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Committee subgroups push Complete Streets, outreach and Middle Street repaving work
Summary
The committee’s working groups recommended reframing the bike‑ped subgroup as a multimodal connectivity team to better link projects to the CIP and climate goals; staff outlined Middle Street repaving phased work and police crash data showing one pedestrian collision and no bike collisions year‑to‑date.
At its July meeting, the Portsmouth Bike & Pedestrian Committee heard updates from its subgroups on Complete Streets, outreach and an ongoing Middle Street paving project.
Bill Lyons, who spoke for the Complete Streets subgroup, said the group preferred renaming itself to emphasize multimodal city objectives and to frame projects in terms of co‑benefits such as climate mitigation, affordability and connections to transit. “We defined our purpose as helping the committee to make the case for walking and biking to answer the why — why invest in the plans, infrastructure, policy, and programs,” Lyons said. He urged committee members to link bike‑ped projects to the city’s CIP and master plan so proposals can score better in capital prioritization.
Members asked planning staff to brief the committee on Safe Routes to School work and to provide maps that overlay bike‑ped corridors with planned housing and CIP projects. The committee discussed forming or clarifying working‑group scopes and noted legal and quorum questions for informal working groups; staff said the formal rules and a legal opinion will determine whether minutes or notices are required.
On operations, DPW staff described Middle Street repaving that includes curb adjustments, consistent bike‑lane buffers and phased construction. Staff said repaving is intended to reestablish a consistent bike lane width, improve ADA ramps and add bump‑outs where needed; some curb work is already under way and restriping will follow.
Police data presented to the committee showed one pedestrian collision this year and no bicycle collisions to date; staff highlighted education and school outreach programs that have accompanied enforcement efforts.
The committee approved the minutes from its June 10 meeting by voice vote during the session and adjourned at the end of the agenda.
