Challenge

The City of San Antonio is the seventh largest city in the United States, with an average population growth that surpasses that of Dallas, Austin, and even Houston. To keep up with this momentum, San Antonio is working towards developing a world class transportation system for its residents, commuters, and visitors. A key part of this lies in the city’s bike plan, which, adopted in 2011, was ready to be updated. Innovations in bike facility design, heightened safety concerns for vulnerable road users, social inequities and access gaps, and increasing demands for greater mobility options all make now an essential time to bring San Antonio’s bikeways into the future.

Solution

As part of a team of consultants, Kittelson led the planning and design for the City’s Bike Network Plan update. We developed a comprehensive database of multimodal facilities for the City’s more than 4,300 miles of streets. Engaging with a diverse cross section of San Antonians, the plan’s update compiles an evaluation of active transportation needs that examines safety, access, demand, and social and health inequities.

As part of the effort to improve and expand San Antonio’s bike network, our team also:

• Led a Health Impact Assessment in coordination with health professionals from across the state to identify existing health conditions, needs, and areas for improvement.
• Developed Bike Facility Guidelines for future amendments to the city’s code. These include context-sensitive street typologies and a design toolbox for a wide range of facilities that are uniquely fit for San Antonio. The guidance also includes templates for comfortable spaces to bike in a variety of common intersection and street typologies, which can be implemented rapidly.
• Helped construct a city-wide bike network, including a primary network of long distance and regional connections. A “neighborhood bike network” will be implemented on local streets to cultivate low stress connections to everyday needs on neighborhood streets.