01 PLAN OVERVIEW

Introduction

Walking and bicycling, as well as safe and connected infrastructure to support these activities, are essential to St. Louis County’s vision for the future. The 2013 strategic plan, Imagining Tomorrow, creates the framework and policies through which St. Louis County and its residents can grow, thrive, and prosper with healthy, engaged residents; desirable, connected communities; and accessible, attractive opportunities. A safe, comfortable, and connected network of walking and bicycling facilities can support healthy and active lifestyles, contribute to a community’s identity and sense of place, increase access to education and employment opportunities, and provide transportation options for many County residents who cannot or choose not to drive.

The Action Plan for Walking and Biking is an ambitious blueprint for the future of walking and biking in St. Louis County. Like the County’s Complete Streets Ordinance adopted in 2013, the Action Plan acknowledges the importance of safe, accessible, and convenient mobility options to meet the diverse transportation needs of St. Louis County residents. The Action Plan expands on the Complete Streets Ordinance’s underlying framework by envisioning a future transportation system that embodies the principles and values of the ordinance and by providing practical, incremental strategies to achieve it.

The Action Plan’s recommendations are grounded in data-driven analysis and research, guided by community and stakeholder engagement, and motivated by the vision of a safer, more equitable, and better connected transportation system that meets the needs of people of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds. Achieving this vision will require commitment, collaboration, determination, and resources from St. Louis County and its community partners over an extended period of time.

The Plan Overview Chapter provides important information about the Action Plan background and purpose, the planning process, the Plan’s vision and goals, and a brief description of each of the following chapters.

Plan Purpose

The Action Plan serves as a guiding document for investments in infrastructure, programs, and policies to support walking and bicycling. While the Action Plan focuses primarily on projects and actions for the St. Louis County Department of Transportation, it is also a valuable resource for other County departments, municipalities, MoDOT, Great Rivers Greenway, East West Gateway Council of Governments and other local governments.

Recommendations for pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure improvements are intended to:

• Increase safety and comfort for people walking and bicycling;

• Address facility network gaps on County-owned and maintained roads and increase connectivity to important destinations and clusters of activity;

• Provide practical strategies to implement the Complete Streets ordinance; and

• Update the Gateway Bike Plan’s recommendations for bicycle infrastructure to better reflect shifting priorities and best practices in facility planning and design.

Policy recommendations provide strategies to better integrate walking and bicycling into transportation investments and decisionmaking, increase community outreach and participation in the planning, design, and construction phases of County projects.

Planning Process

The Action Plan process began in the Spring of 2019 with creation of the Core Team, Community and Technical Advisory Committees, and formulation of a community engagement plan to guide input and participation. The County then began a thorough review of data, relevant planning documents, and transportation policies to develop a complete picture of active transportation on the County road system. Combining this thorough review of existing conditions for walking and biking with feedback from the public, the County was able to identify issues to address and opportunities to advance through the Action Plan.

In early 2020, building on these early engagement and analysis efforts, the County began to develop initial recommendations for physical, programmatic, and policy recommendations. These draft recommendations were shared with the Core Team and Advisory Committees for initial review and refinement before being shared with the public during the final round of engagement. With input obtained through a variety of virtual platforms, the County then worked to finalize the Action Plan recommendations and develop implementation strategies to advance the Action Plan’s vision and goals once adopted.

The Vision

Vision statements guide planning processes by describing the long-term hopes and desired outcomes of transportation agency staff, residents, and other stakeholders. Vision statements indicate a plan’s importance and reasons why they are undertaken. They are repeatedly considered throughout a planning process to make sure the plan’s recommendations and priorities align with the long-term vision.

Streets, highways, and other transportation infrastructure owned and maintained by St. Louis County play an important role in shaping all road users’ experiences when traveling in and around St. Louis County. Creating safer, more accessible facilities for walking and biking on these county-owned streets will be necessary to realize the Action Plan’s vision.

Vision Statement

The Action Plan envisions a safe, connected, equitable, and inclusive transportation system that supports all people in accessing life’s many opportunities.

Plan Values and Goals

The County has identified seven essential values to guide the Action Plan’s development and recommendations. These values provide structure and direction for decision-making throughout the planning process, recommendations, and action strategies that help the county bring to life the Action Plan’s unifying vision. Each value is accompanied by a corresponding goal, which provides the overarching direction to advance that value through transportationrelated decision-making and investments.

