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Pittsburgh Dances Its Way To Complete Streets Legislation

Margaret J. Krauss
/
90.5 WESA

 

In the name of safer streets, one group interpreted the “walk” signal a little differently.

On Monday Pittsburgh City Council unanimously recommended Complete Streets legislation for final approval. The policy is essentially a city-wide blueprint to make streets safer, more accessible, and convenient for everyone.

More than 950 such policies have been adopted in the United States and Puerto Rico, according to Smart Growth America, a nonprofit that advocates for strengthening the nation’s neighborhoods. And the idea of Pittsburgh’s Complete Streets policy is to change how people think about streets.

Councilman Dan Gilman said as the city’s millennial population grows, and as many residents grow older, the infrastructure must change to accommodate their needs.

"Our streets need to be built and transformed to support walkers, cyclists, public transit users, and not just built around the car."

Usually, when people want to show support for a policy they sign up to make a public comment at a City Council meeting. But to bring awareness to the need for safer shared streets, one group decided to do things a little differently.

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Keystone Crossroads is a statewide public media initiative reporting on the challenges facing Pennsylvania's cities. WPSU is a participating station.

Margaret J. Krauss was a freelance reporter who is also the staff reporter for Pittsburgh Quarterly magazine. She spent 2015 producing a 48-part Pittsburgh history series for WESA, biking some 2,000 miles to do so. She previously worked for National Geographic Kids magazine producing multimedia content and researching.