By Charles Pekow
Planners are going to have to work with bicycle advocacy groups from now on. The U.S. Department of Transportation issued a final rule late in May requiring state and metropolitan planning bodies to provide for bicycle transportation facilities as part “of an integrated multimodal transportation system” and consider both current and projected needs. The new rules comply with the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21) and the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation
(FAST)Act.
Under the regulations, groups with different interests, including bicycling, must be presented “reasonable opportunities” to participate in metropolitan planning processes. The rule applies to metropolitan transportation plans and transportation improvement programs. To see the new regs, view https://goo.gl/2Eo5ST.
