Richfield Bike Task Force to Examine Effectiveness of Proposed Routes

Richfield’s was assigned some homework at Wednesday night’s meeting: Each member will look over the master planning routes and score the different routes on levels of effectiveness.

The grading will be based on the connectivity, operations and physical infrastructure of the route:

• Connectivity deals with how effectively the route connects public spaces, schools, commercial centers or other destinations.
• Operations deals with whether or not the compatible with each type of bicyclist, which are the commuter, recreational and local bike user.
• Physical infrastructure examines whether or not the routes are compatible to existing right-of-ways and Richfield’s infrastructure plans.

Task force members were instructed to look for any gaps in the plans and to make sure all types of bicyclists are fairly served by the proposed routes. The members will give each category for each route ratings of clearly beneficial, potential to be beneficial or little or no potential to be beneficial.

Their scores will then lead to prioritizing routes as the task force continues with project planning.

The exercise is meant to lend justification and ownership of the master plan and if any questions from the public should arise, the task force can go back to the compiled feedback from this exercise and show why the routes make sense.

Discussion of the ratings will be continued at the task force's next meeting. For a look at the proposed routes, see the attached PDF.

In other business:

• The task force briefly touched on consistency for proposed bicycle route widths so that drivers know where to drive in the road. This will help drivers be more aware of bicyclists and prevent accidents;
• Joel Odens announced he will have the master plan draft document ready to review at next month’s meeting;
• Task force members were invited to attend the informational meeting at 7:00 p.m. on March 10 at to discuss the 25 mph curve alternative the Richfield Transportation Commission has recommended to the city council for the project.

The next task force meeting is 7 p.m. April 13 at .