The interactive WikiMap for the Portage County Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan is now closed for public input. Over 600 comments were received about bicycling and walking conditions and destinations in Portage County. These comments will help inform the final recommendations for the plan.
Stay tuned to this blog for updates about the plan!
The survey and interactive map that allow online input about bicycling and walking in Portage County will both close at the end of the month. If you would like to complete the survey or add comments to the interactive map, be sure to do so before midnight on May 31.
The interactive map is available here.
The survey is available here.
There will be opportunities for further public comment at future meetings – stay tuned to this blog for meeting dates and other updates about the plan.
Staff from Portage County Planning and Zoning and Toole Design Group met with the Technical, Urban and Rural Steering Committees during the week of May 13. The meetings were designed to review work that has already been completed for the plan, to provide an overview of fieldwork being conducted, and to foster discussion about bicycling and walking facilities and destinations in each of the regions.
Technical Advisory Committee
The Technical Advisory Committee is comprised of staff and officials from Portage County, Stevens Point, Plover and other communities in Portage County. The meeting focused on discussion of upcoming street and road projects and their impacts on bicycling and walking, as well as existing plans for bicycling and walking facilities that are not currently scheduled for development. The Technical Advisory Committee met for the first time on May 14th. The committee got to work immediately by providing important background information on both current and upcoming projects. One of the projects whose status was covered in a fair amount of detail was Division Street (currently in the early design phase). The committee directed the Toole Design team to several locations to field evaluate with many of the locations located in the transition between the urban area and the rural parts of the county.
Urban Steering Committee
The Urban Steering Committee meeting focused on discussions of particular problem areas for bicycling and walking in the Stevens Point Urban Area and how to better connect destinations for pedestrians and bicyclists. Tom Huber of Toole Design Group discussed incoming results of the interactive mapping site established for the plan. Generalized results were presented for the map (the public is invited to contribute additional comments). The committee offered suggestions on additional problem areas that should be evaluated. In a general fashion, the committee also recommended bicycle and pedestrian solutions for street segments and intersections.
The presentation from the Urban Steering Committee meeting is available here (2mb PDF).
Rural Steering Committee
The Rural Steering Committee meeting focused on discussions of particular problem areas for bicycling and walking in Portage County outside the Stevens Point Urban Area. The discussion was particularly focused on access to the numerous villages and County parks in Portage County and how to better connect these destinations for pedestrians and bicyclists. After a quick overview of responses from the public on problems and bicycle routing in the rural part of the county, the committee made dozens of recommendations on connections between the county’s villages, rural parks and the Stevens Point Urban Area. The committee’s recommendations consisted of which roads are currently suitable and well used for connections today and which ones were still important connections, but needing improvements. A considerable number of suggestions were offered for recreational-focused connections in the glacial areas of the county and into Waupaca County. The meeting ended with a number of comments on hiking on the Ice Age Trail and the importance of accommodating pedestrians on rural roads.
The presentation from the Urban Steering Committee meeting is available here (2mb PDF).
Packets for the upcoming meetings of the Rural, Urban and Technical Committee meetings are now available at the links below. The packets include the meeting agenda, minutes from the last meeting and other attachments that will be discussed at each meeting.
The meeting times and locations are:
Portage County is developing a Countywide Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan and needs your help! An online survey is available to help assess the walking and biking habits of County residents and find out what barriers they face to walking and bicycling more. The brief survey should take no more than 15 minutes and is available until May 31.
The survey is available here: http://tinyurl.com/PoCo-BikePedSurvey.
The interactive map for the Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan is also still available! This map allows participants to note on a Google Map where they walk and bike and issues with walking and biking that they encounter in Portage County.
If you haven’t already, please visit the interactive map: http://tinyurl.com/PoCo-BikePedMap.
We are still looking for Volunteers to participate in our Bicycle and Pedestrian Count on May 7th from 3:30 – 5:30. If you want to volunteer for this, the Planning and Zoning Department will be holding a training with week prior on May 2 at 1:30 pm in Conference Room 5 for new volunteers. Please contact Sarah Wallace at 715-346-1334 or wallaces@co.portage.wi.us. See post on April 1st for count locations.
Thanks to all of our Volunteers!
Registration Is Open For The 2013 National Bike Challenge!
Registration is open for this nation-wide bicycling challenge. Run by the League of American Bicyclists through Endomondo.com (and their free app), the concept is pretty simple:
There are prizes for hitting point milestones. You accumulate points by biking, and the system rewards bicycling frequency more than bicycling distance. But the real reward is a summer of enjoying yourself on your bicycle!
Portage County Physical Activity Guide – Find no- and low-cost physical activity opportunities available to you right here in Portage County! Informative descriptions and helpful contact information will let you discover new opportunities for physical activity in your own backyard! Brought to you by Portage County CAN.
It is that time a year again that the Portage County Planning and Zoning Office will be coordinating Bicycle and Pedestrian counts across the County. This spring’s count is scheduled for TUESDAY MAY 7 from 3:30 pm to 5:30 pm. Please contact Sarah Wallace at 715-346-1334 or by email at wallaces@co.portage.wi.us to volunteer your time.
The County started participating in the National Bicycle and Pedestrian Documentation Project (http://bikepeddocumentation.org/) in the fall of 2011. At that time the County held a train the trainer for volunteers that wanted to participate. Since that time, new volunteers are paired up at a location with another volunteer or meet with Sarah prior to count day to ensure consistency in the counts from year to year and person to person. You can find count locations on this NBPD Count Day Sign-up.
Meetings were held for the Urban and Rural Steering Committees on March 6 at the Portage County Annex Building. The meetings were well attended by committee members, and a few members of the public were in attendance at each meeting. A brief outline of the meetings based on the agenda is provided below.
