walking, biking connections
Town hall invites suggestions for pedestrians, cyclists and accessibility
EDIE ZUVANICH Special to the Press
Residents wishing for more sidewalks and trails to connect neighborhoods and schools had the opportunity to speak up at a town hall Thursday.
The city and engineering firm HDR held the open house at the Dickey-Givens Community Center, 1015 E. MLK Jr. Blvd., to get feedback for the new Active Transportation and (Americans with Disabilities Act) Transition Plan.
“We’re showing (residents) all the current conditions and current sidewalks and we’re asking folks where they would like to see the city prioritize utilizing funds to invest in our transportation accessibility off-streets. That’s sidewalks and that’s trails, especially,” said Daniel Seguin, a Taylor spokesman. “The goal is to identify which areas of the community need the most investment, both to improve ADA accessibility but also just to improve active transportation.”
“Active transportation” means no automobiles, with the plan focused on sidewalks, trails and shared-use paths for more walking and bicycling.
The ADA transition portion primarily focuses on downtown to bring the city into compliance with federal requirements to provide accessible pedestrian facilities and remove barriers from sidewalks and trails.
Development of the plan is funded by a $300,000 grant from the Texas General Land Office through the Resilient Communities Program. The money is only for planning, not construction.
Leslie Pollack, a traffic engineer with HDR, said feedback from the town hall will be combined with input from stakeholders and available transportation data to create a recommendation for the city.
“There’s been a lot of bigpicture planning but really having a prioritized list of improvements and next steps that the city of Taylor can take with building out their network is the next need,” Pollack said.
At the Thursday meeting, large posters displayed existing trails and sidewalks, along with sticky notes and pens for posting suggestions directly on the posters. There were also several labeled jars with topics such as “improved trail lighting” attendees were encouraged to fund with play money supplied by HDR, to show which amenities have the most public support.
Taylor resident Amanda Segers said she appreciated the maps and made some suggestions for planners.
“I hope that we can have some shared-use pathways between basically all school campuses. I love the idea of having our children being able to have safe alternative routes to school. And having a shared use path on TH Johnson, Mallard (Lane) and Lake (Drive) will provide that,” Segers said.
“ “I hope that we can have some shared-use pathways between basically all school campuses.”
— Amanda Segers
