Developing the New Castle County Bicycle Plan
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WINTER 2018 Quarterly newsletter of the Wilmington Area Planning Council TRANSPORTER Developing the New Castle County Bicycle Plan hroughout the new year, and local bicycle and TWILMAPCO will work with pathway planning. In local and state agencies and the addition, WILMAPCO community to develop a New Castle is currently gathering County Bicycle Plan that builds upon information about past planning and new feedback to existing conditions establish recommendations for: that impact bicycling • Better safety, access, and comfort throughout New Castle for cyclists County and is seeking • Prioritization of improvements concerns about bicycling, • Programs and policies for education, suggestions for infrastructure enforcement, and encouragement improvements, and ideas about other equitable bicycle access to transit, The Plan will serve as a local, ways to make things better for all and encourage adequate and secure proMectspeci¿ c companion to the types of people interested in bicycling bicycle parking and other end-of- statewide, policy-based Blueprint for transportation, recreation, or trip facilities at major destinations. for a Bicycle-Friendly Delaware health. Recommendations will address (see page 2). Ideas will be drawn The Plan will identify a bicycle improved safety for bicycling from existing local comprehensive transportation network. In addition, through design, maintenance, and plans, community and corridor plans, it will mention strategies to provide enforcement practices and suggest how bicycle elements can be better incorporated into land use and development planning. WILMAPCO is currently seeking community groups’ participation in the advisory committee and looking for opportunities to present to organizations. If your group would like to get more involved, please contact Heather Dunnigan at (302) 737-6205 ext. 118 or email [email protected]. More information about the Plan is available online at www.wilmapco.org/bikencc. Blueprint for a Bicycle-Friendly Delaware Nears Completion hroughout 2017, the Delaware for all types of bicyclists, including outcomes for all Delawareans, T Department of Transportation those with low tolerance for especially traditionally underserved (DelDOT) has worked with bicycling with automobile traf¿ c, populations. WILMAPCO and other stakeholders through a connected system of low- DelDOT and WILMAPCO are to develop a statewide policy plan, speed local roads, off-street trails, developing several forthcoming the Blueprint for a Bicycle-Friendly and on-street bicycle facilities. products related to the Blueprint, Delaware. Four key purposes CULTURE: Through partnerships including a toolkit that provides of this project are to: between a wide variety of user-friendly guidance on plan • Identify Delaware-speci¿ c goals agencies, organizations, and implementation to the many and adopt new and best practices of¿ cials, Delaware should have a organizations and individuals that • Integrate efforts of stakeholders transportation and social culture support bicycling, and a table of into a focused implementation that supports bicycling as an implementation strategies to help strategy enjoyable and widely accepted form guide and track progress. • Increase coordination and of transportation and recreation. Unlike the previous Delaware leveraging of resources Public education and awareness Bicycle Plan, the Blueprint will • Communicate the value of bicycling campaigns, law enforcement not identify projects. Instead, in achieving broad societal goals strategies, and encouragement projects will be identi¿ ed through A series of public meetings and programs should promote a road the metropolitan planning online engagement shaped the vision culture of safe driving and a organizations, local government, statement for the Blueprint, which broader culture that sees bicycling or non-pro¿ t planning, prioritized reads as follows: as normal and desirable. by WILMAPCO for New Castle TRANSPARENCY: The processes County, and then submitted to “Everyone in Delaware has front- related to planning, funding, DelDOT for prioritization at a door access to a bicycle network building, and maintaining statewide level. WILMAPCO has that is safe, comfortable, and bicycling facilities should be well- begun development of the New conveniently connected to places known and understood within Castle County Bicycle Plan (see people want to go. A seamlessly DelDOT, other state and regional page 1) and is available to assist integrated transportation and agencies, and public stakeholder municipalities and other groups with land use decision-making organizations. local planning. process, with many partners COORDINATION: Internally, Learn more at working together, encourages