Written by Justin Ritchey
With most of the American public realm consisting of streets, great urban design begins at the streetscape, and “Complete Streets” are the standard model. Beyond routes for getting around, streets help shape lifestyles and culture. Iconic avenues like San Francisco’s Lombard Street, New Orleans’ Bourbon Street, and New York City’s Times Square function as must-see destinations by creating a unique sense of place. Whether you are going to work, shopping at your local grocery store, walking your dog, or meeting a friend for coffee, streets will determine how you get to your destination and your experience along the way. Streets are essential not just for transportation but for socialization.
Complete Streets, also known as Multi-Modal Streets, are for pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists, and transit riders. To facilitate all these groups, Complete Streets incorporate amenities such as sidewalks, bike lanes, bus lanes, median islands, and crosswalks. The goal of Complete Streets is to provide safe access to transportation regardless of the mode of travel. Whether someone is a college student, teenager, elderly grandparent, or simply prefers not to drive, this model designs streets for all ages and abilities.
Design Elements of Complete Streets
Complete Streets take many forms, from wide commercial boulevards to narrow residential streets and everything in between. Certain design elements shape how the public realm feels and engage the people traveling through it. These elements influence the perception of scale, safety, pace, and accessibility. The streetscape should have open spaces that invite people to gather and create opportunities for placemaking. When done correctly, the ingredients of a Complete Street should intentionally interact and influence each other.
Sidewalks and Building Frontages
The first element of Complete Streets is sidewalks. As an active pedestrian zone, sidewalks should be wide enough to support foot traffic. On commercial streets, the sidewalk introduces storefronts and entrances as people traverse, forming a “frontage zone”. This zone is the transition between public and private spaces, both physically and visually. In residential areas, the sidewalk defines the front yard and connects houses to friends and neighborhood amenities.
Amenity Zone
The amenity zone sits between the sidewalk and travel lanes, providing a buffer that enhances pedestrian comfort and safety. It can include street trees, benches, lighting, bike racks, planters, and planting strips. In some designs, bike lanes are placed off the street and within the amenity zone for additional protection. While sidewalks support movement of people, the amenity zone offers them places to sit, rest, and gather.
Travel Lanes and Medians
Travel Lanes
Travel lanes are part of the roadway used by vehicles. In the Complete Streets model/guidelines, designers will often do a “road diet,” reducing lane width or the number of lanes to minimize crash risk, and to make more room for pedestrian and cyclist zones. Narrower lanes also shorten crosswalks, allowing people to cross the street more quickly and safely.
Median
Medians delineate opposing lanes of traffic and help slow vehicle speeds with the illusion of narrowing the street lane. They are often landscaped with plantings or street trees and can also serve as pedestrian refuge islands while crossing wide streets. When incorporating public transit, boarding islands or center-running bus lanes can function as medians. Wide medians can even become small public spaces with seating or art.
Infrastructure for Public Transit
In addition to vehicle traffic, a good street is accessible to public transit. Key components include bus shelters, bus lanes, and boarding islands. Bus lanes are lanes dedicated only to bus traffic to reduce bus delays from traffic congestion. Boarding islands are dedicated spaces within the street for boarding and waiting for the bus, freeing up space from the sidewalk and providing a loading zone for the bus. These design components create efficient, accessible transit corridors and can be adapted for streetcars and light rail.
Bike Lanes
Bike lanes provide cyclists with a dedicated and safer place to ride, reducing the need to share travel lanes with vehicles or use sidewalks. Ideally, they are lined with protection such as flex posts, curbs, or planting strips to create a comfortable buffer from traffic. Without protected lanes, cyclists are more vulnerable to crashes, and less experienced riders often move to the sidewalk, which can create conflicts with pedestrians. Where on‑street parking is present, bike lanes should be placed between the parking area and the sidewalk to keep cyclists off the path of opening car doors. On streets too narrow for bike lanes, communities rely on shared‑use paths and shared roadways. Shared‑use paths accommodate both pedestrians and cyclists and are typically about 12 feet wide. Shared roadways are usually two‑way streets with narrow lanes and slower speeds, allowing vehicles and bicycles to use the same space comfortably.
Placemaking
Placemaking transforms a street from thoroughfare traffic into a destination and place for people. All the Complete Street’s elements can support placemaking components, from the amenity zone to the travel lanes themselves. For the intent of street design, placemaking can be categorized as Creating Place and Supporting Art:
Creating Place
Placemaking activates underutilized areas of the streetscape by adding furnishings, amenities, and new public spaces. These elements can include bike parking, enhanced bus stops, parklets, pop-up plazas, sidewalk dining, and other street furnishings. They typically sit in the amenity zone or along the sidewalk, but can also take shape in curbside parking spaces, like parklets. Placemaking installations may be permanent, such as a hardscaped plaza, or temporary, like a pop-up market in the Right-of-Way created with paint and movable furniture.
