Project Overview
In 2019, Alta Planning & Design, alongside multiple partners including Trailnet, began to produce the St. Louis County Action Plan for Walking and Biking (SLCAP).
The plan will guide improvements to walking and biking conditions throughout St. Louis County. It will also update the St. Louis County portion of the Gateway Bike Plan. The Action Plan will take a holistic approach to understanding the trends affecting transportation and mobility needs in St. Louis County.
Trailnet’s Work on the Plan
Trailnet staff provides consulting services to the SLCAP project team. Thus far, Trailnet has helped in the community outreach, policy development, and planning stages of the walking and biking plan.
Community Outreach
To fill gaps in traditional community engagement strategies, Trailnet and the SLCAP project team conducted an equity audit to identify and engage with historically underrepresented communities. This meant reaching out to communities with more people of color, youth, senior citizens, those with limited English proficiency, and those who rely on walking, biking, or public transit as primary modes of travel.
Based on these equity indicators (see maps of all equity indicators below), Trailnet staff conducted outreach in corresponding areas to ensure all audiences (especially diverse and underrepresented audiences) were reached. Trailnet partnered with numerous St. Louis County Public Libraries, MetroMarket, Washington University, and the Ferguson Farmer’s Market to collect information representative of the entire county.
Policy Development
A complete transportation system is not solely defined by positive infrastructure change. Thoughtful and equitable transportation policy directly influences how governments impact the transportation system. Trailnet is working to improve a number of transportation policies through the St. Louis County Action Plan for Walking and Biking. Those policies include the Complete Streets Ordinance, a Sidewalk Policy, Parking Requirements, and Road Diet policies.
Trailnet staff are conducting full-fledged reviews of these policies and reaching out to other counties across the U.S. to identify best practices and gain insight on how St. Louis County can improve these policies and ordinances.
Planning and Network Development
Trailnet is supporting the SLCAP project team by helping to create SLCAP Bike and Pedestrian Network Maps, existing conditions analyses, prioritization/safety improvements to priority corridors, and other planning tasks. Review and analysis of existing conditions and polices will provide a basis for equity impacts, resource allocation methods, and best practices for directing resources toward solutions that address equity.
To assist with the Bicycle and Pedestrian Network, Trailnet will examine bike/pedestrian facility types, and study how they’re implemented. We will also review connections to important local destinations and existing bike/pedestrian networks (such as Great Rivers Greenway trails).
This review and following recommendation will directly influence the final recommendations in the Action Plan for St. Louis County.
For more information on the St. Louis County Action Plan for Walking and Bike click here or contact planning@trailnet.org.