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Elements of Complete Streets
community residents often have concerns that traffic is moving too fast through neighborhoods. The application of design speed for Complete Streets is different than for conventional transportation practices where the roadways are designed for a higher speed than the posted speed. Complete streets create communities with vibrant social and retail life and increase the value of adjacent land uses. Local businesses and economies thrive on attracting people using all modes of transportation. According to the Hillsborough County Design Bulletin 21-01, vehicle speed concepts can be classified into four types 9 : Design Speed - A selected speed used to determine geometric design elements of the roadway. Select an appropriate Design Speed to attain a desired degree of safety, mobility, and efficiency. Operating Speed - the speed at which drivers are observed traveling during free flow conditions. Posted Speed Limit - A posted speed limit sign notifies the driver of the maximum operating legal speed that is considered reasonably safe in optimum weather and visibility conditions. For the County, the design speed will be set equal to the posted speed for Hillsborough County Transportation Projects. This would not prohibit lowering the posted speed. Target Speed - The speed at which vehicles should operate on a corridor in a specific context. The Target Speed must be consistent with the level of multimodal activity generated by adjacent land uses, to provide both mobility for motor vehicles and a desirable environment for pedestrians, bicyclists, and public transit users. Target Speed can be set in the project development phase or early in the design process. Target Speed serves as the “target or goal” for Posted/Design Speed. Ideally, the Target Speed and Posted/Design Speed should all be the same. Speed management strategies should be established to achieve the desired Target Speed. Ideally, the target speed, design speed and posted speed are the same in Hillsborough County. On existing facilities, these speeds may be different from each other, which can result in inconsistent driver expectation about the preferred operating speed. A roadway may have been designed at 45 MPH, have a posted speed of 40 MPH, but now have a target speed of 30 MPH. When the current design speed does not match the target speed, roadway design and operation changes are needed to move the design speed and posted speed toward the target speed and help the road “read” more consistently for road users. Multiple design modifications may be necessary to achieve the target speed 10 . In some cases, additional projects may be needed to reconfigure the roadway design such that the target speed is achieved over time. Complete Streets should establish a design speed that creates a safer and more comfortable environment for pedestrians, bicyclists, and motorists. This approach increases access to
9 Hillsborough County Transportation Design Bulletin 21-01 10 Florida Department of Transportation, FDOT Context Classification Guide, July 2020
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