Spokane Master Bike Plan Open House

[Mike S]

CITY SETS THREE OPEN HOUSES TO GET INPUT ON MASTER BIKE PLAN

Citizens are invited to three open houses in April to provide input as the City of Spokane updates its Master Bike Plan. The update includes identifying ways to make Spokane more bicycle friendly, improving bike routes, signage, and other elements.

gWe havenft updated the Cityfs bicycle plan in any significant way for 20 years,h says Ken Pelton, a City planner who is working on this project. gAs a City, we want to encourage alternative modes of transportation, so making it easier for cyclists to get around just makes sense.h

The open houses will be held on:

‡” Tuesday, April 22, at the Southside Senior Activity Center, 3151 E. 27th Ave., from 6 to 8 p.m.

‡” Thursday, April 24, at the West Central Community Center, 1603 N. Belt, from 7 to 9 p.m.
.
‡” Tuesday, April 29, at the Northeast Community Center, 4001 N. Cook, from 6 to 8 p.m.

At the sessions, citizens will find information about the planning process, maps of different aspects of the plan, and the opportunity to make comments and suggestions and ask questions.

During the open house on April 24 at West Central Community Center, the Washington State Department of Transportation also will hold a public hearing on the 2008-2027 Washington State Bicycle Facilities and Pedestrian Walkways Plan.

[aj1152]

The City is surveying its bike-users to determine what our needs are. You can find the survey at www.spokaneplanning.org/master_bike_plan.htm. Please take a few minutes to voice our need for more bike paths, bike boulevards, more bike racks, etc.

Thanks,

Alan

[colin]

Hey SRV'ers,
Alan's link to the City's survey is very helpful. About 80% of the way into the survey it asks for very specific locations that are problematic for cyclists and reasons why.
Given that the City hasn't asked for input on its Bike Master Pla in something like 40 years, I'd encourage EVERYONE to take 5 minutes and complete this survey!

[DaleP]

Now here is an idea worth considering for the safety of all bicyclists in Spokane. Zero tolerance speed cameras are now being installed in other parts of the world and look to be a very solid deterrent to the selfish acts of speeding drivers. This is certainly something that should be considered in the Master Bike Plan to slow Spokane idiot drivers down.

[monte]

Took the survey!
Easy peasy nice and easy.

[colin]

I was unable to attend these meetings. How did they go? Did the city have anything exciting to say about future bike plans?

[Pat S]

Colin,

I went to the one at the West Central Community Center, which was the one at which the WSDOT also held a public hearing on the statewide Bike & Ped Facilites plan, so a two-for-one deal at that meeting.

Without getting into the tired old debate of creating somewhat separate spaces for bikes vs sharing the motor traffic infrastructure, I have to say that it was apparent that the city has put a lot of effort into revising the master plan, and they have tried very hard to listen to the bicycle communtity in doing this. The plan itself doesn't guarantee that any of the infrastructure will actually happen, but without a plan, it's pretty sure that it won't, because it's tough to go after funding when you don't have clear idea of what you want to do.

The most interesting part of the state portion of the program was the public comment session. It was really interesting to hear from such a broad range of cyclits - we really are a diverse group! I know at least two City Council members were there - I believe Rush and Apple.

By my quick esti-count, there were about 200 people there. All in all, the evening left me pretty pumped up over all the collective energy and enthusiasm that is going into plans to make Spokane more bikeable. People definitely are starting to realize what a great contribution the bicycle can make towards solving some of the problems we face now and some new problems that we will be facing in the coming years.