Members of a team beginning development of a Master Plan for Pedestrian and Bike Paths in Rapid City explained their approach and listened to comments from interested people at a an information session hosted by Friends of Rapid City Parks.
Ann Friewald and Hannah Kapell of Alta Planning + Design, and local planner Mike Bender told a group of 20 bicycle enthusiasts about their approach to develop a plan for the Metropolitan Planning Organization by the end of the year. They described the firm’s experience and philosophy, which emphasizes connectivity, a city-wide network, and convenient access to routes that will serve for all levels of cyclists, from bicycle commuters to weekend recreationists, and pedestrians.
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e group is assessing existing bicycle and pedestrian routes in Rapid City, looking at obstacles and gaps, and will come up with both practical and visionary proposals. Friewald said Rapid City has the beginnings of a “bicycle culture” with the Fat Tire Festival, the Hanson-Larson Memorial Trails on Cowboy Hill, Skyline Wilderness and other trails. But they heard about plenty of gaps, obstacles, difficult intersections, broken pavement and other challenges to the regular bicycle communter.
Two public meetings will provide opportunities to see drafts of the plan and make comments on proposals. The first meeting will occur in June and will include ideas for improving pedestrian walkways, increasing bike lanes, mitigating dangerous intersections, enhancing signage and lane markings, adding sidewalks where none exist, and other possible solutions that are “not just engineering solutions,” Freiwald said.