This Thursday February 28, an all-day information-gathering workshop will be held in the Portage County Annex Building to identify public attitudes about bicycling and walking in Portage County. Whether your interests lie in the city of Stevens Point or in any of the villages or townships that comprise Portage County, workshop organizers want to hear from you.

This workshop is associated with the Portage County Bicycle and Pedestrian Planning Project, an effort spearheaded by the Portage County Planning and Zoning Department.

A quality bike/ped plan needs lots of feedback from the general public. Over the next year or so, the Portage County Bike/Ped Plan Project will provide many opportunities for ordinary citizens to voice their opinions. This workshop will be one of your best opportunities to speak directly to project staff about getting around the county by bike or by foot. You will also be able to learn from what others contribute to the conversation.

This project is focused on both urban and rural issues for bicycle and foot traffic. Whether your bike/ped activity is for commuting, recreation, errands, or otherwise just getting around, your opinions are relevant.  Project staff are interested in hearing from you both about infrastructure that works well as well as about problem locations that need improvements in order to make getting around by bicycle and by foot safe, comfortable, and convenient.

The workshop will last most of the day. Participants can spend as much or as little time as desired. Just pop in for 15 minutes and say your piece, spend the whole day engaged in bike/ped conversation, drop by a few times out of curiosity – it’s your choice. There is no charge to take part, so it is easy to take advantage of this workshop as your schedule and interest allows.

Below is the schedule and session titles for the full day. All sessions take place on February 28 in Conference Rooms 1 and 2 of the Portage County Annex Building (1462 Strongs Ave).

10:00 – 10:20 AM
Opening Session

10:30 AM – Noon (two concurrent sessions)
Session A: Pedestrian Mobility
Session B: Bicycling and Walking Near UW-SP

1:15  – 2:45 PM (two concurrent sessions)
Session A: Safe Routes to Schools
Session B: All-Purpose Cycling

3:00 – 4:30 PM (two concurrent sessions)
Session A: Addressing Health & Wellness Through Active Transportation
Session B: Enforcement & Education

6:30 – 8:30 PM
Public Session
[Note: Actually, all the sessions are public. This evening one is tailored to folks unable to attend during the daytime, although daytime attendees are also welcome. The topics open for discussion at this session span the gamut of bike/ped issues. You can bring up topics either covered or overlooked at earlier sessions.]

The Portage County Bike/Ped Plan Project has a post about this project on their website here. They also created a flyer about the workshop with the day’s schedule and lots more info. You can download the PDF of this flyer here.

To learn about other ways to provide feedback for this bike/ped plan, select the Speak Your Poky link on the menu bar above and select the Portage County Bicycle and Pedestrian Planning Project from the drop-down list.

If you’ve been itching to tell someone how good or bad our current infrastructure is for biking and walking, this Thursday is a great opportunity for you.

I’ll be there most of the day. Say hi if you get a chance. I look forward to seeing you there.

Disclosure: Bob Fisch, Chief Bike Fun Officer of Poky Pedaling Stevens Point, is a member of the Urban Steering Committee for the Portage County Bicycle and Pedestrian Planning Project. Posts about this project appearing on the PPSP website are part of a broader PPSP effort to keep readers informed of bikey news in our area. Nothing posted on the PPSP website should be considered to be official communication from the Portage County Bicycle and Pedestrian Planning Project. The official website for this project can be accessed at http://portagecobikepedplan.wordpress.com.