University City Mayor's Task Force Meets on Bike, Walkability Plan

The Mayor’s Task Force on University City’s Bike and Walkability meets tonight to review a draft of the Bike and Walk Master Plan map at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at Heman Park Centennial Commons 7210 Olive Blvd.

The public is invited to attend the meeting.

The 15-member task force will meet with Trailnet, H3 Studio and city staff members to review the map. Residents can view the draft master plan map online.

The task force reviewed the best practices locally, nationally and internationally to determine how to make U City’s streets safe for walking and biking.  

The task force, formed in October 2010, took on the following responsibilities:

• Survey streets in the city to determine how well they accommodate pedestrian and bike travel.
• Became familiar with policies relating to foot and bike traffic held by other entities, such as the state of Missouri and St. Louis County.
• Communicate with surrounding municipalities to determine how bikeable and walkable University City streets can and should connect with streets in their communities.
• Produce a report of actions University City should take to make local streets more pedestrian and bike friendly, including suggestions on how law enforcement can and should be involved and ideas where needed implementation funds may be found.
• Research the "complete streets" approach to designing city streets and make recommendations to city council on whether or not the city should move to adopt a Complete Streets ordinance.
• Offer suggestions on how to educate residents about pedestrian and bike safety, and encourage residents to walk and bike more often.
• Recommend to city council how University City should connect to national and international efforts.

The task force will present the plan to the city council Jan. 23, and the task force report will be presented to the mayor and the council Feb. 27.