Complete Streets Initiative

About the Initiative

The UCLA Complete Streets Initiative is a Luskin School of Public Affairs-wide program working to achieve more livable and complete streets for people in the Los Angeles region. Complete streets enable people to travel safely regardless of their transportation mode, ability or age. The Initiative expands beyond complete streets to also encompass living streets concepts in street design in areas such as, street-water management, landscaping and fostering vibrant economic development.  The program works achieve our goals through creating decision support tools for our community stakeholders and civic partners, promoting education opportunities, public outreach and research. Our approach is cross-disciplinary requiring input from academics and professionals within urban planning, public health, architecture, engineering, safety and economic development, among others.The Complete Streets Initiative is supported by the Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies, the Luskin Center for Innovation and the Dean’s Office of the Luskin School of Public Affairs.

About the Program Director

Madeline Brozen Madeline Brozen is the Program Director of the UCLA Complete Streets Initiative. Her background is in transportation planning, non-motorized transportation, GIS and applied research. Prior to working with the Complete Streets Initiative, Madeline worked for the NASA DEVELOP Program performing applied earth science research at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena and Stennis Space Center, outside of New Orleans. During her time in Los Angeles, Madeline worked for Ryan Snyder Associates as an assistant transportation planner on Safe Routes to School and Bicycle/Pedestrian Master plans. Madeline is a long time cyclist and public transit user and her interest in complete streets projects and policy stems from her love of having a variety of transportation options available.

Madeline holds a M.A in Urban Planning from UCLA, where she focused on transportation planning. She also holds a B.S in Urban Studies from the University of New Orleans where she focused on GIS and Remote Sensing. Madeline is a two-time scholarship winner from WTS-LA. She also received the Outstanding Student Award from the University of New Orleans and an award for Service to the Community from the UCLA Urban Planning Faculty.

Madeline can be reached by phone at (424) 255-8737 or e-mail at MBrozen@luskin.ucla.edu

Complete Streets: Pathways to Implementation – 2013

For information about the 2013 Complete Streets for California conference, please click here

2013 Conference Program Booklet 

Complete Streets for California – 2012

For information about the 2012 Complete Streets for California conference, please click here

2012 Conference Program Booklet 

Complete Streets for Los Angeles – 2011

For information about the 2011 Complete Streets for Los Angeles conference, please click here

 

Recent News

Lewis Center Researcher Herbie Huff On NPR’s All Things Considered

The Lewis Center’s Herbie Huff was recently interviewed by NPR for a story on All Things Considered on biking in Los Angeles. Click here to listen to the segment and read more about L.A. Bike Trains, an organization that arranges and guides bicycle commuting groups.

Ms. Huff is a research associate at the Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies and the Institute for Transportation Studies, where she works to bring data and research to bear on the most pressing planning and policy questions facing decisionmakers. She holds a M.A. in Urban Planning from UCLA and a B.S. in Mathematics and English from Harvey Mudd College. She is a Mayoral appointee to the City’s Bicycle Advisory […]

By |December 5th, 2013|

Complete Streets Initiative Manager Madeline Brozen Participates in UCLA’s GIS Day 2013 Program

Madeline Brozen, Manager of the Lewis Center’s Complete Streets Initiative, delivered a presentation entitled Bicycle Count Data Clearinghouse at UCLA’s GIS Day 2013 program at the Charles E. Young Research Library on Wednesday, November 20. The program also featured the following presentations:

Looking for Asokan Edicts with GIS – Thomas Gillespie; A Map for the Future: Measuring Radiation Levels in Fukushima, Japan – Yoh Kawano and David Shepard; TextMapper: Visualizing Locations Stored in Bodies of Text – Michael Shin; and Exploring Social Media Users in Los Angeles with SimplyMap – Steven Swartz

For more information on the Bicycle Data Clearinghouse project, click here.

By |November 21st, 2013|

Lecture Recap: Measuring the Economic Impact of Street Improvements in New York City

Eric Lee, the president of management consulting firm Bennett Midland LLC, visited the Lewis Center this week to present his firm’s innovative work regarding the economic impacts of reallocation of street space in New York City for dedicated bikeways, pedestrian improvements, and bus lanes.

Mr. Lee first set the stage by showing pictures of the types of projects considered in the study. Quite dramatic changes, such as parking-protected bikeways and the conversion of parking into pedestrian plazas, have taken place in New York City in recent years. Mr. Lee’s research concerns the question, “Will these changes hurt economic activity?”

Mr. Lee’s presentation was an overview of the study methodology and findings. Sales […]

By |November 19th, 2013|

Lecture Recap: Analyzing Pedestrian Movements in Israeli Cities

This October, Dr. Yodan Rofe visited UCLA to present his work developing a model for pedestrian activity in Israeli cities. Speaking to a full audience, he discussed the state of the practice in pedestrian modeling and the goals and results of his work in Israel. Dr. Rofe cited the work of Jane Jacobs, Kevin Lynch, and Jan Gehl as theoretical predecessors. He defined and explained the “spatial configuration approach” to travel modeling, which draws on the work of Hillier and Hanson, who pioneered this concept in 1989 with their book The Social Logic of Space. This approach entails formalizing the street network in a city as a set of links and […]

By |October 31st, 2013|

CicLAvia Associated with Increased Sales to Local Businesses

LOS ANGELES, October 1, 2012 — Businesses along the June 2013 CicLAvia route experienced a 10 percent bump in sales on the day of the event, a new study from the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs has found.

The increase was greater among those businesses that engaged with CicLAvia participants such as with a vending table or music. “Active participant” businesses saw their sales increase 57 percent according to the study, with sales revenue increases of $1,356 on average compared to $407 on average for all businesses.

With the eighth iteration of L.A.’s day of car-free streets approaching on October 6, the data gives business owners, residents and CicLAvia participants tips on how […]

By |October 1st, 2013|

Study: Downtown L.A. Parklets Improve Community, Quality of Life

In February 2013, City of Los Angeles unveiled its first pair of parklets. Six months forward, UCLA Luskin and affiliated researchers have found the parklets bring an improved quality of life to residents and visitors along the Spring Street corridor.

In an evaluation (PDF) completed as a part of the “Reclaiming the Right of Way” project, researchers at UCLA Luskin’s Complete Streets Initiative and the research collaborative Parklet Studies monitored various elements one would find in a thriving urban street setting — including pedestrian and bike traffic, use of public space, and patronage of local businesses — to gauge how the neighborhood has changed since the parklets were installed.

Parklets are small public spaces […]

By |August 26th, 2013|

Current Research Projects

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Latest Publications

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