Ribbons, fake cash and scrolling comment bubbles on the big screen aren’t a typical meeting set-up. But the City of Orlando wants people to participate in creating its new Bike Plan. This will be the first update to the plan in a decade.
On March 26, Bike/Walk Central Florida was at the first city’s first public Bike Plan Update Meeting at the Beardall Senior Center. Participants weaved through the Beardall Senior Center, stopping at various interactive stations. City staff encouraged them to participate in activities to share feedback and ideas about how to shift the City Beautiful into a City Bikeable.
City staff gave attendees fake money when they walked in the door. Then people could cast their “votes” by deciding how much, if any, money to put toward different proposed projects. Options included off-street paths/trails, bridges/overpasses, protected bike lanes, on-road bike lanes and neighborhood bikeways and bicycling programs (education, enforcement and events).
Another station was designed to identify the most popular bike routes. A giant map of Orlando quickly became a jumble of green and blue. People used green ribbon to mark the routes they used most often and blue ribbon to trace their “dream routes.”—paths they would like to take but can’t due to poor signage, lack of infrastructure, safety issues or other reasons.
As people headed out, they couldn’t miss a giant screen showcasing anonymous feedback from a detailed survey about Orlando’s biking network. (click here to take it yourself). “Lack of connectivity,” “distracted motorists” and “lack of protected bikeways” were some of the biggest obstacles people mentioned, to biking more often.
The next public meeting is on April 17 at the Lake Nona High School Cafeteria at 6 p.m. Get all of the details here.
See local news coverage including an interview with BWCF Board Chair Billy Hattaway.
