Regional Bicycle Master Plan Presented in St. Peters

It won't happen overnight, but the Regional Bike Plan hopes that in 20 years the St. Louis area will be bike friendly.

The Great Rivers Greenway presented the Regional Bike Plan on Thursday at the . The plan is to improve the biking access and conditions in St. Louis City, St. Louis County and St. Charles County. By improving roads with more bike lanes, the plan hopes to increase the number of people using bicycles and make things safer.

Paul Wojciechowski, St. Louis Area Manager for CH2M Hill and one of the engineers behind the plan, said committees were formed to figure out just what the goal would be for the plan. After debate and discussion, the committees created the STL Bike Plan.

The vision is that the Regional Bike Plan “will create the bicycle component to the regional transportation network that accommodates all users and promotes consistent design and development of bicycle facilities.”

Basically, the plan wants to make sure that people that want to use bikes as means of transportation have a safe way to do it and that the system would encourage more people to bike.

“This is a very implementable plans,” Wojciechowski said. “We want this to actually happen.”

The plan has five goals.

• Goal No. 1 is to provide prioritized system of routes that are contiguous and connected to other on-and off-road facilities.
• Goal No. 2 is to improve safety for all modes of transportation “through the implementation of bicycle facilities.
• Goal No. 3 is to improve safety for all modes of transportation through the implementation of education and enforcement programs.
• Goal No. 4 is to expand the public’s view that bicycles are a viable/acceptable mode of transportation through encouragement programs.
• Goal No. 5 is to Increase the commitment of public officials to support or initiate public policy for bicycling in all levels of government—state, local and regional.

A key component of the plan is the blurring of city lines. Instead of making this a city issues, the RBP makes it a regional issue.

“We’re one region,” Wojciechowski said.

The reason for the one region approach is simple: the Great Rivers Greenway wants municipalities to work together. The plan doesn’t really work unless everyone involved jumps on board—which is the main reason for Thursday’s open house. The Great Rivers Greenway wants as much feedback as possible before it can begin moving forward with the full-scale plan.

In a perfect world, the plan could be implemented in less than 20 years, but Wojciechowski said the group is playing it safe and shooting for everything to be completed in two decades.

Following the public hearings, it will be back to the drawing board to make a final plan. After that, the Great Rivers Greenway and the East-West Commission will decide if they want to approve the plan. If approved, it would be up to municipalities to agree to go forward with the plan.

Funding for the plan would come for a variety of sources. Wojciechowski said the plan targets roads that are prime candidates for federal funding. The Missouri Department of Transportation and individual cities could chip in funds.

For more information on the Reginoal Bike Plan and to weigh in on the plan, visit the website at stlbikeplan.com