The new 2019 Active Transportation Plan (ATP) prepared by AMATS presents the various strategies and recommendations that the Greater Akron area will pursue to improve the region’s bicycling and pedestrian networks over the next 26 years.
Adopted by the AMATS Policy Committee during its Dec. 19 meeting, the ATP is the successor to the agency’s 2016 Bike Plan and 2015 Pedestrian Plan. The ATP represents a more holistic planning approach by the agency with regards to the region’s bicycle and pedestrian networks, according to AMATS Director Curtis Baker. The plan builds upon the foundations of the agency’s previous reports while clarifying the strategies and defining the goals that AMATS will pursue to promote accessibility, efficiency and safety throughout the area’s networks.
“We determined through various public outreach initiatives that many residents consider biking and walking to be desirable vibrant modes of travel, but not necessarily convenient or safe ones. The ATP is our first step to change that,” Baker explains.
The plan presents the agency’s vision of a region in which biking and walking are not only integral parts of daily life, but vital components of a first-class, multi-modal transportation system. The ATP will also be a key component of the agency’s upcoming Transportation Outlook 2045, the long-range transportation plan for the region’s highway, public transit and alternative transportation networks.
The ATP is divided into two sections devoted to the region’s bicycling and pedestrian networks. Among the plan’s more ambitious goals are its calls to promote zero-death targets for bicycle and pedestrian crashes and a 100 percent participation rate among area school districts in the Ohio Safe Routes to Schools Program. Other goals include investment targets for new bicycle, pedestrian and shared-use infrastructure and increased cooperation among project sponsors and the region’s transit authorities, METRO RTA of Summit County and the Portage Area Regional Transportation Authority (PARTA).