This week BikeWalkLee released a report (based on new Lee MPO data) on new and improved bike/ped facilities throughout Lee County: FY 2010-2014, which updates BikeWalkLee's 2012 report. The county is continuing to make moderate and steady progress towards filling the gaps in the countywide bike/ped network. Over the past 4 years, the lane miles of bike/ped facilities have increased by 130 miles on our major roadways (and by 154 miles if you include local roads), an average of 4.5% growth a year. Much remains to be done, but progress is being made. Be sure to say "thank you" to elected officials and government staff who have made these improvements possible.
Lee County continues making progress towards goal of filling gaps in its bicycle and pedestrian facilities network
New bike/ped facilities throughout Lee County: FY 2010-2014
Report by Darla Letourneau, BikeWalkLee
September 21, 2015
Overview
Lee County is a large far-flung area, with 804 square miles
of land and a population of 679,513 (2014).
There are almost 1,000 miles of major roadways (arterials and
collectors) and hundreds of more miles of local roads. It's sometimes hard to see the totality of
new bike/ped facilities that are being added in the county, but progress is
happening.
The Lee MPO is in the process of developing its Long Range
Transportation Plan for 2040, and is updating its Countywide Bicycle and
Pedestrian Master Plan (adopted in 2011) for inclusion in the LRTP 2040 that
will be adopted in December 2015. As
part of this process, Lee MPO staff has worked with all the local jurisdictions
and FDOT to update its data on the bicycle and pedestrian facilities and now
has data comparing the progress in adding facilities, both by jurisdiction and
by type of facility, from the baseline year of 2010 through 2014. Given the use of this report in the MPO's
LRTP and the required use of the State Database, the report is limited to all
arterials and collectors (known as "federal aid roadways") and does
not include local roads (except for Sanibel's shared use pathways, which are
included here). The data is presented in
"lane miles" which means both sides of bike lanes and sidewalks counted.
While the mileage of biking and walking facilities on local roads accounts for only 3% of the total bike/ped facilities in Lee County, the exclusion of this data from the MPO datebase means that this report is not totally comparable to BikeWalkLee's 2012 report, which included local roads. Also, unlike the 2012 report, the new MPO data does not reflect improvements in the facilities, such as widening of shared use paths and installing amenities such as wayfinding signs. The narrative below highlights some of those improvements.
Summary
Over the past four years (2010-2014), the countywide lane
miles of bike/ped facilities on major roads (arterials and collectors) have
increased by 18%, representing a moderate but steady pace of an average growth
rate of 4.5% a year. In 2010, there were
718 lane miles of bike/ped facilities increasing by 130 lane miles over
the 4 years, for a total of 848 lane miles.
While the MPO summary data does not include local roads, the
local jurisdictions provided data to the MPO on new facilities on local roads,
showing that over the 4 years, 23 lane
miles have been added on local roads, with the majority of those miles in
Cape Coral (16 miles), followed by Fort Myers (4.4 miles), unincorporated Lee
(1.8 miles) and 0.6 miles in Bonita. Adding the local roads, the total increase
in lane miles is 153 miles (vs. the 130 miles in summary tables).
In terms of jurisdiction, 53% of the facilities are in
unincorporated Lee County, the remaining 47% are found in the 5 municipalities,
with the highest share of those being in Cape Coral (22%).
Over the four year period, the highest growth rate has been
in Fort Myers Beach--34%, the jurisdiction with the smallest share of bike/ped
facilities. The second highest growth
rate has been in Cape Coral, increasing its mileage by 27%, compared to a 15%
increase in unincorporated Lee.
In terms of the type of bike/ped facilities, as of 2014, 37%
of our facilities are sidewalks and 22% are shared use paths, with the
remaining 41% of the facilities being on-road biking facilities--25% are marked
bike lanes and 16% are paved shoulders.
Since 2010, there has been a major shift towards on road facilities
being marked bike lanes vs. paved shoulders.
A shift away from paved shoulders is good news for cyclists because many
of our current paved shoulders are not really usable due to lack of maintenance
and the narrowing that often results from that.
Many of these new bike/ped facilities are part of larger
road improvement/expansion projects, especially on state and county-maintained
roads. As a result of the complete
streets policies adopted by most Lee County jurisdictions, bike/ped facilities
are now included in the design of almost all road projects.
Other improvements:
This total doesn't include
important improvements, such as the miles of biking connected with wayfinding
signs or widening of shared use paths. As
part of the 2011 MPO countywide bike/ped plan, in 2012-13 LeeDOT completed
wayfinding signs on two demonstration loops envisioned in the plan--The Tour de
Parks Recreational Loop and the University Loop, with 65.4 miles now connected
by wayfinding. In 2014, as a result of
the successful partnership between the City of Cape Coral and the Cape Coral
Bike-Ped group, they completed 90-miles of 7-interconnected bike routes, with
almost 1500 signs installed, and 13 map kiosks along the routes.
On Sanibel, almost four miles of shared use paths were
widened over the past 4 years, which is an important safety improvement not
reflected in the MPO data. In addition,
Sanibel added two off road biking trails in 2014 that are not counted in the
MPO data--the Pond Apple Park Trail and the Community Park Trail--for a total
additional mileage of 3.8 miles. In
2012, a new Sanibel Path Welcome Center was built as a result of a model
public/private partnership led by the Sanibel Bicycle Club.
