From November 2022 to May 2023, Smart Growth America worked with the State Smart Transportation Initiative, a project of SGA and the High Road Strategy Center, to host a series of four virtual workshops for staff at state departments of transportation (DOTs) to discuss challenges and strategies for implementing Complete Streets on state-owned rural roads. The goals of these workshops were to 1) provide space for small teams from state DOTs to engage in peer-to-peer conversations, idea exchange, and problem-solving and 2) identify and uplift the approaches that are working for state DOTs at the national level. There were roughly 30 participants from nine states: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Tennessee, Utah and Washington.

This work was completed in partnership with CDC’s Active People, Healthy Nation℠ Initiative, which is a national initiative to help 27 million Americans become more physically active by 2027. This initiative promotes effective strategies recommended by the Community Preventive Services Task Force to improve physical activity. CDC, in collaboration with state, community, and national partners, promotes these proven strategies through Active People, Healthy Nation to ensure that all Americans have access to safe and accessible places for physical activity.

Participants identified a range of challenges and perceived barriers to implementing Complete Streets elements on rural highways within their transportation agency. A sample of the types of barriers expressed were grouped into three broad, overlapping categories: 1) making the case, 2) funding Complete Streets, and 3) managing and maintaining assets. Potential strategies are identified for each of these three categories, including case studies from the participating states.

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