Plans are taking shape for the first phase of the new regional transportation design for the Texas Hill Country near San Antonio.
Spokesman Leroy Alloway said that the MPO met with residents of Comal, Guadalupe and Kendall counties to gather data for walking and cycling needs. He said he expected a study on the matter to be completed this summer.
“We’ve gotten some great feedback from people sitting down and physically marking up maps, telling us where they bike and hike today, where they’d like to in the future, and where they see things that we should address. Maybe the roadway doesn’t have enough markings to let people feel safe on their bikes. Maybe we need to look at more connectivity between trails and roads,” he said.
At the same time, the MPO is working on regional transportation for vehicles for the quarter million new residents that have moved into the region over the last five years.
Alloway said the 25-year plan did not call for crisscrossing the Hill Country with massive highways, but strove to make access easier across the region.
“Traffic doesn’t know what boundary it’s crossing when you’re on a road. You just know that you need to get from Point A to Point B, and we want to make sure that you’ve got the ability to do that,” he said.
The long-range plan for the four counties includes $17 billion of improvements, plus another $26 billion worth of improvements the MPO hopes to get funding for later.
For more information on the survey and map for the Alamo Area Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan, please go here.
