Have you ever driven your car to a city limits sign only to find that the road dead ends? Of course not. However, you may have experienced just such a situation when walking on a sidewalk or bicycling along a trail in Central Oklahoma. Just like transportation planners at ACOG and throughout Central Oklahoma work hard to coordinate an effective street and highway system, our region’s sidewalks and bike paths need to provide a continuous network of trails for safe and effective travel.
This month, ACOG is kicking off a planning effort to develop the first regional trails plan for Central Oklahoma. Many of the communities in our region already have, or are currently drafting, a bicycle and pedestrian trails master plan. However, a trails plan that is regionally coordinated will provide a better framework for bicycle and pedestrian transportation decision-making at both the local and regional level.
The major goals of the project will be to determine the preferred trail corridors for travel across the region and the preferred linkage points for trails as they cross jurisdictional boundaries.
The plan will be drafted internally by ACOG staff with input from the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee (BPAC) and the Intermodal Transportation Technical Committee (ITTC). A public input meeting will also be held to provide an opportunity for citizens to review and make recommendations.
The plan is scheduled to be completed by the summer of 2013.