U.S. complete streets initiatives are lacking explicit language surrounding various demographic populations: A call to action

Overview: Active travel, walking and bicycling for transportation, has been shown to provide positive health benefits to those who participate. Despite these known benefits, there are many inequities seen throughout the U.S. which create decreased participation in disadvantaged populations. Complete Streets initiatives attempt to create useable streets for all and may have the potential to create equitable opportunities for all modes of transportation (car/transit/bicycle/walk) and demographic populations (race/ethnicity/gender/etc.). The aim of this study was to examine the frequency of explicit demographic language use in Complete Streets literature, while also understanding differences in frequency by type (legislative ordinances, resolutions, internal/city-wide policies, design guides, and executive orders), year (before/after 2015), and region of U.S. Methods: A list of Complete Streets initiatives were obtained from a public database, and research assistant's search each initiative for explicit verbiage regarding the six specific disadvantaged populations: racial/ethnic minorities, LGBTQ + communities, low-income, disabled/older individuals, youth/children, women). Results: Complete Streets initiatives (n = 1342) were analyzed. Less than 7% of all initiatives mentioned low-income populations, racial/ethnic minorities, LGBTQ + communities, or women in their literature. Discussion: Although the Complete Streets initiatives attempt to provide equitable opportunities for active travel and land use, most initiatives are lacking explicit verbiage regarding these disadvantaged populations. The lack of explicit verbiage may lead to an oversight in implementation, and future Complete Streets policies should attempt to place explicit language regarding strategies to reach disadvantaged populations, in turn to bind stakeholders and transportation departments into spending time and resources in areas that need Complete Streets.