Public Online Input Is Requested in Designing a Safe Route for Walking, Biking, and Riding Transit in St. Albans
For Immediate Release
November 6, 2017
Contact: Amy Brewer
abrewer@nmcinc.org, 524-1296
Public Online Input Is Requested in Designing a Safe Route for Walking, Biking, and Riding Transit in St. Albans
St. Albans, VT – Earlier this year, the Town of St. Albans and the City of St. Albans received a VTrans “Better Connections Program” grant to study and develop adoption-ready plans and recommendations for improving pedestrian, bicycle, and public transit infrastructure along Route 7 from Lake Street to the Swanton town line, with a focus starting at where the sidewalk ends in the City. It’s called the Route 7 Livability Connection project.
While a team of consultants works to examine regulatory and physical attributes concerning this route, the public’s input is vital in helping the Town, the City, and the consultants to know what the public’s true needs are, what current barriers exist to walking, biking, and riding the bus along this route, and how and why individuals and families want to use this route.
Earlier this fall, there was an online survey that 162 individuals completed answering some of these questions. We’re not stopping with that, however. Today, we’re releasing an online Wikimapping Tool and we are inviting the public’s input. Wikimapping is an online map engagement process that allows the public to identify specific problems, barriers, or safety concerns in a community. In this case, folks will be able to click on a very specific location and note something of importance, such as, “major pothole right here forces me to swerve out of the shoulder while I’m biking,” or “traffic light is not long enough for me to push a stroller across this intersection,” or even “if the Rail Trail could connect through this informal footpath, I would be able to get to work safely on foot.”
This project’s Wikimapping tool is now active and ready to receive input from folks who live, work, travel, or play along Route 7 north of the City to the Swanton town line. Simply go to http://wikimapping.com/wikimap/Route-7-Livability-Connection.html and join in the conversation. It’s user-friendly and can take as little as a few minutes (or longer if you have a lot to share).
All of your input, ideas, concerns and notations help ensure that the recommended options for safe walking, biking, and riding transit that are developed for this route meet your needs and the needs of our community. For technical questions about this site, contact Roxanne Meuse, a transportation engineer from RSG (one of the consulting firms working on the project) at Roxanne.meuse@rsginc.com. For questions concerning this project on the whole, contact Ned Connell at 802-524-7589 Ext. 108 or Chip Sawyer at 802-524-1500 *259.