DEPARTMENT: Public Works
DEPARTMENT HEAD: Razi Hosseini, P.E., R.P.L.S.
COUNCIL DISTRICTS IMPACTED: Citywide
SUBJECT: Bike Master Plan
SUMMARY:
A briefing on the Bike Master Plan and Public Works Department continuing efforts to plan and implement bicycle infrastructure in San Antonio.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
On September 29, 2011, City Council adopted San Antonio Bike Plan 2011 + Implementation Strategy (“Plan”) as part of the City’s Comprehensive Plan. The Plan is a guide for a regional bicycle network along with goals for policy, funding, and staffing for implementation. Overall, the Plan outlines improvements totaling approximately 1,700 miles of varying bicycle facility types for the San Antonio region, with 1,040 of those miles on City of San Antonio maintained roads.
The Plan provided a reliable foundation outlining the purpose and need for bicycle facilities in San Antonio. The underlying methodology holds true, but the proposed implementation strategy is not feasible in many instances and in need of some improvement. As part of the FY 2020 Budget, funding was provided for staff to update portions of the Plan in the form of a Micromobility Policy Document and to develop a regional implementation plan for the Downtown/Midtown Regional Centers.
The Micromobility Policy Document will summarize key challenges associated with implementation of micromobility infrastructure, as well as complete streets in general, and recommend policy solutions to mitigate or eliminate these challenges. The Downtown/Midtown Implementation Plan will identify key corridors within and across these regional centers and provide the technical analysis to support feasibility and future implementation.
A technical stakeholder group has been formed consisting of design, construction, academic institutional and business interests which will review and offer recommendations both on policy, and strategy for the regional implementation plan.
ISSUE:
Micromobility Policy Document
Public Works staff has begun to research best practice policy surrounding known challenges to micromobility and complete streets implementation. These efforts have focused on questions of how best to address situations where parking restrictions or “road-diets” would be necessary to implement facilities recommended by the Plan.
Additionally, the City of San Antonio’s 2011 Complete Streets Policy has undergone review against the National Complete Streets Coalition grading framework. The analysis shows areas that the policy can be strengthened and where it has been effective so far.
Public and stakeholder input will be gathered to understand what citywide policy additions or amendments would be supported. This effort will be done concurrently with public involvement efforts related to the Downtown/Midtown Implementation Plan.
Downtown/Midtown Implementation Plan
Public Works staff and consultants have begun to evaluate previous planning efforts, the existing bike facility network, and the successes/challenges of previous efforts. Corridors for detailed analysis will be prioritized based on existing roadway widths, lane configurations, traffic volumes, bicycle traffic demand, crash data, equity, and adjacent property needs.
Public and stakeholder input will be gathered to understand the location needs and support of bicycle facilities in and around the Downtown/Midtown Regional Centers. Public and stakeholder support will be critical to developing an implementation strategy which is both feasible and meets the needs of the community.
Consultant teams will model existing and proposed conditions on prioritized segments to determine the current roadway operations and the impact that potential modification to the system would have if bicycle facilities are added to the roadway. Public Works staff and consultants will review configuration options and results of potential roadway modification and develop an implementation plan for prioritized road alignments. Lastly, consultants will develop cost estimates for high priority projects with recommendations for potential funding sources. The network recommendations, logic and implementation strategy will be presented in a summary report.
The goal of this effort is to complete all the above tasks and have project recommendations to determine what can be implemented with existing funding in FY2020 and proposed to be funded in FY2021 and the 2022 Bond Program.
ALTERNATIVES:
There are no alternatives to propose as this is a staff briefing only.
FISCAL IMPACT:
There is no fiscal impact associated with this briefing.
RECOMMENDATION:
Staff will present a briefing on this item subject to possible action by the committee.