INCOG holds the first public meeting on its regional master plan for bicycle- and pedestrian-friendly development today at 5:30 p.m. at the TCC Center for Creativity, 910 S Boston Ave.
About 80 percent of Tulsans live within 2.5 miles of a paved trail, and James Wagner, INCOG's transportation projects coordinator, said they’re looking at the region’s 114 total miles much like a highway for the GO Plan.
"It's separated. You don't have to cross very many paths with vehicles, just like the highway network for cars," Wagner said. "And so if you think of it that way, what we haven't done is we haven't built the on-ramp system, so to speak, to get to that trail system from the neighborhoods, or you might think of it as the arterial system to get to it."
The company working with INCOG on the plan has an innovative way for the public to contribute.
The region has nearly five times as many miles of paved trail today as it did 15 years ago. Now the goal is making it easier and safer for more people to get to them. Katie Mencarini with Toole Design Group said people of all athletic abilities can help guide the GO Plan using an online Wiki map.
"So maybe there's a crossing that's really challenging, or maybe there's a route that they like to take but it could be improved," Mencarini said. "It allows them to draw it on a map, and we can just transfer it to another map without trying to guess where they're talking about and assume that we understand the right location."
A draft of the plan could be done by the end of the year. Feedback on the plan and the Wiki map are available at the GO Plan website.
