Complete Streets

The goal of the City of Worcester's Complete Streets program is to make the City's streets safer, more convenient and accessible to all people of all ages and abilities, whether walking, rolling, biking or riding in transit or a motor vehicle. Complete Streets expand our community's travel options and help ensure equitable access to jobs, school, shopping, social opportunities and recreation.

What Are Complete Streets?

Complete Streets are for everyone. Complete Streets is an approach to planning, designing and operating streets to allow safe access for all people who need to use them, including pedestrians, bicyclists, transit riders and motorists of all ages and abilities.

Here's The Challenge:

1. Wide roads with multiple lanes encourage high speed traffic.
2. Dedicated space for buses and bicycles is absent.
3. Double parking worsens traffic and transit reliability.
4. Unclear loading causes confusion, and lack of loading space forces freight vehicles to block traffic.
5. Disconnected sidewalk network and unsafe, poorly designed crossings discourages walkability.

Here's The Solution:

1. High quality, pedestrian infrastructure encourages walkability, which benefits small businesses, the environment and overall quality of life.
2. Safe, dedicated bike lanes and bike parking encourages mode shift.
3. Transit priority and dedicated bus lanes helps create a more reliable and efficient bus network.
4. Right-sized roads and other traffic-calming measures creates a safer roadway for everyone.
5. Managing curb space by providing pick-up/drop-off or loading areas can alleviate congestion, support small businesses and better serve all users.
6. Trees and other forms of green infrastructure help improve air quality and provide shade in urban environments.

Prioritization Plan

An important step in implementing Complete Streets is identifying and prioritizing projects. In 2021, The Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) awarded Worcester a $50,000 grant to develop a Complete Streets Prioritization Plan. This plan identified, defined and ranked potential transportation improvements in the City that further the development of a network of Complete Streets.

The City partnered with Toole Design, a consultant with expertise in the planning and design of Complete Streets, to review the existing network, gather public input and prepare the Prioritization Plan. The plan identified 22 projects that will improve safety and accessibility for pedestrians, cyclists, transit riders and drivers alike.

The plan was completed and approved by MassDOT in the Spring of 2023. The City is now eligible to receive competitive grant funding for the constructions of one or more of the identified projects.

• Read the City of Worcester Complete Streets Prioritization Plan
• Information About the Identified Projects, their Scoring Criteria and Rankings

Complete Streets Program Overview

Click on a heading below to learn more!