Updating regional street and trail design guidance

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Metro is working with local, regional and state partners to update regional transportation design guidance.

Everyone has a stake in how our streets are designed. From the delivery truck driver, to the high school student bicycling to class, to the mother driving her kids to swim lessons, and the office worker running to catch the bus, how we get there matters.

Metro’s Designing Livable Streets and Trails project is updating and developing new design guidelines for our regional transportation system, including creating new design guidance for regional multi-use paths. In addition to the design guidelines, additional resources to support implementation are being developed.

The current design guideline handbooks were last updated in 2002. Since that time, many transportation policies have been updated and our understanding of transportation design has evolved through practice and research.

A regional work group comprising agency staff, technical experts, practitioners, community members, public health representatives and advocates is guiding the update of the design guidelines. Metro technical and advisory committees will also provide input. Ultimately, the project will recommend additional policy updates in the Regional Transportation Plan.

Project timeline

The project kicked off in June 2017 and will wrap-up in the summer of 2019. The first phase of the project is done and resulted in an annotated outline that describes what will be included in the updated design guidelines. For the second phase of the project, Metro is continuing to work with the technical work group to develop the content and finalize the design guidelines.

Phase 1: Develop annotated outline – June to December 2017 Working with partners and the public, the major elements of the design guide were determined and captured in an annotated outline. The design policy section of the 2018 Regional Transportation Plan were updated to reflect the work completed to date.

Phase 2: Develop guide – January 2018 to July 2019 Guided by the technical work group the content for the updated design guidelines will be developed and the guidelines will be finalized.

Putting it into practice – 2019 and beyond Workshops and forums, new case studies, community stories and an ever expanding photo library are some of the resources Metro will coordinate to support designing livable streets and trails in the region. Updated and new complete streets, green infrastructure and environmental mitigation policies will be developed prior to the update for the 2023 Regional Transportation Plan.

Project timeline

Key documents

Meeting materials

Guide to safe and healthy streets

2018 Regional Transportation Plan

Contact

Feedback

Project timeline

Key documents

Meeting materials

Related work

Guide to safe and healthy streets

2018 Regional Transportation Plan

Contact

Feedback