Newman crafting non-motorized transportation plan

NEWMAN – The city is developing a non-motorized transportation plan that will help guide future development and improvements which promote pedestrian and cycling opportunities in the community.

Assistant Planner Stephanie Ocasio said the city has retained a consultant to help guide development of the plan, which is being funded through a grant.

A kickoff meeting of a newly-formed non-motorized transportation plan committee will be held next Wednesday. All interested community members are invited to attend and share their input on desired improvements to provide and encourage use of opportunities for people to bike or walk around town.

“Our general plan goal is to encourage a walkable city,” Ocasio pointed out. “This plan will help encourage that and set out some goals and policies for the future.”

Those policies could extend as far as encouraging new industrial development to include bike-friendly amenities such as lockers and bike racks, Ocasio noted.

Some simple development design features can make a significant difference in encouraging residents to walk or cycle, she added, such as ensuring that cul-de-sacs have walkway access to other transportation corridors rather than being dead ends.

Typically, she said, amenities such as walking trails and bike lanes can be incorporated into new development, but there may also be opportunities to further enhance and expand non-motorized transportation features in the existing community as well.

“I would like to see more bike lanes in the existing city. I think we have some right-of-ways that could handle that,” she told Mattos Newspapers.

Ocasio noted that the city’s circulation elements call for non-motorized connections to downtown.

“We have the skeleton. We just need to build on that,” she explained.

The school district is among the entities invited to have representation on the committee.

Ocasio said part of the process will identify areas where improvements can enhance the safety of students walking to and from school, as well as a citywide bicycle network.

“We have already done one ‘Safe Routes to School’ project, which I think was a success,” she stated. “We’d like to see more of those types of projects take place.”

The plan will identify a network of pedestrian trails and bike paths which connect neighborhoods with parks, schools and business centers, according to information provided by Ocasio, and will also identify possible funding opportunities.

While acknowledging that vehicles are necessary in rural areas such as Newman, Ocasio said she also believes people are increasingly willing to walk or cycle when feasible – particularly if the amenities are in place to encourage that alternative.

“I think that people are now more open to the idea that they don’t necessarily need to jump into their car to run to the store for one or two items,” she reflected. “If we can make safe, aesthetically pleasing trails away from traffic and plan for corridors that encourage walking or cycling, it is definitely a positive for the community.”

Using transportation other than motorized vehicles is cost-effective, environmentally friendly and healthy, Ocasio remarked.

The non-motorized transportation plan will be shared with other cities in Stanislaus County to use as a template for their own future policies. Ocasio said each participating city will create a plan to address a specific need – such as a water use reduction plan being developed by one city – and all will go into a “sustainability tool box” for use by other partners.

The kick-off meeting has been scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 1, at 1 p.m. in the Newman City Council chambers (behind the Newman Police Department).

Interested community members can call Ocasio at 862-3725 or email her at socasio@cityofnewman.com for additonal information.