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Alachua County TPO reviews near-final Bicycle & Pedestrian Master Plan and top 20 project priorities
Summary
Deputy Director Allison Moss presented a near-final countywide Bike & Pedestrian Master Plan — nearly 500 candidate projects; staff are prioritizing projects with a 65% 'need' / 35% 'feasibility' weighting and will publish an interactive web map and hold public meetings for follow-up input.
Alachua County’s Transportation Planning Organization received an update on a countywide Bicycle & Pedestrian Master Plan that staff say is nearing the end of its development phase and now entering project prioritization. Deputy Director Allison Moss told the board the plan’s principal goal is “to make walking and biking attractive choices, for people of all ages and abilities,” combining community input, connectivity analysis and feasibility checks.
Staff said the plan began with broad outreach — two public meetings, popups and an online mapping tool that collected more than 2,000 survey responses — and produced a dense network designed to provide quarter‑mile to half‑mile access in urban cluster areas. The master plan evaluates facility types ranging from low‑cost buffered bike lanes to fully separated concrete bike paths and shared use paths. Moss said consultants evaluated roughly 500 candidate projects and applied a prioritization formula that weights community need at 65% and feasibility at 35% to arrive at top‑tier lists; the presentation showed a sampling of the top 20 projects within the City of Gainesville and a set of longer-distance connector and rail‑to‑trail items.
Board members and public speakers asked about quicker, lower-cost implementation options — ‘‘quick‑build’’ treatments such as flex‑posts or temporary curb adjustments — and sought reassurance that the scoring balanced cost, equity and near‑term deliverability. Moss said planning‑level cost estimates are included and that staff will publish a web map in mid‑month to allow commissioners and the public to drill into individual project scores and feasibility considerations. Commissioners also asked staff to be explicit about ADA retrofit priorities and to show how near‑term projects align with larger corridors slated for eventual full build‑outs.
The master plan will return to the TPO and partner boards after the April public meeting; staff said the next steps include finalizing the full plan document, continuing targeted outreach and working with the TPO to integrate priority projects into collective funding and implementation strategies.
