Opelika, AL
CLIENT: City of Opelika
Understanding bicycling and walking activities, preferences, and trends is critical to planning and implementing improvements to a city’s transportation system. Sain Associates 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 goal 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. Through coordination with City officials and receiving public input from citizens, we aimed to provide the City with a plan tailored to their needs.
After reviewing existing bicycle and pedestrian facilities and collaborating with stakeholders to establish specific goals, we developed a master plan for bicycle and pedestrian facilities throughout the City to connect key origins and destinations. With over 200 roadway segments in the City, prioritization and phasing of recommended facilities was a critical step in providing actionable projects for the City to pursue. Facilities were prioritized using a weighted score scaled uniquely to the City’s goals and phased into feasible stages of implementation primarily based on each segment’s prioritization score.
We also facilitated several public meetings and provided low-cost, short-term recommendations for the City to implement on an accelerated timeline. There is an avid cyclist group in Opelika, and they attended each of our meetings. They provided valuable input on the plan as regular cyclists on the existing facilities.
Right-sizing bicycle and pedestrian recommendations for a town in Alabama do not necessarily fit what’s best for the Portlands and Charlottes of the world. We adjusted weighting in specific categories to tailor recommendations and planning to a digestible product for the City of Opelika and its resources. We developed our prioritization process for this study, which can be done for any City or County.