Thanks for your responses on the LRTP! The bicycle elements survived last night's TAG vote. Please attend the public release when the MPO will be taking public comments and further revising the plan: Wednesday December 5, 2012-6:00-Public Safety Building Training Room.

Approximately 25 people attended last night's Technical Advisory Group meeting. These people represented the various MPO committees and key stakeholders that developed the LRTP. There was much discussion but I did not speak. A few people such as Irv Shuetzner who runs the county school buses took shots at bicycling & walking but most participants accepted that bicycling and walking will be integrated with any transportation projects. Near the end of the meeting, the facilitator conducted multi-voting exercises to get the participants' prioritization of the strategies and projects. I don't have the results yet but it looked like bicycling and walking continued to do surprisingly well considering that Christiaan and I may have been the only cyclists there.

Because of the small number of cyclists in Morgantown, it is imperative that we be represented at the public meeting on Dec. 5. but don't forget, the City Council will be reviewing progress on our Bicycle Plan at the COW November 27, 6:30 pm.

In response to Jonathan's question about the tiers, the consultant grouped the projects into tiers that each cost approximately $150 million. Tier 1 at an estimated funding of $140 million is the amount that WVDOT told us to expect to be available between now and 2040. The lower tiers are wish lists and would probably only be funded with money from some other source than the state. The results of the multi-voting exercise might move projects from one tier to another.

Jonathan makes an excellent point that huge projects should not be stumbling blocks for smaller projects that could be accomplished sooner. Some of last night's participants echoed similar points. The problem with trying to address transportation across the entire county and then having most participants interested in moving cars and trucks, is it's hard to find time and to get attention to such projects. Since cyclists are in such a minority, the projects that get funded will probably be those that accommodate more and faster motor traffic. However, since most of the projects contain a bicycling element, we cyclists must maintain pressure that the bicycling elements stay included. The next opportunity to do that is at the Dec. 5 public meeting. Because of the small number of cyclists in Morgantown, it is imperative that we be represented at this meeting. This may also give us the opportunity to elevate attention to smaller, less expensive, near term projects.

FYI, the MPO seems to be a lot more in favor of bicycling than the City. Just check out the graphics on their respective home pages: http://www.plantogether.org/ and http://www.morgantownwv.gov/ .