News

Back in July 2008, the City of Columbus adopted a resolution (.pdf) urging the Public Service Department and the Transportation Division to use a Complete Streets approach in all street construction, reconstruction, and repair projects. More recently, the regional planning commission adopted a comprehensive Complete Streets policy that improved upon an earlier “routine accommodation” policy.

So, it comes as no surprise to me that the Parsons & Livingston Avenue Improvement Project would include so many elements to make travel by any mode at any age easy and safe.

And it’s great to see such a worthy project receive attention from some important people: both President Obama and Transportation Secretary LaHood attended this morning’s groundbreaking.

The new streets will feature traffic medians, new ADA-compliant curb cuts, wider sidewalks, plenty of street trees and bioretention planters, new bus shelters, and bike lanes and racks. These improvements will help people access a growing pediatric hospital and Columbus’s South Side, a neighborhood just outside downtown where the City of Columbus and its residents are working hard to revitalize.

As President Obama said this morning, “This neighborhood will soon be a place where more families can thrive, more businesses can prosper, economic development that’s being sparked today is going to continue into the future.”

This new project will help lead the way.