Decatur’s kick-off meeting for its community transportation plan update is 6-8 p.m. Oct. 26 at the Decatur Recreation Center, 231 Sycamore St. This is the first in a series of public workshops for identifying various mobility needs.
Decatur’s original transportation plan was approved in 2007. The evidence lies on the city’s roadways, which look significantly different than they did over decade ago. Sidewalks are wider (the city eventually wants a sidewalk on at least one side of every city street), roads narrower and in some cases automobile speeds are slower.
Lanes have been set aside for bicycles or, in the North McDonough Road project that finished last month, a separate cycle track was built.
“Some of the things I think you’ll see with the new plan include better street crossings,” Planning Director Angela Threadgill said recently. “I think you’ll see enhancing of the Safe Routes to School program. We’d like to create some off-street pathways, and I think you’ll start to see sharrows [shared bicycle/car lanes] disappear. They are nationally falling out of favor.”
Threadgill believes the community input process should take 10 months.
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