begins to implement complete streets policies.

The idea behind complete streets is that roads should be moving people, not just cars. As such, a true complete street will be accessible to bicyclists, pedestrians, motorists and transit. In 2010, the Coalition worked with Eat Smart Move More SC to produce an advocacy manual and toolkit for communities looking to adopt complete streets policies. So far, we have the 11 towns and cities with policies on the books, five counties, a statewide policy, and two more towns working on their own resolutions.

The Summerville resolution has been making its way through the town government most much of June, first being heard by the Public Works Committee the first week of the month, and the Town Council the following week. Our own Summerville board member, Mark Greenslit, is the chair of the town’s Bicycle Pedestrian Advisory Committee (BPAC) and played a role in getting the resolution completed.

It is always encouraging for us to see a community come together and realize the importance of biking and walking, and we commend Summerville for taking this huge step. We’re looking forward to keeping you updated on what is going on in our communities around the state!