Complete Streets

Learn how we are creating a system that enables safe, convenient access for all types of transportation options - walking, biking, driving and riding transit.

A transportation system that accommodates all forms of transportation is more efficient in the travel space provided, more accessible, safer, more economical and sustainable.

Complete Streets is an approach to planning, designing, building, operating and maintaining the transportation system that enables safe and convenient access to destinations for all people, including pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists and transit riders. It uses a set of tools or treatments that create a more balanced and resilient transportation system.

In the 2022, the Washington State Legislature passed Senate Bill 5974 (PDF 738KB), the Move Ahead Washington package (see section 418 on page 89 for the Complete Streets language). It directs that “in order to improve the safety, mobility and accessibility of state highways, it is the intent of the Legislature that the department must incorporate the principles of complete streets with facilities that provide street access with all users in mind, including pedestrians, bicyclists and public transportation users” for “state transportation projects starting design on or after July 1, 2022 and that are $500,000 or more.”

Three images of complete streets. The one on the left is a road with a bike lane and sidewalk, a bicyclists with a trailer is in the bike lane. The image in the center is an areal view of a round about and the image on the right is an areal view of a signalized intersection that has bicycle and pedestrian facilities as well as vehicle travel lanes. — Visual examples of Complete Streets - All depict roads that have separated bicyclist and pedestrian facilities. The first image is a linear segment (in Port Townsend), the second (in Walla Walla) and third (in Bothell) are aerial views of a round about and signalized intersection.

Complete Streets background

To learn more about Complete Streets, view this training video, FHWA Complete Streets Primer.

Other Complete Streets programs

Transportation Improvement Board's Complete Streets Awards

Performance highlights from the Gray Notebook

8,683 animals crossed the Snoqualmie Pass East Project area

as recorded by WSDOT and partners in 2020 and 2021.

46% increase in Amtrak Cascades ridership to 251,000 passengers

in 2021 compared to 172,000 in 2020.

Nine wetland and stream mitigation sites across 32.7 acres added

to our monitoring program in 2021 to help offset climate change impacts.