1. Identifying How to Make Our Streets GreatIdentifying How to Make Our Streets Great
By Zaki Mustafa, P.E. and Michelle Birdsall
T
ransportation choices and accessibility influence where people decide to live,
work, and play, and more than ever communities are looking to transportation
professionals to create vibrant, livable cities, towns, and suburban areas that offer
a variety of modes that go beyond automobile travel. Complete Streets, Context
Sensitive Solutions, New Urbanism, and Smart Growth are but a few of the terms that reflect
and accompany initiatives to develop people-centric, community-focused public spaces that
accommodate walking, bicycling, and transit in addition to motor vehicle use.
Identifying How to Make Our Streets Great
The
Great Streets
Movement
www.shutterstock.com/IRStone
www.ite.org March 2014 27
feature |

2. Communities are looking at streets as more than a means of
getting from point A to point B; streets are being viewed as public
spaces for social interaction and recreation. The way our streets are
designed, built, and maintained play a central role in developing
communities with unique identities, thriving businesses, and
vibrant public spaces for people to gather. Great Streets programs
are one type of initiative helping to define the desired characteris-
tics and components of streets that are being sought for implemen-
tation across the United States.
From Main Streets to Great Streets
There are a variety of Great Streets programs and initiatives that
have been established across the United States. The Great Streets
concept as it is known today was influenced by the National
Trust for Historic Preservation’s Main Street Project, a national
movement that started in 1977 to assist communities in revitalizing
downtown and neighborhood business districts by leveraging local
assets such as historic, cultural, and architectural resources, as well
as local enterprises and community pride.
The initial success of the Main Street Project led to the 1980
launch of the National Main Street Center, which leads a network
across the United States of more than 2,000 programs using the
Main Street approach to rebuild the places and enterprises that
create sustainable, vibrant communities.1
In 1983, Boston, MA, USA Councilor Thomas M. Menino
brought the Main Street Project to Boston’s Roslindale neighbor-
hood. Using the National Trust for Historic Preservation Main
Street model, Roslindale merchants, owners, city officials, and
residents built an organization and work plan to revitalize its streets
and neighborhood. According to the City of Boston, by its third
year the volunteer-driven organization saw results with 73 facade
changes, 43 commercial building renovations, 29 business gains,
and 132 net new jobs, totaling in an investment of more than $5
million. In 1995, Boston Mayor Thomas Menino challenged the
National Trust for Historic Preservation to expand its National
Main Street model to the rest of Boston. The result was Boston
Main Streets, the first urban, multi-district Main Street program in
the United States. Boston Main Streets was the first intensive urban
use of the Main Street model for commercial district revitalization
in the United States.2
From Boston’s Main Street program, other programs have
grown across the United States using the term Great Streets in
addition to the term Main Street. In 2006, the East-West Gateway
Council of Governments launched the St. Louis, MO, USA Great
Streets Initiative to expand the way communities in St. Louis think
about their streets. According to St. Louis Great Streets, “rather
than viewing a roadway project as solely a way to move more cars
and trucks faster, the goal of the St. Louis Great Streets Initiative is
to trigger economic and social benefits by centering communities
around interesting, lively, and attractive streets that serve all modes
of transportation.”3
The first phase of the St. Louis Great Streets
Initiative led to a Great Streets Symposium in 2006, which brought
together planners, engineers, city managers, and elected officials
with local and national experts to discuss the many benefits of
Great Streets.
In 2007, the American Planning Association (APA) launched its
Great Places in America Program, which recognizes places in the
categories of Great Streets, Great Neighborhoods, and Great Public
Spaces for exemplary character, quality, and planning. According to
APA, America’s great streets are defined by many criteria, including
architectural features, accessibility, functionality, and community
involvement. As part of the APA Great Places in America Program,
the association annually selects ten locations in each category that
“represent the gold standard in terms of having a true sense of
place, culture and historical interest, community involvement, and
a vision for tomorrow.”4
Defining Great Streets
In order to evaluate a Great Street for its Great Places in America
Program, APA first defines a street as “comprising the entire
three-dimensional visual corridor, including the public realm
ImageCourtesyWoodsPierceandtheStauntonDowntownDevelopmentAssociation
The American Planning Association designated West Beverley Street in
Staunton, VA, USA a Great Street in 2013. Beverley Street draws visitors
from all over the country to its museums, restaurants, shops, and theaters in
a setting of restored mid-19th and early 20th century Victorian architecture.
