Walk-Bike Council of Addison County

The September meeting of the Walk Bike Council of Addison County was held on September s7st 2018 at the ACRPC. See below for full notes.

In the spring 2018 semester, Middlebury College students Connor Pisano, Hunter Joshua Cole, and Maria Celes Abragan conducted a data gathering project with three components:

• Cyclists and Motorists Road Use Attitudes
• Desirable Infrastructure
• Bikeable Roads for Long Distance Cycling

Data was gathered using focus groups and an online survey. GIS (Graphic Information System) analysis was used to determine:

• which Addison County roads are more conducive to cycling,
• which roads are not conducive to cycling, and
• the best cycling routes between the three major Addison County towns.

Do you walk, bike and/or drive a car in Addison County? We are interested in hearing from you! The Walk Bike Council of Addison County, in partnership with Middlebury College and Local Motion is exploring travel habits and transportation infrastructure in Addison County. Thank you for your time and input!

Take the survey

The May meeting of the Walk Bike Council of Addison County was held on May 31st 2018 at the ACRPC. See below for full notes.

The Planning Commission in Vergennes completed an inventory of sidewalks on city-owned streets in the summer of 2017. We learned of their good work when we visited a Vergennes City Council meeting, and and we wanted to share it widely so that other communities can be inspired. Their final report makes recommendations to improve walkability and connectivity in Vergennes.

The project was initiated by the Planning Commission, but student volunteers from Vergennes Union High School conducted some of the assessments.  “The work was definitely a group effort,” says Planning Commission Chair Shannon Haggett. 

Report documents are below, including a list of the areas surveyed, the survey instructions and forms, and the recommendations which were presented to the City Council. The Planning Commission also developed an interactive Google Map to illustrate their findings.

• Condition of sidewalks in the city of Vergennes (interactive Google Map)
• Vergennes sidewalk recommendations (.pdf)
• Vergennes sidewalk survey (.pdf)
• Vergennes sidewalk inventory map (.pdf)

Have you done something to increase opportunities and awareness for safe walking and bicycling in your Addison County community? Please let us know!

On May 4th several members of the Walk-Bike Council of Addison County headed to White River Junction for the 2018 edition of the Vermont Walk-Bike Summit. Claire Tebbs, Bethany Yon, Adam Franco, and Mary Yates presented a three-part session in the "Safe and Healthy Communities" track on the formation of the Walk-Bike Council as well as the successes achieved in the Council's short lifetime.

The Walk-Bike Council's Infrastructure and Project Review working group reviewed VTrans' upcoming VT-116 highway paving project and provided feedback on how the project could be tweaked to improve safety for cyclists and pedestrians.

In the spring of 2017, members of the Walk-Bike council worked with the Addison County Regional Planning Commission and the Commission's contractor, Dubois-King, on an update to the Regional Transportation Plan's walk-bike section, helping to collect data from the community on infrastructure issues and gaps.