San Antonio is raising the bar for safer, more connected streets. In recent years, the city has taken bold, community-driven steps to prioritize people—not just cars—in its transportation network. That commitment culminated in 2024 with a new, ambitious Complete Streets policy, shaped by a coalition of over twenty local partners and adopted this past September.

According to SGA’s analysis, San Antonio's Complete Streets policy stands as the strongest passed in the U.S. in 2023–2024. And while this is a major milestone worth celebrating, the real work, and real impact, will come through sustained and intentional implementation.

One of the key steps in implementing Complete Streets is educating and training the staff who will be responsible for doing the work on the ground. As in other large cities, multiple agencies must collaborate to effectively implement Complete Streets. For example, the San Antonio Transportation Department and Public Works Department are central, but other departments such as planning, parks & recreation, police, fire, and more also have roles to play.

San Antonio’s Complete Streets policy states that the city shall:
"Offer training opportunities at least once per fiscal year to boost staff capacity in Complete Streets Policy implementation. Trainings can focus on Complete Streets design and implementation, community engagement, equity, smart technology, green infrastructure, or other relevant topics. Complete Streets education can be a joint effort with the Vision Zero educational efforts being conducted by the City. The general public may also be included in these trainings, whenever feasible."

To comply with the policy, and to bring everyone up to speed, the City of San Antonio decided to hold a workshop for the Transportation and Public Works Departments focused on implementation and they requested support from Smart Growth America and CityHealth.

Over several months, SGA and CityHealth team members collaborated with San Antonio’s Transportation Department to plan and organize the workshop. On September 24th-25th, SGA staff Dustin Robertson and Heidi Simon as well as CityHealth team members Cassandra Allen and David Lofye traveled to San Antonio to help lead the workshop. They were also joined by National Complete Streets Coalition Chair Peter Quintanilla from Michael Baker International.

The workshop comprised multiple components including the following elements:

• A public meeting about Complete Streets and the city’s transportation priorities
• Walk and bike audits to understand and highlight pertinent aspects of the city’s streets, sidewalks, trails, and infrastructure
• Training and brainstorming sessions about key aspects of Complete Streets implementation, primarily for the city’s Public Works Department

The workshop yielded numerous benefits and outcomes, such as:

• Bringing together key stakeholders who are responsible for Complete Streets implementation
• Training staff on the new Complete Streets policy as well as good practices and trends from other cities
• Creating space for questions and dialogue about some of the challenges to Complete Streets implementation
• Providing real-world context through walk and bike audits and community meeting

What now?

With solid policies and guidance in place and support from a new mayor and city council, San Antonio looks poised for success. The workshop was a great way to ensure that the relevant stakeholders are up to speed about the new Complete Streets policy. Of course, this should not be a one-time effort. The city should provide trainings and resources for new staff as well as regular refresher opportunities for existing team members. There are other complementary efforts in San Antonio including the creation of a Complete Streets Design Guide and a new Multimodal Transportation Commission. The findings, and lessons learned in the September workshop can serve as valuable inputs for these efforts.