28 March 2014 ite journal

3. and how it relates to the adjacent land uses.” Streets of different
types are eligible for APA’s Great Streets designation, ranging
from pedestrian realms to arterial roadways, so long as they have
a definable beginning and end. APA places special emphasis on
streets that are complete, meaning streets that service and take into
account all users, going beyond just motor vehicles. APA provides
guidelines and characteristics that it seeks when assessing whether
a street qualifies for its Great Street designation.
The guidelines for Great Streets examines the areas of street
form and composition; street character and personality; and
street environment and sustainable practices. The street form and
composition guidelines examine questions regarding how well
the street is maintained; how its safety is addressed; how parking
is handled; how it accommodates multiple users and activities;
and how well it accommodates and encourages social interaction
through physical features such as the hardscape, landscape, and
street furniture. These physical elements are also examined for
their ability to create a personality and sense of public place unique
to the area. Street character and personality guidelines assess the
elements that make the street memorable; the community activities
that bring life to the street such as parades, festivals, and markets;
the street’s reflection of local culture and history; and whether
the street offers interesting visual features. In looking at street
environment and sustainable practices, APA examines how the
street promotes or protects air and water quality while minimizing,
or managing, storm water runoff. APA considers the amount of tree
cover provided as well as other forms of green infrastructure.
Bringing Great Streets to the Community
Since the Great Places in America Program’s origin in 2007, APA
has designated 70 streets across the United States as Great Streets,
with all 50 states and the District of Columbia represented. From
Broadway Street in Skagway, AL, USA and West Beverley Street in
Staunton, VA, USA to Fifth Avenue in New York City, NY, USA and
Ocean Drive in Miami, FL, USA, streets that have been designated
as APA Great Streets conjure images specific to that region’s history
and architecture, and they are often popular destinations for
tourists and residents alike.
With the term Great Streets not exclusive to APA or any one
program, elected leadership, community organizations, and
associations—including the Institute of Transportation Engineers
(ITE)—are continuing to examine what constitutes a Great Street.
Prominent Great Streets programs include the City of Minneapolis,
MN, USA Great Streets Neighborhood Business District Program
established in 2007; the Washington, DC, USA Great Streets
Initiative launched in 2008; the New York, NY, USA Main Street
Initiative launched in 2008; and the San Francisco, CA, USA Great
Streets Project established in 2009. These programs are providing
examples to other cities interested in working on their own Great
Streets initiatives, such as the City of Los Angeles, CA, USA.
American Planning Association’s
Characteristics of a Great Street
• Provides orientation to its user and connects well to the larger
pattern of ways.
• Balances the competing needs of the street: driving, transit,
walking, cycling, servicing, parking, drop-offs, etc.
• Fits the topography and capitalizes on natural features.
• Is lined with a variety of interesting activities and uses that to
create a varied streetscape.
• Has urban design or architectural features that are exemplary
in design.
• Relates well to its bordering uses.
• Encourages human contact and social activities.
• Employs hardscape and/or landscape to great effect.
• Promotes safety of pedestrians and vehicles and promotes use
over the 24-hour day.
• Promotes sustainability through minimizing runoff, reusing water,
ensuring groundwater quality, minimizing heat islands, and
responding to climatic demands.
• Is well maintained, and capable of being maintained without
excessive costs.
• Has a memorable character.
List courtesy of American Planning Association website:
www.planning.org/greatplaces/streets/characteristics.htm
PhotobyJimSimmons,LosAngelesDepartmentofTransportation
The Sunset Triangle Plaza in Los Angeles, CA, USA addresses the city’s
increased demand for safer and more welcoming streets for residents to
play, walk, run, bicycle, and sit.
