Scott Walker
Transportation Planning Coordinator
City-County Planning Department
2825 3^rd Avenue North, 4th Floor
Billings, MT 59101
Phone-406-247-8661
Fax-406-657-8327
Email-walkers@ci.billings.mt.us

BILLINGS AREA BIKEWAY AND TRAIL MASTER PLAN UPDATE LAUNCHED

The City of Billings and Yellowstone County are continuing to make progress on an update to the 2011 Bikeway and Trails Master Plan.  The objective of this plan is to identify opportunities to make active transportation and recreation in-and-around Billings safer and more viable. The plan will help to better connect the community, and take advantage of great community assets, such as the Rimrocks, Yellowstone River and the historic downtown, as well as numerous neighborhood schools, parks, shopping destinations, and more. The analysis of existing bikeway and trail conditions has been completed, and significant progress has been made to assess what the key needs for improvement are in the community.

Community engagement for this project includes an online public input map and an online survey, as well as public meetings throughout the planning process, the first of which occurred on Thursday, June 30 (the presentation given at this meeting can be viewed here). The online public input map is critical to the plan’s development, enabling the public to provide input on walking and bicycling conditions on their own schedules using a simple Google maps-based online tool, which allows residents to draw lines and place points to indicate where bicycle and trail facilities are adequate and where improvements are needed. With over 450 recorded interactions with the map to date, the tool has been very successful thus far. We ask the public to continue to spread the word about this tool to their friends, family and colleagues to further increase the amount of participation. The online map can be accessed here.

In addition to the online input map, the community will also have the opportunity to provide input through an online survey, which can be accessed here: [survey under construction]. This survey seeks to understand where bikeway and trail investment should be focused and how it should be funded, where new bikeway and trail connections should be focused, and what barriers prevent people from walking and bicycling more today.

Alta Planning + Design’s Bozeman office is leading the Billings Area Bikeway and Trail Master Plan Update. Alta Planning + Design is one of North America’s leading firms specializing in bicycle, pedestrian, and trail planning, design, and implementation. A project website can be accessed at www.billingstrails.com, where a wealth of additional information can be found.
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If you would like more information about this topic, or to schedule an interview with Scott Walker or Joe Gilpin please call or e-mail Joe Gilpin at 406-624-6117 or joegilpin@altaplanning.com.

www.altaplanning.com