Supporting Art
Placemaking supports public art by activating underutilized areas of the streetscape with creative art installations. These elements can include decorative signage, sculptures, wall murals, street and sidewalk murals, and signal cabinet wraps. Public art can appear anywhere in the street, from crosswalk murals in travel lanes to artistic wayfinding kiosks in the amenity zone. Most installations are temporary, with outdoor murals typically lasting around ten years, but some pieces, like durable outdoor sculptures, can be permanent.
Design Guidance and Programs
The City of Charlotte has made great strides in shaping Charlotte’s streets into vibrant and safe places through street design and placemaking. Below are just two of the many ways the City of Charlotte encourages Complete Streets.
Charlotte Streets Manual
Providing technical guidance for street design, the Charlotte Streets Manual includes street types, multi-modal policies, and cross-sections. It also outlines how to apply Charlotte’s Street Map, which illustrates the city’s multi-modal street network. Together, these tools help guide new urban development toward building Complete Streets and supporting multi-modal transportation. For more information, check out CDOT’s webpage on Mobility Planning.
Charlotte Placemaking Hub
The Charlotte Placemaking Hub, managed through the Urban Design Center, gives residents the tools to design, install, and maintain community‑driven placemaking projects, turning neighborhood streets into canvases that bring people together. Projects typically occur in the public Right‑of‑Way and may include parklets, pop‑up plazas, street murals, and more. Each year, the Urban Design Center offers Placemaking Grants to help fund these community projects. Learn more by visiting our Placemaking Program.
Complete Streets in Charlotte, NC
Tryon Street – Uptown
Tryon Street in Uptown, Charlotte’s signature main street, functions as a shared street where cyclists and vehicles travel smoothly together. Wide brick sidewalks line both sides, buffered by on‑street parking, with street trees, bike racks, and benches creating a welcoming amenity zone. Restaurants, shops, and office buildings face the street, reinforcing its role as a gateway to the business district. Plazas like McColl Park offer additional places for people to sit, gather, and enjoy the street. For more about Tryon Street, read our blog! https://people-make-cities.com/2026/03/26/from-trading-path-to-transit-mall-to-the-life-of-tryon-street/
Five Points Plaza
Five Points Plaza in the Historic West End demonstrates how underused right‑of‑way space can become a vibrant public plaza. Formed from the convergence of Beatties Ford Road and Rozzelles Ferry Road, the plaza opened in 2022 and is split into two areas along Rozzelles Ferry. It features bench swings, tables, a small stage, plantings, trees, wayfinding signage, a splash pad, building murals, and a landmark sculpture. The plaza is activated by surrounding retail and frequent community events from the Five Points Community Collaborative. Adjacent to the plaza are bike lanes and the LYNX Gold Line connecting Five Points to Uptown and the Beatties Ford Road Corridor.
Uptown CycleLink
Uptown CycleLink is a 7‑mile network of protected bike lanes linking Uptown to nearby greenways. The 5th/6th Street segment is a strong example of a Complete Street, with wide sidewalks, street trees, bike racks, and public art lining the protected lanes. Charlotte’s Department of Transportation continues to invest in expanding bike and pedestrian infrastructure, improving the riding experience across the city. Additional CycleLink segments are planned to further strengthen connectivity.
Conclusion
Complete Streets come in many forms, from wide or narrow corridors to commercial, mixed‑use, or residential areas, but all are designed to be safe and accessible for everyone. They prioritize people, cyclists, and transit rather than focusing only on cars, and they serve as public gathering spaces where communities can connect and explore. Well‑designed streetscapes strengthen local economies by supporting active storefronts and improving public safety. By calming traffic and creating dedicated space for walking and biking, Complete Streets reduce crashes and save lives.
Above all, they help create neighborhoods where people feel comfortable moving, exploring, and spending time outdoors. When we choose to support Complete Streets in our own communities, we take a step towards healthier, more vibrant places that welcome and move everyone.
Learn More
Want to visualize how complete street features could improve your neighborhood? Try creating your own design with Streetmix, an interactive urban design tool: https://streetmix.net/-/3461442
For more design guidance on street design, visit NATCO, the National Association of City Transportation Officials: https://nacto.org/
To learn more about Complete Streets in the Charlotte region, visit the Charlotte Regional Transportation Planning Organization’s Complete Streets resources: https://crtpo.org/resources/complete-streets/
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