Evaluation & Planning
We envision a community where…
informed community leaders are committed to increasing bicycling by setting ambitious transportation goals, instituting effective policies, and regularly evaluating progress.
Goals
1. Develop informed leaders
Community leaders and elected officials should be fluent in bicycle issues and understand why bicycling is crucial to our transportation system.
2. Create ambitious plans
Each municipality should have a bicycle plan with ambitious bicycling goals that incorporate the latest and best practices in bicycle policy and infrastructure design.
3. Enact effective decision making processes
All municipalities have policies and procedures that ensure projects, work plans, and budgets are in concert with long-range plans.
4. Conduct regular evaluation
All municipalities are monitored for progress towards their bicycling goals and projects, and results of this monitoring are shared with the public.
the evaluation & planning action plan
Action 1
Hold an annual community leaders’ bike ride.
To truly understand the issues people on bicycles face, community leaders will have the opportunity to experience these obstacles firsthand.
Leading an annual ride with elected officials and community leaders, we can help them gain perspective on the difficulties of bicycle transportation. When change-makers better relate to the issues faced by bike riders, they will be better prepared to support bicycle-friendly objectives and policies.
Action 2
Municipalities adopt leading bicycle-friendly policies.
Communities in Tompkins County want to see increased bicycle use, and we can begin to make this dream a reality.
We can begin by adopting three complementary policies: a Vision Zero strategy, a bicycle master plan, and a Complete Streets policy. Together, these plans set a base-level expectations (that no one should be killed or injured while using the road), establish a network of routes for safer bicycling to everyday destinations, and ensure that ease of bicycling and walking is accounted for in each new capital road project.
Vision Zero Strategy
A Vision Zero approach to traffic safety acknowledges that humans make mistakes on the road, but doesn’t accept that this makes injuries and deaths inevitable. Instead, we should redesign our streets and implement other strategies to prevent any and all traffic injuries and deaths in Tompkins County.
Bicycle Master Plan
A master plan is a municipalities’ approved roadmap to a safer and more connected network of bike routes in their jurisdiction. It outlines where people need to go, which routes could potentially become useful for bike travel, and which projects need to undertaken to ensure safe travel.
Complete Streets Policies
Road design should be adjusted to fit the evolving needs of transportation users. In order to ensure the continuous improvement of our shared infrastructure, the needs of people walking and bicycling must be accounted for when considering new capital projects.
Action 3
Regularly evaluate progress toward local bicycle action plans.
Bike Walk Tompkins will work with local municipalities and other stakeholders to be accountable to the public, with evaluations that demonstrate bicycle-friendly improvements.
What’s a plan without progress? How do we know how far we’ve made it as a community? As adaptions are made using the actions presented in this Bicycling for Everyone Action Plan, regular evaluation should be conducted to celebrate implementation successes and hone in on community projects that are yet unfulfilled. An evaluation should be done at least every two years and be released to the public so that everyone knows where the community is at in the path towards better biking.
The City of Ithaca has been a Bronze level Bicycle Friendly Community since 2016.
By implementing all the action steps in the Bicycling for Everyone plan, Ithaca and surrounding towns in Tompkins County would most likely become the first Gold level community in New York.
join the action
There’s a place for everyone as we transition into a more bicycle-friendly Ithaca. Whether you are a parent, college student, community leader, researcher, or business, you are needed.
