Plan BTV Walk/Bike Master Plan | Burlington, VT

Project Status: Plan Adopted by City of Burlington

Together with Vermont-based engineering firm DuBois & King, Street Plans led Plan BTV Walk/Bike – Burlington’s first citywide planning effort focused on active transportation.

At the start of the project, Street Plans launched numerous online platforms to raise awareness of and gain early input on the plan. The first 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 in September 2015, Street Plans worked with local advocacy groups and the Department of Public Works to create two large Tactical Urbanism demonstration projects to illustrate possibilities for better bike and pedestrian infrastructure using temporary and low-cost materials. Data on vehicle speeds and volumes gathered at the second site showed that although volumes of vehicles did not change significantly, speeds were significantly lower during the demonstration.

The projects helped illustrate that more robust bikeway treatments could lead to a higher percentage of drivers observing the speed limit. Several elements of these demonstration projects have since been made permanent, and the city has adopted an innovative policy/program developed by Street Plans allowing citizens to develop and implement their own demonstration projects. 

The Master Plan was adopted by the Burlington City Council in March, 2017. In order to make the sure the plan moves from paper-to-pavement, the City of Burlington retained Street Plans to take the plan into implementation through the development of specific corridor plans, as well as a design and materials guide for Quick Build projects, which has led to the implementation of Burlington’s first protected bike lane and a 1.25-mile long neighborhood greenway.