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Item 1.G.
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| City Council Regular | |
| Date: | 03/10/2025 |
| Title: | Billings Area Pedestrian Bicycle Master Plan Adoption |
| Presented by: | Elyse Monat |
| Department: | Planning & Community Services |
| Presentation: | No |
| Legal Review: | Not Applicable |
| Project Number: | N/A |
RECOMMENDATION
Staff recommends that Council forward a recommendation of plan adoption to the Policy Coordinating Committee.
BACKGROUND (Consistency with Adopted Plans and Policies, if applicable)
The Billings Yellowstone County Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) conducted a Pedestrian and Bicycle Master Plan (Plan) with Alta Planning + Design as the prime consultant and Sanbell as the sub-consultant. The Plan was a collaboration between the MPO, City Engineering, County Public Works, and MDT, along with other stakeholders. The Plan sought to identify and prioritize projects that will improve the safety and convenience of walking, biking, and rolling in the Billings area, and establish strategies for implementing the projects and programs in the future.
While the City's upcoming transportation corridor analysis and outreach efforts will provide further guidance and may change some recommendations in this plan, this Plan also provides valuable information to inform the transportation corridor analysis work. With the transportation corridor analysis project in mind, this Plan helps to narrow down the priority routes to the high comfort network. This approach is a recognition that shared-use paths and bicycling facilities cannot be provided on every street and by focusing on a more limited number of routes, we can provide higher quality routes to help get residents where they need to go, whether that be to school, work, errands, or other destinations. This plan also is supplemented by the Safe Routes to School Plans that are being implemented.
The six chapters of the Plan cover the following topics:
Chapter 1: Introduction, Vision & Goals
Chapter 2: Progress Report
Chapter 3: Existing Conditions
Chapter 4: Community Input
Chapter 5: Recommendations
Chapter 6: Implementation Strategy
The Plan sets out several goals of the Billings Area Pedestrian and Bicycle system, including making useful connections, serving a wide variety of people, increasing the safety and health of the community, enabling efficient and sustainable implementation, and expanding transportation choices. Chapter 3 evaluates both the Bicycle Level of Traffic Stress and Pedestrian Level of Traffic Stress which is a network-wide data-driven analysis of roadway segments and how safe it feels to walk or bike on or along them. There is also documentation of existing facilities and pedestrian and bicycle counts. Chapter 4 reports community participation, which included 201 survey responses, 375 map comments over two phases of public outreach, and the results of an in-person poll. Top themes from the survey included infrastructure improvements, connectivity, and safety.
The recommendations in Chapter 5 are split into two categories: High Comfort and Supplemental. While the specific type of facility is not specified, some of the high comfort routes will be shared-use paths and provide high comfort facilities for pedestrians. Additional possible types of facilities include neighborhood bikeways, bike lanes, buffered bike lanes, and separated bike lanes. The decision as to the exact facility type will be made during design with the goal of providing a facility for users of all ages and abilities. Supplemental facilities will be bike facilities that help make a connection, and will likely consist mostly of striped bike lanes and shared lane markings. Recommendations also include suggestions for programs and policies that could make walking, biking, and rolling safer and more appealing in the Billings area. The final chapter uses prioritization criteria established by the steering committee to group projects into four buckets including short term, high priority; long term, high priority; opportunistic priority; and low priority.
While the City's upcoming transportation corridor analysis and outreach efforts will provide further guidance and may change some recommendations in this plan, this Plan also provides valuable information to inform the transportation corridor analysis work. With the transportation corridor analysis project in mind, this Plan helps to narrow down the priority routes to the high comfort network. This approach is a recognition that shared-use paths and bicycling facilities cannot be provided on every street and by focusing on a more limited number of routes, we can provide higher quality routes to help get residents where they need to go, whether that be to school, work, errands, or other destinations. This plan also is supplemented by the Safe Routes to School Plans that are being implemented.
The six chapters of the Plan cover the following topics:
Chapter 1: Introduction, Vision & Goals
Chapter 2: Progress Report
Chapter 3: Existing Conditions
Chapter 4: Community Input
Chapter 5: Recommendations
Chapter 6: Implementation Strategy
The Plan sets out several goals of the Billings Area Pedestrian and Bicycle system, including making useful connections, serving a wide variety of people, increasing the safety and health of the community, enabling efficient and sustainable implementation, and expanding transportation choices. Chapter 3 evaluates both the Bicycle Level of Traffic Stress and Pedestrian Level of Traffic Stress which is a network-wide data-driven analysis of roadway segments and how safe it feels to walk or bike on or along them. There is also documentation of existing facilities and pedestrian and bicycle counts. Chapter 4 reports community participation, which included 201 survey responses, 375 map comments over two phases of public outreach, and the results of an in-person poll. Top themes from the survey included infrastructure improvements, connectivity, and safety.
