3 Rivers Velo Sport

Do you like to ride your bike?  Are you interested in riding to work but concerned the roads aren’t safe enough?  Do you take your family for rides on the Rivergreenway but wish that you had more miles of trails?  Would you like to see the City develop additional bike infrastructure in order to make our city more bike friendly? 

 

If you answered yes to any of these questions, please attend the summit and share your thoughts and ideas. Let’s put Fort Wayne on the map as a bicycle friendly community!

 

The summit will be held on March 21, 2009 from 9 a.m. to approximately noon in the meeting rooms of the Allen County Public Library's downtown branch. An expo of bicycle vendors, trail organizations and other entities will be in the library's Great Hall from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Both events are free to the public.

 

At the summit, we’ll hear from many people including: Mayor Henry, Nancy Tibbett from the Indiana Bicycle Coalition, the Greenways Manager, Dawn Ritchie. After the summit, bicycle and health oriented businesses and organization will be on display in the great hall of the main library.

The summit will focus on public input for infrastructure planning, education strategies for drivers and cyclists, and legislative components related to bicycle transportation. City staff will use the information as it writes an in-house bicycle transportation plan. The need for a bicycle plan is outlined in Plan-It Allen, the joint City-County comprehensive plan approved in 2007.

"As companies and employers, and especially those in high-tech industries, look to move to or grow in Fort Wayne, they look at communitie's quality of life", Mayor Tom Henry said. "This kind of time and investment shows a commitment to health and fitness, air quality and the environment from our Cityís leadership. I encourage people to be engaged in the planning process and attend next month's summit to give us information about what they want to see."

The plan will work to improve connectivity of people and neighborhoods to points of destination, while using the existing Rivergreenway network and other local trails as a backbone for the system.

The specific kinds of bicycle infrastructure are being studied. City officials want to continue to expand the popular trail network, while also looking at bike lanes, bike routes and other ways that bicycles can use existing roadways. A presentation about bicycle infrastructure options will be given at the summit.

"Greenways shouldn't be our only option for cyclists," Mayor Henry said. "Sometimes we don't have the right-of-way for trails or they can become cost prohibitive. Evidence from other cities shows the more options cyclists have, the more they will use bicycles."

 

Also speaking at the summit will be Nancy Tibbett, executive director of the Indiana Bicycle Coalition. She will have just returned from the League of American Bicyclistsí National Bike Summit in Washington, D.C. Tibbett will also speak about other Hoosier citiesí efforts to improve bicycle infrastructure and bicyclist safety.

Mayor Henry aims to have the bicycle transportation plan written by the end of the year.