French Broad River MPO

Land-of-Sky Regional Council has been awarded a grant from NCDOT in August 2011 to undertake a Regional Bike Plan study for the following seven counties:  Buncombe, Haywood, Henderson, Jackson, Madison, Swain and Transylvania. The work will be performed by Land-of-Sky Regional Council staff, with assistance from the French Broad River MPO, Land-of-Sky RPO and Southwestern RPO.  This is a two-year study, expected to finish in June 2013. We adopted the name of Blue Ridge Bike Plan for this initiative.

Read more about the study here.

Current Opportunities for Input

The following steps are going on right now:

• Steering Committee Meeting to take place this Friday, April 19th at 10 AM--Bike Plan staff and Committee are working on finalizing corridor recommendations (see map links above).  Meeting open to the public. Land-of-Sky Regional Council offices. 

             Agenda

             Corridor Survey Results           

             Regional Corridors Results

             Policies Recommendations Draft

Archives of Older Material

• Steering Committee Meeting took place on Thursday, February 21st from 10 AM-12:Noon at Land-of-Sky Offices.  See February 2013 Map Images

• With public and steering committee input, staff have been working on selecting the top five priority corridors per county
  1. Buncombe County Bicycle Corridors List
     
  2. Haywood County Bicycle Corridors List
     
  3. Henderson County Bicycle Corridors List
     
  4. Jackson County Bicycle Corridors List
     
  5. Madison County Bicycle Corridors List
     
  6. Swain County Bicycle Corridors List
     
  7. Transylvania County Bicycle Corridors List
     
  8. All Counties Bicycle Corridors List
     
• Review of policy recommendations. You can review the Draft Policy Report and summary matrix.
• November 2012 Draft project maps:
  • Larger Cities Inset Draft Recommendations Map
    
  • City of Asheville Draft Recommendations Map
    
  • Buncombe County Draft Recommendations Map
    
  • Haywood County Draft Recommendations Map
    
  • Henderson County Draft Recommendations Map
    
  • Jackson County Draft Recommendations Map
    
  • Madison County Draft Recommendations Map
    
  • Swain County Draft Recommendations Map
    
  • Transylvania County Draft Recommendations Map
    
  • 
• November 5- December 6, 2012:  second round of Community Input Meetings occurred.  See flyer with list of locations here.
• Steering Committee meeting took place on  October 1st, 2012 at Land-of-Sky Regional Council.  Some of the materials reviewed were as follows (note: map files are large, over 25MB each, and might take several minutes to load):
• Draft summary of existing local and regional bicycle policies
  
• Buncombe County draft facilities recommendations map
  
• Haywood County draft facilities recommendations map
  
• Henderson County draft facilities recommendations map
  
• Jackson County draft facilities recommendations map
  
• Madison County draft facilities recommendations map
  
• Swain County draft facilities recommendations map
  
• Transylvania County draft facilities recommendations map
  

• Regional Bicycle Network maps were refined in July 2012 and posted on the ftp site for further review; several small meetings were held with Steering Committee members and local stakeholders to review the maps
  
• Asheville Map (pdf)
  
• Brevard Map (pdf)
  
• Bryson City Map (pdf)
  
• Buncombe Map (pdf)
  
• Haywood Map (pdf)
  
• Henderson Map (pdf)
  
• Hendersonville Map (pdf)
  
• Jackson Map (pdf)
  
• Madison Map (pdf)
  
• Swain Map (pdf)
  
• Sylva Map (pdf)
  
• Transylvania Map (pdf)
• Bike Plan staff tabled at the Southern Green Living Expo September 14-16, 2012 
• June 2012 Steering Committee meeting took place on Friday, June 22nd 10 AM-12:Noon  at AB Tech Enka-Candler Campus Haynes Building   Materials:
• Steering Committee Meeting Notes-June 22 2012
  
• Economic Benefits of Bicycling Brief
  
• Survey Results Poster (large size)
  
• Facility Type Visual Preference Poster
  
• 7-County Regional Network Map
  
• Buncombe Map
  
• Haywood Map
  
• Henderson Map
  
• Jackson Map
  
• Madison Map
  
• Swain Map
  
• Transylvania Map
  
• Presentation made available at Community Meetings

• May-June 2012 Public Input meetings have taken place, one in each of the seven counties.  See the flyer here. 100 attendees across 7 counties provided recommendations on the draft regional bicycle network, ranked the types of facilities they would like to see, and provided additional comments
• Collected Survey Responses to gage public  preference data (November 30- March 16, 2012)
• Executive Committee meeting held on Tuesday, February 28th, from 10 AM-12:Noon, at Haywood DSS Training Room. Presentation.  Meeting notes. 
• Local Data Collection: ongoing
• Name and Logo for the Blue Ridge Bike Plan were selected; now looking for catch phrase or slogan--submit your ideas to erica (at) landofsky.org
  
• Kick-off Meeting for the Steering Committee and the general public was held on November 30th,      1 PM, at the Haywood Community College High-Tech Center (Waynesville, NC).   See the meeting notes here.  The Executive Committee was elected.
• A Steering Committee was assembled for the plan (see current member list here).
• Conducting Bicycle Counts at locations throughout the region:  September -October  2011; another round coming in Fall 2012.  Results from fall 2011 counts.
  

Contact us at mpo@landofsky.org if you would like to be added to the mailing list for the Regional Bike Plan, or would like to volunteer to help with bike counts.

Join our mailing list and come to one of the Community Meetings to provide some input on where and what type of facilities you would like to see in the region!

Please contact us at mpo@landofsky.org if you would like to help with bike counts, to be added to the mailing list, or if you have any questions.

Additional Resources

NCDOT Bicycle and Pedestrian Laws and Guidelines Handbook