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4. Launch of a Great Streets Initiative in
Los Angeles, CA, USA
In 2013, City of Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti issued an
Executive Directive to establish the City of Los Angeles Great
Streets Initiative, stating, “We are taking another big step towards a
fundamental change in how we perceive, interact, and build around
us. A great neighborhood needs a great street as its backbone, and,
as city leaders, we need the backbone to make the bold changes
necessary to build great streets.” The Los Angeles Great Streets
Inititative is being supported by a working group composed of the
Los Angeles Department of City Planning, Department of Cultural
Affairs, Department of Transportation, Department of Public
Works, Bureau of Engineering, Bureau of Street Services, Bureau of
Street Lighting, Bureau of Sanitation, and Economic & Workforce
Development Department, with assistance from the Department of
Water and Power and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
These departments have helped research best practices associated
with Great Streets programs, examined how ten prominent Great
Streets programs prioritized their street selection, and evaluated
potential funding sources.
Mayor Garcetti announced the following six goals for the Los
Angeles Great Streets Initiative:
ƒƒ Increased economic activity;
ƒƒ Improved access and mobility;
ƒƒ Enhanced neighborhood character;
ƒƒ Greater community engagement;
ƒƒ Improved environmental resilience; and
ƒƒ Safer and more secure communities.
The first step in determining where Great Streets exist across Los
Angeles is to map the various assets and elements of a great street,
informed by APA’s characteristics of a Great Street. This includes
commercial land use, current economic characteristics, sidewalk
width, existence of robust community and/or business districts,
street wall, tree canopy, etc. After the street segments across the City
are identified that have the characteristics of a Great Street but need
extra investment to transform into neighborhood places, the working
group catalogued where City departments are currently allocating
resources and implementing capital improvement projects in the
public realm. This allows for the City to leverage its own investments
and target other resources to provide neighborhood revitalization
in one fell swoop. These efforts will require partnerships with local
merchants, architects and urban designers, and community stake-
holders in order to be true successes. In considering the feasibility
and scope of developing its own Great Streets Initiative, the Los
Angeles strategy will include planning and community engagement,
economic development, and physical improvements to both the
private and public realms.
Building in Steps
The City of Los Angeles found a local model for its Great Streets
Initiative in an existing Streetscape Master Plan developed under
the umbrella of Los Angeles City Councilmember José Huizar’s
Bringing Back Broadway initiative. Bringing Back Broadway is a
multi-faceted economic development plan focused on the historic
Broadway Theatre District in Downtown Los Angeles, a national
register historic district. This initiative demonstrates the value of
combining economic revitalization efforts with multimodal trans-
portation and streetscape improvements, while exemplifying the
importance of obtaining community collaboration and establishing
independent organizations to oversee design, funding, implementa-
tion, and long-term maintenance.
The Broadway Streetscape Master Plan will implement
numerous pedestrian-oriented, traffic-calming tools for the historic
Broadway corridor to provide greater pedestrian comfort and
security along one of the city’s busiest pedestrian streets, and make
Broadway a more enjoyable place to walk, shop, and spend time. The
Streetscape Plan will be achieved in two phases. Phase one will use
cost-efficient and quickly installed materials to create traffic-calm-
ing pedestrian enhancements and reconfigure the road to three
traffic lanes while funding is secured to achieve the permanent
build-out of the full-scale project on a block-by-block basis.5
These temporary streetscape design features are currently being
installed within the 1.3 mile stretch that will highlight the area’s
transformation as a safe, active pedestrian corridor. The results,
which may appear instantaneous to the public, represent years of
design development, community engagement, and commitment
from local businesses and property owners. One notable take-away
The Los Angeles Department of Transportation has implemented
Great Streets components for Atwater Village on Glendale Boulevard
in Los Angeles, CA, USA.
PhotocourtesyoftheLosAngelesDepartmentofTransportation.
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5. from the Bringing Back Broadway Project is the phased approach to
implementing the physical streetscape reconfiguration developed as
part of the larger initiative.