Safety

Create an environment in which people feel safe and comfortable traveling in St. Louis County, regardless of their mode of transportation.

When St. Louis County residents leave their homes, they need to be certain that they will be safe during their journey, no matter whether they are walking, bicycling, driving, or taking transit. Each person’s definition of ‘safety’ varies, but for this plan, we define safety according to the goal of reducing serious and fatal injury crashes on St. Louis County roadways. Transportation agencies create a culture of safety by responsibly designing roadways that help meet this goal. Although each traveler is responsible for traveling safely, safety is a systemic issue that must be addressed through planning, design, and engineering decisions. Walking and bicycling safety is especially important because people who walk and bike are often overrepresented in crash trends, especially crashes that result in injuries. When more people walk and bike, safety increases because these modes become more visible. Supportive infrastructure is especially important in encouraging people of all ages and abilities to walk and bike.

Connectivity

Increase connectivity and access to key community destinations, like schools, parks, community centers, transit, and employment opportunities.

A connected transportation system makes it easy for St. Louis County residents and visitors to get around. The existing roadway system is well developed for enabling travel by car. However, travel is more difficult by walking or bicycling. Increasing access to community destinations can improve an area’s livability and attractiveness for new and potential residents. Businesses also value good connectivity since that means customers can reach them by many forms of transportation. Increasing walking and bicycling access to transit is also important to creating a more multimodal transportation system. Connections to transit and other destinations are cost effective because they expand upon the County’s existing investments in the roadway and transit systems.

Equity

Enhance mobility options for those who can benefit the most, including communities of color, children, seniors, and people with limited income and means.

The transportation system connects County residents to jobs, education, parks, healthcare, and essential goods and services. Increasing access to these destinations and services for low-income residents, communities of color, households without access to a motor vehicle, children, and seniors is especially important, as many of these groups rely on walking, bicycling, and public transportation. This plan uses an equity lens to identify areas of the County with higher concentrations of people who can benefit from investments in walking, bicycling, and access to transit, and to propose new infrastructure and programs that can increase transportation options and access to opportunity.

Health

Invest in public infrastructure and active transportation as pathways to a healthier St. Louis County.

Transportation infrastructure plays an important role in residents’ health. When residents walk and bike for more trips they are more likely to meet CDC recommendations for daily exercise. Meeting these recommendations is linked with positive physical and mental health benefits. Safe, connected, and reliable active transportation networks are necessary to encourage more people to walk and bike. This plan’s recommendations focus on installing low stress infrastructure that welcomes people of all ages and abilities.

Inclusivity

Support walking and biking for all people

St. Louis County recognizes the importance of creating transportation networks that serve people of all ages, abilities, backgrounds, and travel modes, from people walking or using a wheelchair to people driving or taking public transit. St. Louis County aspires to provide an inclusive transportation system in which people walking and bicycling feel safe, comfortable, and connected to the people and places that are important to them. For people walking, this may mean interconnected sidewalks, conveniently-spaced roadway crossings with curb ramps and painted crosswalks, and paths designed to meet Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requirements. For people bicycling, this may take the shape of low-stress, dedicated bicycle facilities, connections to regional trails and greenways, and secure bicycle parking at popular destinations like schools, parks, and shopping areas.

Reliability

Provide a consistent, dependable environment for walking and bicycling across the County Road System.

Residents trust that St. Louis County roadways are reliable ways to travel throughout their communities. However, walking and bicycling may currently be considered less reliable. This is due to gaps in the sidewalk network and the absence of dedicated bicycling infrastructure along the majority of County roadways. Reliable transportation networks inspire resident confidence; they represent sound investments that optimize limited resources.

Collaboration

Achieve shared goals for active transportation through interdepartmental and interagency partnerships.

Roadways throughout the county are owned by many transportation agencies. During a typical trip, residents might travel on some combination of roadways owned and maintained by their local municipality, St. Louis County, and the State of Missouri. Collaboration between these stakeholders is necessary to achieve the goals outlined in this section. Successful collaboration occurs early and often throughout the project planning process.

Plan Contents

Executive Summary

The Executive Summary serves as a condensed version of the full plan document, highlighting important elements from each chapter of the plan, including the Action Plan’s purpose, vision, goals, recommended improvements, and key implementation strategies to guide the County and its community partners in creating walkable and bikeable places.

