Cape Coral Adopts Complete Streets Policy

Cape Coral residents are getting more walkable and bike-friendly streets, now that the Cape Coral City Council adopted a Complete Streets policy on Aug. 17 – joining the 720 cities around the country and 48 communities in Florida who are supporting the Complete Streets approach. In that area alone, Lee MPO, Lee Board of County Commissioners, the City of Fort Myers and City of Bonita Springs have all adopted Complete Streets policies.

A Complete Street is one planned, designed and maintained to comfortably accommodate pedestrians, cyclists, transit riders, and motorists of all ages and ability levels. And they feature elements such as sidewalks, bicycle lanes, full-featured transit stops, and pedestrian- and bicycle-oriented traffic signals, medians, pedestrian crossing islands, curb extensions and more.

Cape Coral already has a strong start. Some of its efforts are below:

• The city completed a 90-mile system of sponsored and signed bike routes in 2014.
• This year the city and Cape Coral Bike-Ped hosted an evaluation and visit by an expert from League of American Bicyclists and applied for a Bicycle Friendly Community designation from the league.
• The city joined the USDOT Secretary’s Mayors Challenge for Safer People, Safer Streets.
• This fall begins the development of Cape Coral Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan that will address gaps and issues within its 90-mile biking route system.

Read more about Cape Coral’s efforts and view its Complete Streets resolution at the Bike Walk Lee Blog.