Title
Discuss implementation strategy of the City of Farmers Branch Citywide Trail Master Plan.
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BACKGROUND:
The Citywide Trail Master Plan was adopted on September 1, 2015. Phase I was selected as Valley View Lane from Dennis Lane to Alpha Road and Alpha Road from Valley View Lane to Midway Road. Two options are included in the plan, one is off street trails which would be wide sidewalks in this area or on street trails which could be implemented as a road diet.
At the October 27, 2015 City Council retreat Council's direction was to implement a road diet for Phase I. The adopted Trail Master Plan states: "Traffic count studies on each proposed roadway segment will need to be performed to examine actual post-construction traffic volumes to determine suitability of re-striping these roadways." With this direction and the need to complete a traffic study, staff began a traffic study.
At the City Council meeting February 2, 2016 the Valley View Road Diet Study was presented to City Council. The study concluded that there was capacity to implement a road diet for Phase I implementation. There was no direction given by City Council.
DISCUSSION:
As staff further evaluates this situation the belief is that road diets are going to become more and more prevalent in society as a whole. A shared lanes approach would be a good option to ease into road diets and to actively evaluate bicycle usage on Valley View Lane and Alpha Road.
Shared lanes are used in numerous cities in the metroplex. A shared lane doesn't take a lane away from vehicles but it clearly marks and signs that there are bicycles in the roadway and that they have access to an entire lane. If bicycle usage become more and more prevalent on these roadways then a road diet may need to be considered again. If usage doesn't increase or only increases a small amount then shared lanes may be a good long term solution.
Along with shared lanes, staff would go forward with wide...
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