Bicycling is more than a practical, cost-effective solution to many municipal challenges. It’s an opportunity to make a community a vibrant destination for residents and visitors – a place where people don’t just live and work but an environment where everyone can appreciate the outdoors.

Understanding bicycling and walking activity, preferences, and trends is critical to planning for and implementing improvements to a city’s transportation system. Sain partnered with the City of Opelika and prepared a city-wide long-range master plan for bicycle and pedestrian accommodations. Our team also developed a short-range implementation plan that included identifying relatively lower cost recommendations for high priority roadway segments identified by the City.
The purpose of the Opelika Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan was to create a framework for the City to connect people to places with bicycle and pedestrian facilities. Sain collaborated with stakeholders to establish the following aspects of the Plan:
- Existing Conditions Review
- Vision, Goals, and Objectives
- Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan
- Project Prioritization and Phasing
- Short Term Implementation Recommendations
- Stakeholder Input
- Toolbox and Facility Guidance
Each plan goal and objective stems from the foundation set by the vision of connecting people to places. The review of existing conditions included an evaluation of safety concerns, identification of logical connections, contextualizing the plan with existing documents, and highlighting bicycle and pedestrian trip generators within the City. This information aided in the development of a master plan for bicycle and pedestrian facilities. Subsequent projects were prioritized and phased in an attainable manner for the City. The plan was then presented to the public and other stakeholders for a comment period. At the conclusion of the comment period, Sain addressed comments in conjunction with the primary stakeholders to finalize the Plan.