The Pedestrian, Bicycle and Trails Commission has just released Richmond’s new Bicycle Master Plan.
The Pedestrian, Bicycle and Trails Commission has just released Richmond’s new Bicycle Master Plan. The 145 page document outlines a series of goals and serves as a layout for making Richmond a more bike-friendly city.
“It’s a blueprint for moving us forward, towards implementation that has some specifics and some prioritization, but it also doesn’t block us in,” said Jakob Helmboldt, the Pedestrian, Bicycle and Trails Coordinator. “It’s a living, breathing document. We will revisit it as we move forward with projects.”
Outlined in the plan are the goals, which aim to contribute to a larger vision for Richmond which improves the overall quality of life for all residents, with an emphasis on bike-riding Richmonders.
One of the goals is to build over 20 miles of bikeways by the end of 2015.
With the UCI Road World Championships coming to Richmond in September, there are many bike-friendly routes currently in production to be finished by race time; however, those have not been included in the plan.
Buffer lanes on West Leigh St., the Lee Bridge, and the Manchester Bridge are slated to begin construction this year, along with the bike-walk street along Floyd Ave.
Helmboldt, who has been a cyclist for a long time and has been working in his field for 10 years, said that bike advocates can look forward to, “good, high quality dedicated bike infrastructure, and a range of infrastructure types.”
Bicycle and Pedestrian Recommendations from Richmond Connects – green = suggested bike lanes/shallows
Along with the expertise of the commission and the consulting firms that were a part of the plan’s inception, there was substantial community engagement in the development of this new plan.
Nearly 3,000 people were surveyed during the initial stages of creating the plan. There was also a town hall and partnerships with organizations like Sports Backers, to create as much outreach as possible to bring the community on board with the project.
Bicycle suitability analysis – red = high demand
Although community outreach has been an essential part of the planning, compromises have been made.
“There is certainly stuff that’s aspirational, but invariably, when you’re looking at retrofitting old city streets, you have to recognize that some streets are going to be more challenging than others,” Helmboldt said. “Even though it may be a corridor that is highly desirable for for creating a bike connection. You sometimes have to look at going with a different street or creating a lower level marking.”
The plan has yet to be approved by City Council, but Helmboldt is confident in it’s strength.
“So far City Council has been very supportive…it’s really a blueprint for how we move forward and how we take individual projects forward, scope them, flush them out, develop them in more detail and try to move them towards implementation.”
Helmboldt emphasized the plan mostly focuses on infrastructure, but does not deny that the upcoming UCI World Road Championship has helped to thrust this issue in the spotlight. “The event has galvanized a lot of energy around this issue certainly, so it has been a good catalyst and something that has forced us to continue to be diligent about moving forward.”
With the Pedestrian, Bicycle and Trails Commission’s goal of achieving Silver Level Bike Friendly Community Status by the end of this year, and Platinum Status by 2025, Bike advocates are not the only residents who have much to look forward to.