Simply looking at the number of miles of new bike/ped
facilities doesn't tell you the full story of the progress in creating a
connected bike/ped network. For example,
in Cape Coral, the construction of 2.2 miles of new bike lanes in 2012, actually
resulted in a new 17-mile connected biking loop, since these two small bike
lane additions closed the gaps, creating two new biking loops. Another exciting development was the 2011
completion of Fort Myers Beach's North Estero Blvd. drainage and road improvement project which
fully incorporated a complete streets approach.
The N. Estero Blvd. project is now serving as the model for the larger
Estero Blvd. Improvement project getting underway on Fort Myers Beach in 2015 and
also as a model complete streets project for other communities in Lee County to
consider.
There are other indications of progress not just in the
construction of new facilities but in usage of the county's bike/ped network. As an indication of the value of investments
in this infrastructure, Sanibel conducted its second shared use path survey in
2012 and found that during the intervening 6 years since the first survey, path
usage had increased by both cyclists (up 56%) and pedestrians (up 77%).
Improvements in 2015 and Beyond
The MPO summary data does not go beyond 2014; however, a
couple of municipalities reported their 2015 numbers, so we know that Bonita
added 1 mile of sidewalks in 2015; and LeeDOT added 3 miles of bike lanes, and
we anticipate that the current tread of steady progress in expanding the biking
and walking network has continued in 2015.
More bike/ped facilities are currently under construction or
will soon be under construction. Most
importantly, construction is now underway on the Lee MPO TIGER grant Complete
Streets Initiative, which includes 11 miles of new shared use paths and 4 miles
of new sidewalks, all of which will be completed by the end of 2016. Connecting
to the Daniels shared use path system (the existing on the west side and the
upcoming new TIGER path on the east side) will be two new shared use paths scheduled
to be constructed by LeeDOT--the Fiddlesticks Rd. path (1.4 lane miles) that
should be constructed in 2016; and the Palomino Lane path (1.5 lane miles) scheduled
to be constructed in 2016-17.
Bonita's downtown redevelopment project is getting underway
in late 2015, to be completed by 2017.
This exciting project will make the 1.33 mile downtown corridor a
walkable/bikeable/vibrant place with lots of complete streets features,
including roundabouts and other traffic calming features.
Sanibel is constructing a new path along Bowman's Beach Rd.
to San-Cap, which will be completed by the end of 2015. Several other path expansion projects are
scheduled in the next several years, including a new path at the exit from Ding
Darling's Wildlife Dr. back to the path system on Captiva Rd, with federal grant funds.
The major multi-year Estero Blvd. Improvement Project,
managed by LeeDOT on Fort Myers Beach's one and only through road, gets
underway in 2015. This multi-year
project is broken down into 6 segments, each 1 mile long, with the first
segment beginning construction in 2015.
This project will bring much
needed upgrades in walking, biking, and transit facilities.
The Cape Coral City Council will soon be considering the
staff recommendation to install a road diet on a portion of Cape Coral Parkway
that will create another mile of bike lane that connects to the 90-mile biking route
system. In addition, the City is
exploring the possible addition of more segments to the 90-mile biking route
system.
In 2015, new sidewalks and bike lanes are being completed on
Metro Parkway from Winkler to Hanson Street, plus improvements to crosswalks at
the Metro Fowler crossover.
The new bike/ped facilities throughout Lee County reflect a
commitment to complete streets (as reflected in complete streets adopted
policies by the Lee MPO, the Lee BoCC, the Cities of Fort Myers, Bonita
Springs, and Cape Coral), the Lee MPO's countywide bicycle and pedestrian master plan adopted in 2011, and bike/ped master plans that have been adopted in some of
the local jurisdictions, such as Sanibel.
Bike/ped master plans will soon be developed for the City of Cape Coral
and the Town of Fort Myers Beach, with MPO resources.
At the beginning of 2015, Lee County added its sixth
municipality--the Village of Estero. In
future reports, the biking and walking facilities in Estero will be separated
out of the Unincorporated Lee County numbers and reported for the Village.
The2011 MPO countywide master plan is currently being
updated and will be incorporated as the
Bike/Ped Element of the 2040 LRTP to be adopted in December 2015. Below are the updated maps of bike/ped
facilities through 2014.
So, take a walk, a
run, or a bike ride and explore the new and improved biking and walking
facilities across the County. Be sure to
say “thank you" to the elected officials and government staff who made
these improvements possible. Much
remains to be done, but progress is being made. Thanks, Lee MPO, FDOT, LeeDOT, and
local cities and towns!
Technical Note
The data is presented by geographic location rather than by
the agency responsible for the construction project. Thus, all the projects being managed by FDOT
are displayed in the city/town in which they are located. Likewise, there are some projects managed by
LeeDOT because they are county maintained roads located in the independent
cities. They are shown here in the
city/town in which they are located.
The mileage is calculated in terms of lane miles,
which counts both sides of the bike lanes, shared use paths, and sidewalks (if
on both sides of road). The MPO database
only reports on arterial and collector roads, not local roads or bike/ped
facilities in parks. The only exception
to this is that the Sanibel shared use path system is included in the database.
Related
BikeWalkLee Reports:
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