Toole Design Group presented its drafted findings of the Marblehead Bike Facilities Master Plan to the Traffic Safety Advisory Committee on Monday.
This bike plan stems from the Marblehead Net Zero Roadmap: the guideline to get the town net zero in greenhouse emissions by 2040.
Senior Engineer Taylor Dennerlein explained that Toole Design has been gathering information from community members to influence the bike plan since last April through pop-ups, a public workshop, an online survey with 835 responses, and stakeholder interviews.
“We learned that some kids, and more importantly their parents, didn’t necessarily feel safe either riding to school or allowing their kids to ride to school, but there were still a good amount of kids who biked to school, mostly using the Rail-Trail or the Bike Bus,” Dennerlein said.
She added that “most people use the Rail-Trail, but a lot of people who use that didn’t necessarily feel comfortable biking on the roads, so they would drive to the Rail-Trail and utilize that instead of just biking from their house to their destination.”
Some community members also hope for better connections to Salem and Swampscott as well as MBTA Commuter Rail stations.
“Stakeholder interviews were really interesting because they had pretty different takeaways from the general population meetings we held,” Dennerlein said.
The main concerns raised by stakeholders were about e-bikes, vehicle and bike parking, rapid implementation, maintenance, cost, and aesthetics.
“We also heard that safety should be the most important item for all roadway users, not only people biking, but also people walking and driving around town should be considered in all aspects of the plan,” Dennerlein said.
The team also conducted a handlebar survey where they rode through Marblehead on bikes, visited intersections and streets highlighted during public engagement events, and observed car, bike, and pedestrian behavior.
Designated streets to potentially be part of the bike network are illustrated in the map created by Toole Design. Community input, crash data analysis, existing conditions noted from the handlebar survey, and roadway characteristics like speed and size were taken into consideration.
The bike network has two facility types: neighborhood greenways and separate facilities. Neighborhood greenways are low-speed streets designed for drivers and bicyclists to share the road. Separated facilities refer to separated bike lanes or shared-use paths.
The Bike Plan should be finalized within a few weeks and available for the town to review before it is published.
