Click here to view the 2014 Bicycle and Pedestrian Transportation Concept
Traditionally, bicycle and pedestrian planning has catered heavily toward recreational cycling. While recreational users can legally utilize the roads within the transportation network, recreational users generally have a negative impact on the network’s capacity due to the fact that recreational trips generally do not replace vehicle trips and cyclists typically travel below the posted speed limit. When a motorist encounters a cyclist, the motorist is often forced to travel at slower than posted speeds until there is an opportunity to safely pass the cyclist. As a result of these encounters, many motorists have developed negative connotations of bicycling and have imputed these negative connotations to the bicycle and pedestrian community as a whole.
Transportation planners are tasked with promoting infrastructure and operations strategies that have positive impacts on network capacity. For this reason the Eastern Shore MPO Bicycle and Pedestrian Transportation Plan takes a distinctly different approach to bicycle and pedestrian planning. The plan focuses on promoting utilitarian cycling and walking while still accommodating recreational and leisure users. A utilitarian trip moves a person or product from location A to location B with the aim of accomplishing a specific purpose at location B. A trip is classified as utilitarian if the user would have taken a motor vehicle but for the user’s decision to travel by bicycle or on foot. Thus, utilitarian trips remove vehicles from the roadway and have a positive impact on network capacity.
For other planning documents, please visit our “Other Planning Documents” page.
Click here to view our informational video on Bicycle and Pedestrian Safety