Type: Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan
Size: Citywide (42,000 population, 15.5 sq. miles)
Status: Completed
Plan BTV Walk Bike is a citywide planning effort to enhance safety and increase active mobility in Burlington, VT. The project will culminate with the creation of the City’s first Bicycle and Pedestrian Action Plan, as well as scoping of priority projects for implementation. With these two components, Plan BTV Walk Bike will capture the community’s vision and goals for walking and biking in Burlington, outline our strategies for achieving our vision, and present specific projects for rapid implementation.
At the start of the project, Street Plans launched numerous online platform to raise awareness of and gain early input on the plan. Platforms included dedicated social media feeds as well as a project website, which includes an interactive map that allows visitors to share geo-located comments on a map of the city.
For the project kick-off, Street Plans hosted a series of interactive events, starting with 6 Handlebar and Walkabout Surveys around three key areas of the city. The Handlebar and Walkabout Surveys allowed the project team to work with members of the public to discuss and document existing conditions on bike and on foot through miles of Burlington streets and paths. The surveys were paired with breakfast and happy hour social events. Following the tours, Street Plans transformed a vacant downtown storefront into a public meeting space. The public meeting incorporated issue-mapping and crowd-sourcing activities to generate top priorities for improving walking and biking conditions.
As part of the second round of public outreach for PlanBTV Walk/Bike in September 2015, Street Plans worked with Local Motion and the Department of Public Works to create two Tactical Urbanism “demonstration projects” to illustrate possibilities for better bike and pedestrian infrastructure using temporary and low-cost materials. For maximum impact, these demonstration projects occurred in partnership with the Art Hop and Open Streets BTV Events already taking place throughout the course of the Sept. 11-13 weekend.
The City Council approved the master plan in April of 2017.