Plan Overview

The Plan Overview Chapter provides an introduction to the Action Plan, focusing on the Plan’s background, the overarching vision and goals that guided plan development, and the contents of the Action Plan document itself.

Community Engagement

The Community Engagement Chapter summarizes the various channels through which community residents and stakeholders have shaped the planning process and highlights recurring themes, issues, opportunities, and priorities expressed by community members through these engagement channels. From traditional open house public meetings and tablings at community events to stakeholder interviews, demonstration projects, and a virtual open house, the community engagement process reflects the County’s desire to connect with and learn from its diverse population and to adapt to changing social norms and restrictions to protect the public’s health and safety during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Existing Conditions

The Existing Conditions Chapter documents the physical and policy landscapes in which the Action Plan is being developed. This includes an inventory of existing facilities for walking and biking and analyses of transportation, land use, and demographic data to better understand issues, opportunities, and community needs for future investments in walking and biking infrastructure. The chapter also considers how related plans and policies affect walking and biking.

The Action Plan Pedestrian Network

The Action Plan Pedestrian Network Chapter presents the proposed improvements to support pedestrian safety, connectivity, and mobility. Included in this chapter are an overview of the different types of pedestrian improvements like sidewalks, shared use paths, and roadway crossings, and specific locations for these improvements on the County road system. With over 50 miles of sidewalk projects and nearly 200 miles of shared-use path projects, the pedestrian network recommendations focus on increasing safety and access to everyday destinations for St. Louis County residents.

The Action Plan Bicycle Network

The Action Plan Bicycle Network Chapter presents proposed improvements to support bicycle safety and connectivity across St. Louis County. The chapter includes descriptions of the process for developing the bicycle network and the different types of facilities that are recommended in the

Plan. The proposed bicycle facilities are grouped into the Action Plan Network, which consists of projects on County-owned roads, the Gateway Bike Plan Network Updates, which consist of projects on State and locally-owned roads, and previously planned facilities that support county-wide (and regional) connectivity, like the Great Rivers Greenway’s River Ring trail network.

Implementation Strategies

The Implementation Strategies Chapter presents a variety of strategies to advance Action Plan recommendations and integrate walking and bicycling into the County’s policies and procedures. Other considerations like funding, plan monitoring and evaluation, and ongoing maintenance and operations are also discussed in this chapter, providing the County with valuable guidance as it moves forward with implementing this long-range planning document.

Public Engagement Summary

Introduction

Community engagement was a key component of the planning process for the Action Plan. It was critical that feedback from users help the County identify community needs and desires and residents have the chance to react to draft plan recommendations.

The Action Plan’s overall engagement strategy combined tactics designed to reach a lot of people, like public meetings and an online survey, and tactics designed to reach targeted groups less likely to participate, like intercept surveys and small group meetings. This dual emphasis was designed to encourage engagement from the population at large and from communities in which there are higher concentrations of disadvantaged populations who rely on walking, bicycling, and transit as primary modes of travel. Implementation of this strategy during Phase 2 of engagement, which began in spring 2020, was disrupted due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the County continued both large-scale and targeted outreach as much as possible.

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Advisory Groups

Two advisory groups were formed to advise St. Louis County in developing the plan. These advisory groups were the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) and the Community Advisory Committee (CAC).

The County formed the Technical Advisory Committee to advise on technical issues related to plan implementation. The group met five times between summer of 2019 and the fall of 2020, including an initial launch meeting that combined both the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) and the Community Advisory Committee (CAC). Membership included representatives from all major transportation agencies including St. Louis County Department of Transportation and Public Works, Missouri Department of Transportation, East West Gateway Council of Governments, Great Rivers Greenway, Metro Transit, and several municipalities.

The Community Advisory Committee (CAC) formed to advise St. Louis County on public outreach for the planning effort and offer a user perspective on development of the plan.

The group met five times between summer of 2019 and fall 2020. Membership of the group was intended to reflect a variety of community interests. Entities represented included:

• Citizens for Modern Transit

• Paraquad

• St. Louis Arc

• St. Louis County Older Adults Commission

• St. Louis County Commission on Disabilities

• Missouri Bicycle and Pedestrian Federation

• St. Louis County Municipal League

• West County Chamber of Commerce

• St. Louis Home Builders Association

• Gateway YMCA

• Washington University