Participants in our workshop program with the Michiana Area Council of Governments
Over the span of a year, we worked with the Michiana Area Council of Governments in northern Indiana and their local jurisdictions to kickstart the region’s Complete Streets work by identifying strategies to communicate, measure, and implement both regional and local Complete Streets policy. As a result, multiple communities in the Michiana region are working together to pass strong Complete Streets policies.
The Safe Streets Academy brought together officials from Orlando, FL, South Bend, IN, and the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government in Kentucky to build skills in creative placemaking, tactical urbanism, community engagement, and safer street design. They put these skills to the test by implementing temporary safety demonstration projects in each city.
“Since our Safe Streets Academy demonstration project, it’s evolved this whole new process for how we approach capital improvements and gives us a chance to test designs out and make changes … We’re continuing to use that model to involve the community in what they want out of these particular areas.”
— Scott Thompson, Safe Streets Academy Alum, Kentucky
Building off the success of the inaugural Safe Streets Academy, this November we launched the Safe Streets, Smart Cities Academy. In the coming year, we’ll work with the cities of Huntsville, AL, Durham, NC, and Pittsburgh, PA to implement cutting-edge safety demonstration projects that address how emerging technologies and new mobility options create new challenges—and new opportunities—for cities to design safer streets.