A colorful street with a park adjacent to it

Change Streets, Change the World

Streets impact health and wellbeing public health and safety quality of life environmental sustainability economic sustainability social equity multimodal access

The Global Designing Cities Initiative transforms streets for the people who use them, shaping cities that allow everyone to prosper.

Our team of designers, planners, and urban strategists seeks to inspire leaders, inform practitioners, and invite communities to imagine what is possible when we design streets that put people first.

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Created with the input of experts, our guides redefine the role of streets in cities around the world.

Global Street Design Guide

Global Street Design Guide

The Global Street Design Guide supports practitioners in redefining the role of streets in cities around the world. Created with the input of experts from 72 cities in 42 countries, the Guide offers technical details to inform street design that prioritizes pedestrians, cyclists, and transit riders.

Designing Streets for Kids Guide

Designing Streets for Kids NACTO GDCI Report

Designing Streets for Kids Guide

Designing Streets for Kids captures international best practices, strategies, programs, and policies that cities around the world have used to design spaces that enable children of all ages and abilities to utilize cities’ most abundant asset – streets.

Designing for Safe Speeds

Designing for Safe Speeds

This guide provides direction on managing speeds in cities, outlines key design parameters and strategies to achieve safe speeds, showcases inspirational transformations, highlights case studies from around the world, and offers a valuable set of tools to help cities create safer, more livable streets for everyone.

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Endorsing the GSDG provides a permission slip for organizations, cities, and regions to advance safe, healthy, sustainable, and vibrant streets.

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Latest Updates

School Street Programs at Scale: The Journeys of Rio de Janeiro and Cuenca

October 29, 2026

School Street Programs at Scale: The Journeys of Rio de Janeiro and Cuenca

Following their participation in the 2025 Streets for Kids Leadership Accelerator, GDCI selected Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and Cuenca, Ecuador, to receive dedicated technical assistance. Over the course of a year, GDCI worked alongside local teams to refine, strengthen, and scale the impact of their school streets initiatives. Here is a look back at the journey and key takeaways from this process.

Introducing BICI Global Advisor Cities: Learning from the world’s leading cycling cities to shape the next generation of safe, connected cycling networks.

September 10, 2026

Introducing BICI Global Advisor Cities: Learning from the world’s leading cycling cities to shape the next generation of safe, connected cycling networks.

Drawing on their cities’ experience in advancing cycling, the BICI Global Advisors advisors will bring valuable perspectives on what it takes to build safe, connected, and accessible cycling infrastructure—and how cities can turn ambition into lasting change.

Introducing the Selection Committee for the Bloomberg Initiative for Cycling Infrastructure (BICI)

August 27, 2026

Introducing the Selection Committee for the Bloomberg Initiative for Cycling Infrastructure (BICI)

The Global Designing Cities Initiative is pleased to announce the Selection Committee for the Bloomberg Initiative for Cycling Infrastructure (BICI). The Selection Committee members bring decades of diverse experience working in transportation and urban design in cities around the world. Together they will advise the city selection process, including reviewing and providing feedback on BICI’s application finalists.

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