City to hold open house on bike/pedestrian plan
May 26—Frederick residents will have a chance next week to provide feedback on the city's plan for bicycle and pedestrian traffic.
The city will host an open house at 6 p.m. on Tuesday in Room C of the Municipal Annex at 140 W. Patrick St. to discuss a draft of the city's Let's Move, Frederick plan.
The event will give people a chance to see the breadth of the draft, including the projects and programs that would be involved in implementing it, said David Edmondson, a transportation planner for the city.
The city is looking to see what people like or don't like about the plan, as well as what they think is missing or what should be looked at instead, Edmondson said.
The plan calls for adding 24 miles of new sidewalk and upgrades to 26 intersections; 127 miles of bike lanes and trails, including off-street paths, protected bike lanes, and shared streets; and options for how to pay for and maintain new infrastructure.
It includes a chapter on pedestrian traffic, including identifying missing segments of sidewalk, the likely cost of quality maintenance, and ideas that would get more people to walk, Edmondson said.
Research has shown that a lot of people in Frederick walk for errands and reasons other than recreation, he said.
"We want to make sure that this is something you can do," he said.
The Let's Move, Frederick plan also tries to create a vision for what should happen in areas where the city is likely to grow in the future, such as what types of bike paths and trails should go where.
When property is annexed into the city, the plan will allow the city to let developers know what types of facilities they should look at in a development plan, Edmondson said.
The plan's development had to be coordinated with Frederick County, which has its own bikeways and trails plan.
The city's trails are incorporated into the county's plans, and the county has several trails that connect to ones in the city, said Joe Kelley, the bicycle and pedestrian coordinator for the county.
Kelley said he talks to Edmondson and Cherian Eapen, the city's supervisor of traffic engineering, at least once a month to make sure their plans are coordinated.
"We all work pretty well together," he said.
A trail along Frederick's East Street will connect with a county trail that will stretch to Walkersville and Woodsboro, and the county has completed a feasibility study to connect Frederick and Middletown, Kelley said.
The county is also working on feasibility studies for trails to connect Frederick with Urbana, New Market, and Mount Airy, he said.
The plans work to connect trails and paths to transit services and MARC stations to provide transportation options, he said.
Along with Tuesday's workshop, Edmondson said he's also working with the Neighborhood Advisory Council coordinator to go to NAC meetings and other events to help people learn about the plan and get feedback.
He'll also attend school events to talk to parents and students about their needs for safely getting to and from school.
"Nobody knows their travel patterns better than the people who are doing them," he said.
Follow Ryan Marshall on Twitter: @RMarshallFNP
