Orange County NC Website
8 <br />POLICIES: All planning staff should have to attend bicycle specific training. A Bicycle Coordinator <br />Position must be established. The Bicycle Coordinator must be given the opportunity to become <br />bicycle instructor qualified. All transportation projects should consider their impact on the cycling <br />community. Biennial State Transportation Improvement Program requests should always include at <br />least a 1 % commitment of the total request for bike facilities. <br />REGIONAL (DURHAM - CHAPEL HILL- CARRBORO MPO) CHANGES <br />NEEDED: <br />LAWS: Model ordinances (i.e., Zoning, Subdivision Regs, and Access Management) need to be <br />developed and promoted for adoption by the land use planning agencies in the MPO to coordinate a <br />comprehensive and regional bicycle friendly environment and to encourage regional cycling. <br />PLANS: The Bicycle Element of the DCHC 2025 Comprehensive Transportation Plan needs to include <br />the most viable provisions of the Orange County Bicycle Transportation Plan. All other elements of the <br />DCHC 2025 Comprehensive Transportation Plan must be reviewed to determine their compatibility <br />with the bicycle provisions of the Bicycle Element and the Orange County Comprehensive Plan. <br />PROGRAMS: Regional education and encouragement programs should be developed and <br />implemented (i.e., a regional bike -to -work day, helmet safety campaign, etc.). <br />POLCIES: Require that all regionally significant highway and transit projects include bicycle provisions. <br />Adopt a policy whereby a set percentage of the total Metropolitan Transportation Improvement <br />Program funds will be spent exclusively on bicycle transportation (e.g., 1 %). <br />STATE (NC DOT ET AL) CHANGES NEEDED: <br />LAWS: An overall analysis is needed to document all the state statutes that pertain to or impact the <br />use of bicycles for transportation (i.e., road funding, disbursement of the Highway Trust Fund, road <br />maintenance, and the fact that counties cannot fund road improvements). <br />PLANS: The current NC Bicycling Plan has no goals to construct any fixed amount of bicycling <br />improvements based upon mileage or other quantifiable performance measure, which keeps NC DOT <br />from being accountable for making significant progress. Apparently, the most pressing current goal of <br />the Division of Bicycle and Pedestrian Transportation is to spend the amount of bicycle construction <br />funds as allocated by the NC Board of Transportation. Rather than to request the amount of funds <br />necessary to complete a certain amount of miles of improvements. Likewise, substantial goals (i.e., to <br />improve 1% of the highway miles each year) to improve the roadways designated as NC Bicycle <br />Routes need to be adopted and implemented. <br />PROGRAMS: The current NC DOT Division of Bicycle and Pedestrian Transportation needs to be <br />expanded, especially since they provide most if not all, the bicycle planning support to most of the <br />towns and counties in NC. They need more personnel, a larger division budget, and more funds in the <br />State Transportation Improvement Program for bicycle transportation projects. Given the amount of <br />technical support provided by the Division of Bicycle and Pedestrian Transportation now, if they are <br />provided more resources, a lot more could be done on a statewide basis to make biking in NC less <br />stressful. <br />POLICIES: All current NC DOT Bicycle Construction Policies need re writing to make the policies <br />comprehensive, clear, and concise. As it is now, the policy is too convoluted and often leaves out <br />factors that impact the actual programming of a bike project in the STIP. <br />• Page 2 <br />