Staff recommends that the TAC approve the Pedestrian and Bicycle Master Plan and recommend it to the Yellowstone County Board of Planning, Yellowstone County Board of County Commissioners, and City Council for final local approval. Final review and action will be held by the Policy Coordinating Committee (PCC) on March 18, 2025. 

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 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.

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. 
 

Development of the Pedestrian and Bicycle Master Plan has included a wide range of stakeholders throughout the process, from City staff, MDT, TrailNet, LIFTT, other local organizations, City Council and the the general public. A Mid-Plan Progress report was provided to the City Council and BOCC, as were notices for public events. The content of this Plan will provide great information for existing and future CIP projects, SRTS efforts, the Transportation System Master Plan work, and other efforts to make our community safer for all users.

TAC may:

• Forward a recommendation of approval to the governing bodies; or,
• Forward a recommendation of approval to the governing bodies with recommended changes; or
• Not forward a recommendation of approval. Not forwarding a recommendation of approval or approval with changes will leave this project in limbo, raise questions from MDT and FHWA as to the community work on the project and its inclusion in the approved MPO's Annual Work Program, and conflict with the multi-department, agency and community involvement in this effort.

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 project was approved for completion by the governing bodies in the FY23 UPWP and is 100% funded through Federal PL funds; no local funds were used for this project.