The Portage County Bicycle and Pedestrian Planning Project will have its next round of steering committee meetings next week. All meetings are open to the public.
The Urban Steering Committee will meet on Tuesday May 14 from 4 PM to 5:30 PM in Conference Room 5 of the Portage County Annex Building (1462 Strongs Ave).
The Rural Steering Committee will meet on Wednesday May 15 from 6 PM to 7:30 PM in the Amherst Village Hall at 160 Mill St in Amherst. (Note: The Portage County Bike/Ped Plan website has this day incorrect in one instance. Wednesday May 15 is the correct day for the Rural Steering Committee.)
Packets containing agendas and other information are available from a post on the Portage County Bike/Ped Plan website. I copied the packet links below:
The agendas for the two meetings are similar, differing in their focus on the urban or rural areas of the county. A summary of the primary agenda items follows.
There will be a discussion of a 25-page document included in each packet outlining existing plans, policies and ordinances for Portage County as a whole, for Stevens Point, and for each of the villages in the county. Recommendations for updates are also included. It’s pretty wonky stuff, but these items are the nuts and bolts that influence the quality of the bicycling and walking networks where we live.
Next will be a discussion of ‘heat maps’ which identify latent bicycle and foot traffic demand in the county. These heat maps are included in the packets. Discussion will center on how these maps are created and what they indicate.
A discussion of bicycle demand corridors and the study network will follow. An overview of factors to consider will be given. These include things like traffic speeds, crash data, and destinations. The overview will lead into a discussion of an appropriate network.
Finally, there will be a general discussion of bicycling and walking challenges, barriers, and issues. Committee members will be asked to express their opinions and to suggest solutions.
Poky Pedalers who are interested in these items are encouraged to read over the packets and attend the Steering Committee meetings. At past meetings, attendees not part of the committees were permitted to speak and contribute their opinions. I can’t promise how the meetings will be run this time, but I suspect you’ll have an opportunity to add to the conversation.
For those unable to attend, I will create a PPSP post summarizing what occurs at the Urban meeting. I’m not sure I’ll be able to make it out to Amherst for the Rural meeting, but I will try to gather comments from a couple of the Rural Steering Committee members who do attend. You can learn what happened at the upcoming meetings by visiting the PPSP blog late next week or early the following week.
More information about this project can be found by clicking the Speak Your Poky link on the menu bar above and selecting the Portage County Bicycle and Pedestrian Planning Project link. Poky Pedalers will find information there about the various ways to voice your opinions to project staff about biking and walking in Portage County. You will also find links to all my past blog posts on this project.
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.
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Poky Pedaling Stevens Point 