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Bicycle and Pedestrian Transportation - Current Status Currently the Harrisburg Area has little if any improvements to accommodate bicycle and pedestrian modes of transportation. A handful of newer neighborhoods have sidewalks, the Highway 49 widening project included inadequate sidewalks as part of the construction plan, while no dedicated bicycle facilities exist in the planning area. This is not unique to the Harrisburg Area. Cabarrus County and the rest of the Charlotte region have given little thought to transportation modes other than the automobile. Priority funding is given to improving the automobile transportation system because Of the severe fund'mg shortfalls mentioned previously. It wasn't until the past few years that NCDOT even gave consideration to adding sidewalks to some of its road projects. To illustrate this point one only has to look at the existing and planned bridges that will cross 1485, only a handful will include sidewalks. For several years Cabarms County has included sidewalk requirements for new residential subdivisions in the suburbanizing areas. Recently, the Town of Harrisburg added a sidewalk requirement for new subdivisions in its planning jurisdiction. These requirements have been a move in the fight direction. These requirements have made it possible for residents to safely walk through their neighborhoods and when two neighborhoods adjoin to walk between them. As more development occurs these sidewalks will make it possible for pedestrians to make small trips from home to the comer shopping center, school, or park eliminating one or two vehicle trips per household per day. What is missing are connections between developments along the thoroughfare and collector street system. Further, the biggest divider of the community is North Carolina Highway 49, a four to five lane highway that divides the Town of Harrisburg into a northern and southern half due to the inability of pedestrians to safely cross this intrastate highway. Bicycle and Pedestrian Transportation - Recommendation During the past couple of years pedestrian and bicycle planning issues have been raised by the media as well as local interest groups, elected officials, and planners. Interest groups in Charlotte such as B.I.K.E.8. as well as local elected officials and NCDOT have sponsored nationally known speakers to address bicycle and pedestrian facilities. Area residents have also shown concern over having safe routes for children to walk to schools and parks. In order to improve pedestrian and bicycle safety and provide more opportunities for non- automobile travel, all new road projects and improvements to existing roads should be evaluated for the feasibility of included bicycle and pedestrian improvements. To accomplish this evaluation, a bicycle and pedestrian plan should be developed for the planning area. The plan should be developed in cooperation with the NCDOT Division of Bicycle and Pedestrian Transportation. By working with this division of NCDOT they can provide assistance with format and content as well as lend assistance in having the plans recommendations included in NCDOT road projects as well as assistance with securing enhancement grant funding. As a first step towards developing such a plan, the Livable Community Blueprint project that began in the summer of 2000 will include a bicycle transportation section that highlights major activity nodes and recommended on and off-road routes to connect those nodes. This document will serve as a regional plan to travel between communities and will enhance the local bicycle and pedestrian plan proposed above, enabling people not only to make small trips but to also make longer trips by foot or on a bicycle. A focus point to begin the development of a comprehensive bicycle and pedestrian network will be the Town Center discussed previously. This project includes a network of 27