As part of its Great Streets Initiative, the City of Los Angeles and
the Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT) recently
launched the “People St” website, a one-stop resource from which
residents and communities can apply for pedestrian plazas, parklets,
and bike corrals. The website contains resources, materials, and
applications for bringing these projects to a neighborhood. Building
upon lessons learned from the city’s first six pilot projects, LADOT
has been working closely in an unprecedented collaboration with
community members, elected officials, and other City staff to develop
People St into a program that will expedite project development and
implementation with a clear, consistent process.6
ITE and Great Streets
ITE has established long-term, collaborative relationships with
organizations such as the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU),
the National Complete Streets Coalition, Smart Growth America,
The National League of Cities, and many others committed to the
key principles of the Great Streets Movement. For example, a joint
project of ITE and CNU resulted in the paper, Design Guidance
for Great Streets: Addressing Context Sensitivity for Major Urban
Streets.7
Together, ITE and CNU have been striving to develop
technical tools and guidance for transportation engineers and
urban planners in better integrating the context sensitive design
of major urban streets with the principles and techniques from the
new urbanist and smart growth movements. The intent of the joint
project was to encourage the design of street networks that serve
as a basis for the creation of livable communities that are truly
multimodal and support compact, mixed use environments.
This is but one example of ITE’s continuing effort to advance our
profession’s knowledge of the principles and practical applications
of the Great Streets movement. Future articles in ITE Journal will
examine synergies between these initiatives regarding the terminol-
ogies being used to describe the development and implementation
of multimodal, livable streets and communities. As efforts grow to
implement features and designs that embody Great Streets practices,
ITE members have an opportunity to lead the profession with the
practical application of these innovations. As cultural change leads
Ocean Drive, Miami, USA is a designated Great Street.
www.shutterstock.com/meunierd
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6. more people to live in urban settings and seek more active transpor-
tation modes, transportation professionals are adapting practices
to meet new needs. Practices sought through the Great Streets
movement will need to advance in conjunction with the technological
developments taking place through connected vehicle and automated
vehicle programs. More than ever, there are opportunities for
transportation professionals to partner with a variety of groups from
across disciplines to enhance community vibrancy, livability, and
active transportation. Movements such as Great Streets are enabling
transportation professionals to work more closely with partners in
improving roads and providing a safer, more positive experience for
people who walk, bike, drive, and take transit.
Resources
1. “What is Main Street,”National Main Street Center, accessed February 3,
2014, www.preservationnation.org/main-street.
2. “About Boston Main Streets,”City of Boston, accessed February 3, 2014,
www.cityofboston.gov/dnd/obd/about.asp.
3. “What is the St. Louis Great Streets Initiative?”St. Louis Great Streets,
accessed February 3, 2014, www.greatstreetsstlouis.net.
4. “Great Places in America,”American Planning Association, accessed
February 4, 2104, www.planning.org/greatplaces.
5. “Bringing Back Broadway Vision,”Bringing Back Broadway, accessed
February 10, 2014, www.bringingbackbroadway.com.
6. “About People St,”People St, accessed February 10, 2014,
http://peoplest.lacity.org.
7. “Design Guidance for Great Streets: Addressing Context Sensitivity for Major
Urban Streets,”Congress for the New Urbanism, accessed February 11,
2014, www.cnu.org/sites/www.cnu.org/files/Greenberg_Dock_USS2.pdf.
Zaki Mustafa, P.E. is the Institute of
Transportation Engineers (ITE) Immediate Past
International President. He has been working for
the City of Los Angeles, California, USA
Department of Transportation (LADOT) for the
past 29 years. As the principal transportation
engineer for traffic operations, he supervises all of
the city-wide district offices and is responsible for the traditional traffic
engineering investigations and authorization for all of the traffic
control devices for the city. As the executive officer of the Project
Delivery Group from 2012–2013, he was responsible for the organiza-
tion’s delivery of streetscape improvements projects, pedestrian and
school safety improvement projects, the signal synchronization
program, project management of all “Measure R” transit capital
projects, traffic impact studies, the implementation of the bike plan,
and preparation of engineering plans for all of the traffic control
devices. His team also designed and installed the very first Plaza
(Sunset Triangle Plaza) and four parklets in the City of Los Angeles.
Michelle Birdsall is the ITE Journal Senior Editor
and Writer. She has served ITE for 8 years and was
the ITE communications manager for the National
Transportation Operations Coalition prior to her
current role. Michelle has a master of science degree
in professional writing from Towson University,
specializing in scientific and technical writing. She
is a former senior editor and writer of NASA Spinoff magazine and
served as a communications manager for the Department of
Homeland Security.
5th Avenue in New York City, New York, USA is a designated Great Street.
www.shutterstock.com/AndreyBayda
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