The recommendations in Chapter 5 are split into two categories: High Comfort and Supplemental. While the specific type of facility is not specified, some of the high comfort routes will be shared-use paths and provide high comfort facilities for pedestrians. Additional possible types of facilities include neighborhood bikeways, bike lanes, buffered bike lanes, and separated bike lanes. The decision as to the exact facility type will be made during design with the goal of providing a facility for users of all ages and abilities. Supplemental facilities will be bike facilities that help make a connection, and will likely consist mostly of striped bike lanes and shared lane markings. Recommendations also include suggestions for programs and policies that could make walking, biking, and rolling safer and more appealing in the Billings area. The final chapter uses prioritization criteria established by the steering committee to group projects into four buckets including short term, high priority; long term, high priority; opportunistic priority; and low priority.
STAKEHOLDERS
The local review of the Pedestrian Bicycle Master Plan involves public discussion sessions, work sessions, and regular business meetings of the City Council, Yellowstone County Board of County Commissioners, and Yellowstone County Board of Planning (Planning Board). The Planning Board also conducted a legally advertised public hearing at its meetings on February 11, 2025. The public can provide comments, ask questions at any of these meetings, as well as provide formal public testimony at the Planning Board.
The public participated in this plan throughout the process with two public input periods, and an opportunity to review the draft plan. A mid-plan progress report also was provided to the City Council and BOCC in June 2024.
The Technical Advisory Committee forwarded a recommendation of plan approval to the governing bodies at their meeting on January 30, 2025. The Planning Board forwarded a recommendation of plan approval to the Policy Coordinating Committee at its meeting on February 25, 2025. On March 3, 2025, the City Council received a presentation on the contents of the Plan.
The Planning Board forwarded a recommendation of plan approval to the Policy Coordinating Committee at its meeting on February 25, 2025. The Planning Board members discussed several items at their meeting. One member was concerned about allocating more funding for shared use paths when there was already a maintenance shortfall. Transportation Planner Elyse Monat explained that this plan does not allocate funding; it is a blueprint for the ideal buildout of the system. She specified that there is a disclaimer in the plan that says this. The board member felt comfortable voting for the plan with this disclaimer. Members expressed several other concerns related to walking, biking, and driving in Billings in general that were generally outside of the scope of the plan. One member questioned if "mixing zones" where a bike lane ends temporarily due to a right hand turn lane were safe. Another was concerned about the pedestrian-activated flashing beacons on Shiloh Rd. and said that he could not see the flashers from the far side of the intersection and had to slam on his breaks several times to avoid hitting pedestrians. Ms. Monat said she could share these concerns with the Engineering Division.
The public participated in this plan throughout the process with two public input periods, and an opportunity to review the draft plan. A mid-plan progress report also was provided to the City Council and BOCC in June 2024.
The Technical Advisory Committee forwarded a recommendation of plan approval to the governing bodies at their meeting on January 30, 2025. The Planning Board forwarded a recommendation of plan approval to the Policy Coordinating Committee at its meeting on February 25, 2025. On March 3, 2025, the City Council received a presentation on the contents of the Plan.
The Planning Board forwarded a recommendation of plan approval to the Policy Coordinating Committee at its meeting on February 25, 2025. The Planning Board members discussed several items at their meeting. One member was concerned about allocating more funding for shared use paths when there was already a maintenance shortfall. Transportation Planner Elyse Monat explained that this plan does not allocate funding; it is a blueprint for the ideal buildout of the system. She specified that there is a disclaimer in the plan that says this. The board member felt comfortable voting for the plan with this disclaimer. Members expressed several other concerns related to walking, biking, and driving in Billings in general that were generally outside of the scope of the plan. One member questioned if "mixing zones" where a bike lane ends temporarily due to a right hand turn lane were safe. Another was concerned about the pedestrian-activated flashing beacons on Shiloh Rd. and said that he could not see the flashers from the far side of the intersection and had to slam on his breaks several times to avoid hitting pedestrians. Ms. Monat said she could share these concerns with the Engineering Division.
ALTERNATIVES
City Council may:
- Forward a recommendation of approval to the Policy Coordinating Committee; or,
- Forward a recommendation of approval to the Policy Coordinating Committee with recommended changes; or
- Not forward a recommendation of approval. Not forwarding a recommendation of approval would not be in accordance with past support in 2024 by the City Council and PCC of the adopted Billings MPO Work Plan that included update of this document, and could create questions from MDT and FHWA on the local reasons that federal PL funds were spent on the project.
FISCAL EFFECTS
There are no fiscal effects. This is a plan only. However, the City, County, State, MPO, or other parties, may choose to program funds to implement project recommendations in the future. This plan was approved for completion by the governing bodies in the FY23 Unified Planning Work Program and is 100% funded through Federal PL funds; no local funds were used for this project. Council forwarded a recommendation of approval to use federal funds for this project by approving the FY23 and FY24 UPWPs.
SUMMARY
Staff recommends that the City Council forward a recommendation of plan approval to the Policy Coordinating Committee (PCC), which is scheduled to meet on March 18, 2025.