Table 10. Walking and Biking Program Recommendations

Program

Description

Bicycle Safety Classes Free classes taught by League of American Bicyclists Certified Instructors cover a variety of topics and often include free safety equipment, such as reflective gear. Classes should be broadly publicized to community leaders and organizations to help promote the courses to youth, seniors, first time riders, and immigrants.

Public Service

Announcements (PSA)

Safety Education Pamphlet and Online Resources

PSAs can provide short educational messages about driving, walking, and bicycling safety. A video format allows for easy sharing on websites, social media, and media outlets. Example topics include yielding to pedestrians in a crosswalk and bike helmet fitting.

Short pamphlets about driving safety can be distributed online and at public service locations such as the DMV. Fairfax County, for example, offers “A Driver’s Guide to Bike Lanes in Fairfax County” pamphlet. Educational content should also be posted on County and partner websites.

Bike to Work Day Annual Bike to Work Day programming encourages more people to try commuting by bicycle. The County and its partners should continue to organize free “pit stops” to offer breakfast items, snacks, and educational materials to people riding to work.

Bike Month Bike Month is typically celebrated in May, June, or another warm month in Spring or Summer. Celebrations vary by community. They typically include activities such as bike to work challenges where local companies and organizations encourage staff to ride their bikes to work and compete for prizes. Other activities include “pit stops”along popular bike routes where riders can enjoy free breakfast and information about bicycling in the County.

Open Streets/Ciclovia Open streets events close roadways to car and truck traffic and open them for walking, bicycling, and other activities. Events are successful when they are in areas with varied commercial and residential land uses and publicized well in advance. Stakeholder collaboration is essential for a popular and well run event.

Program Description

Bicycle and Pedestrian Route Maps

Walking with Kids Activities

Self-guided Walking Tours

Great Rivers Greenway has developed regional bicycling maps in the past. St. Louis County should continue to coordinate with Great Rivers Greenway to update these maps as new facilities are developed. In addition, many municipalities in St. Louis County also develop walking and/ or bicycling route maps. The County should support these efforts with information about County-owned facilities within these jurisdictions.

Activity sheets for kids, including games such as BINGO to play while on a walk.

Short, self-guided walks that link community destinations could be posted to the County’s website and other partners’ websites to encourage walking for transportation and recreation.

Fix-it Stands Free bicycle repair stands, including pumps and tools, would increase convenience and access to simple bicycle maintenance that may be needed as people travel on trails and other infrastructure in the County.

Safe Routes to School (SRTS)

Bicycle and Pedestrian Counting Program

Safe Routes to School programs develop routes for children to walk and bike to school by suggesting infrastructure improvements by schools. Many of these projects may be installed initially as low cost, temporary demonstration projects. SRTS projects also provide education and encouragement programs for students.

Continue and expand existing bicycle and pedestrian monitoring initiatives within the County. The program should use a combination of automated counters and volunteer or staff-collected data.

311 Service Request St. Louis County’s 311 Service Request platform allows residents to identify issues like potholes and broken sidewalks to be addressed by the Department of Transportation. 311 should be expanded to include additional bicycle and pedestrian-related infrastructure categories, like debris in bike lanes,poor trail surface conditions, malfunctioning pedestrian signal heads, and other common issues.

Program Description

Complete Streets

Email Newsletter

A recurring email newsletter with news about Complete Streets projects would highlight County and municipal planning and construction projects. The newsletter could also promote educational resources and events led by the County or other partners.

The County should produce an annual report card to document Action Plan progress and Complete Streets implementation successes. Great Rivers Greenway routinely produces a report card to document walking and bicycling count data and infrastructure enhancements. Support local communities in seeking LAB Bicycle Friendly Communities Designation

Pedestrian and bicycle progress report

County staff should be prepared to assist local agencies with initial applications and renewals for the League of American Bicyclists (LAB) Bicycle Friendly Communities program. For example, St. Loius County may provide support in the form of data sharing regarding existing bicycle facilities, bicycle crash data, and other metrics used to evaluate Bicycle Friendly Communities applications.

Employee active transportation benefits program

Many employers in the region, including St. Louis County and other local agencies, value employee health and actively seek opportunities to support walking, bicycling, and physical activity. Providing benefits for employees who walk and bike to work through a wellness or active transportation benefits program is one such way that employers in St. Louis County can demonstrate their commitment to employee health and transportation choices. Benefits may include subsidies for a new bicycle, bicycling equipment (e.g.., lights, helmet), transit passes, fitness classes, or gym memberships.

Community Walk Audits

Driver, bicyclist, and pedestrian traffic safety courses

Community walk audits bring together a wide range of stakeholders to discuss opportunities for improving walkability. County staff should regularly participate in and/or lead walk audits, especially County-owned roadways. Walk audits are opportunities to discuss planned improvements and community members’ ideas.

For road users who receive a traffic violation citation, especially those relating to multimodal transportation like speeding in school zones or signal violations, traffic safety courses can be an instrumental educational tool to support safe and positive travel behaviors. Participation in these courses could supplement or reduce other violation-related penalties and/or fines.

Project Evaluation

Implementing recommended projects included in the Action Plan must take into account the potential impact of each project to support walking and biking and advance the Action Plan’s vision and goals. It is also necessary to consider the wider, complete transportation system context and the potential opportunities and constraints that may impact project programming and development.

Evaluation Methodology

The pedestrian and bicycle facility improvements recommended in this plan vary greatly in terms of length, location, facility type, land use context, and other characteristics. Each proposed project contributes to walking and bicycling differently. St. Louis County developed an evaluation methodology to determine the value of each recommended project on County-owned roadways with respect to the vision and value of the plan. Each of the evaluation criteria measure the extent to which recommended projects support a corresponding value or goal of the plan. These evaluation criteria and related scoring details are displayed in Table 11 on the following page.