VA Statewide Bike & Ped Plan Drafted

[Allen J. Muchnick]

DRAFT VDOT BICYCLE & PEDESTRIAN PLAN CIRCULATED FOR COMMENT

On May 10, Susan Simmers, VDOT's Bicycle & Pedestrian Program Manager,
emailed a preliminary draft _Statewide Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan_ to
several individuals for their review and comment by Tuesday, May 18, 2004.
The recipients included the membership of the VDOT Statewide Bicycle
Advisory Committee (which last formally met in October 2002), the VDOT
Internal Bicycle Task Force (representing diverse VDOT disciplines and
districts), and the VDOT "Stakeholder Working Group" (which helped shape
the new VDOT bicycle and pedestrian policy--Policy for Integrating Bicycle
and Pedestrian Accommodations--that was adopted on March 18, 2004). 

VDOT is developing its _Statewide Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan_ as part of
its Statewide Multi-Modal Long-Range Transportation Plan (VTrans2025) in
accordance with a legislated requirement (SB 393 of 2002) to prepare, and
update as needed, a statewide pedestrian policy.  This draft bicycle and
pedestrian policy plan is conceived as an extension of VDOT's new bicycle
and pedestrian policy and includes input gathered during the development
of that policy. 

The final bicycle and pedestrian plan will be part of VTrans2025’s Phase 3
deliverable, as identified in the state code, and is subject to the
reviews and submissions required for the latter.  Public outreach meetings
are planned for July and August 2004.  

For the benefit of those who did not receive the draft plan directly from
VDOT, the Virginia Bicycling Federation has posted the file at
<http://www.vabike.org/docs/bp_plan_10may04.pdf> with a link from its
homepage <http://vabike.org>.

Comments on the preliminary draft plan may be emailed to
<Susan.Simmers at virginiadot.org> by May 18 for consideration in subsequent
versions.  Please forward a copy of your comments to the Virginia
Bicycling Federation <vbf at vabike.org>.

Thank you,

Allen Muchnick, President
Virginia Bicycling Federation
PO Box 5621
Arlington VA 22205-5621
703-271-0895
muchnick at capaccess.org
http://vabike.org