The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) announced today that they’ve officially launched an effort to develop a new Oregon Bicycle and Pedestrian Mode Plan. The plan will be an update to the state’s “policy framework for bicycle and pedestrian modes” which was last updated in 1995.
While the plan’s design guide was updated in 2011, the policy portion of the plan is outdated. The current Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan is also only a staff-level document; meaning it doesn’t have the power and influence of officially adopted plans like the Highway Plan or the Freight Plan. That is going to change with this update, says ODOT’s Pedestrian and Bicycle Program Manager Sheila Lyons. Once completed, the new plan will be adopted by the Oregon Transportation Commission and will be “equal in stature” to the highway and freight plans.