DelDOT policies, standards, www.deldot.gov/information/projects/ a culture where people choose and hiring and training practices blueprint_bicycle_friendly_delaware. bicycling in their daily lives for should support the development transportation, recreation, and of a safe, comfortable, and improved health.” connected bicycling network. Active coordination within Draft key principles of the Blueprint DelDOT and with other agencies include: and organizations should support a positive culture of SAFETY: Bicycling in Delaware bicycling. This requires good should be safe and be perceived as communication. safe by all. Fear of injury or death EQUITY: Bicycling should be should not be a barrier to bicycling. an activity and travel mode NETWORK: Throughout the state, available to an increasingly the high-quality bicycling network broad population; bicycling is should provide comfortable routes an opportunity to improve life Page 2 The Future Trails of Northern Delaware Coalition Promotes Bicycle and Walking Routes n April 2016, Delaware into trail funding supplied by the that may bene¿ t from the broad IGreenways received a planning government, so that trails could be built support supplied by the Coalition grant from the William Penn at a faster rate. include the East Coast Greenway Foundation. The grant’s purpose is Phase 1 of the grant identi¿ ed the from Claymont to Fox Point, to further completion of a northern following early-action projects, which an extended riverfront trail in Delaware trail network that have the potential to be realized quickly Wilmington, and a trail from connects communities and popular through public-private partnerships: Wilmington to the First State National destinations. • Augustine Cut Off Trail: Connects Historic Park and Brandywine Creek To that end, civic organizations, north Wilmington to Brandywine Park State Park. corporations, hiking/biking clubs, and Trolley Square in Wilmington, Delaware Greenways will continue and other area non-pro¿ ts have providing an alternative to the steep working with the Coalition, using formed the Future Trails of Northern hills in Alapocas Run Park. Builds a second William Penn Foundation Delaware Coalition, with additional upon Incyte’s campus improvements grant. Through August 2019, the support from the Delaware and provides trail access for schools Coalition will work to: Department of Natural Resources and neighborhoods. • Complete a planning study for one of and Environmental Control, • Hockessin Missing Link and Bulah the ¿ ve early-action/trail-segment DelDOT, and WILMAPCO. Trail: Connects the in-progress trail projects and secure funding Drawing from citizen ideas, along Yorklyn Road (from Yorklyn • Move the broad-vision, big-gap organizational input, and existing to Lancaster Pike) to the recently projects forward plans, the Coalition mapped a completed Valley Road Pathway. • Formalize the organization of the 240-mile network of existing, • Nemours Alapocas Trail: Improves Coalition planned, and conceptual bicycling access for DuPont Experimental • Continue to engage the communities and walking routes. Delaware Station, Nemours, and Alfred I. of Northern Delaware to address Greenways then scored 100 network duPont Hospital. walkability and bikeability. segments, using WILMAPCO’s • Hercules Road Trail: Removes a approach to prioritize projects. major “pinch point” in an on-road Learn more at www.delawaregreenways. Delaware Greenways also route used by cyclists and may be part org/trails-pathways. worked with DelDOT to develop of the future Wilmington-to-Newark a policy for the integration of bikeway. private, philanthropic funding Three broad-vision, big-gap trails Page 3 Study Shows Benefits of Closing the Gap for MARC/SEPTA Rail Commuters long the nearly 460 miles of by rail to both the SEPTA and MARC Transit Administration, and SEPTA, Arail lines on Amtrak’s Northeast train service. The last train to make developed new ridership projections. Corridor between Spotsylvania, VA, a scheduled stop at Elkton’s historic Three different scenarios were tested and New London, CT, there is one train station was on April 25, 1981. and compared to a no-build scenario. gap in local commuter rail service: WILMAPCO has completed three The results again showed that with the 20 miles between Perryville, MD, feasibility studies that con¿ rm the a connection of the MARC and and Newark, DE. need and viability of rail service SEPTA commuter services, ridership Amtrak can bridge this gap for across Cecil County. WILMAPCO growth for both services would those who are just passing through also completed a ridership study as greatly increase. The study also the region, but the gap creates serious part of an environmental assessment showed that the projected growth, challenges for residents seeking to for the