Bikable/Walkable Village
Village to Pursue Federal Safe Routes to School Funding
The Village Board has selected engineering firm GPI to assist with the preliminary design and an application for the Safe Routes to School category of the 2023 Transportation Alternatives Program (TAP).
The Village Board hired Tighe & Bond to prepare a study of the South/S Parsonage intersection, which can augment our TAP application, as well as inform any immediate interventions, such as adding a 4-way stop. I’ve put together research on crossing guards.
On Halloween and at Sinterklaas, the adorable Walking School Bus made ambulatory appearances—raising community awareness for pedestrian safety and the desire for more kids to walk to school.
The Village Comprehensive Plan process is evaluating transportation on a holistic level, and the Transportation Subcommittee has recommended to the Comp Plan Committee that the Village adopt a Complete Streets policy and focus on Safe Routes to School.
The Village’s Climate Smart Task Force has been working with students to explore the use of public space and safe routes to school from their perspective.
Roadbeck: Safe Routes to School
Starting in January 2023, a group of middle school students chose to do an enrichment elective focusing on Safe Routes to School, with Civics teacher Henry Frischknecht. Village Trustees Bertozzi and Slaby and Climate Smart Task Force member/Transportation Subcommittee member Angela Basile have been working with the students every four days to consult with them on their project.
On February 9th 2023, the students presented their project, which they titled “Roadbeck: Safe Routes to School” to the Comprehensive Plan Committee at Village Hall. View the presentation here.
Encouraging Walking and Biking to School
Since July 2021, Climate Smart Rhinebeck has been organizing events to band together families who would like kids to walk and bike to school and around the Village. Task Force volunteer Angela Basile has led the joyful and healthy intiatives such as a Bike/Walk to School event as part of International Car Free Day and the Car Free Pledge, Walk to School Days for Earth Day and Climate Week, and most recently, the adorable Walking School Bus.
Togetherness makes getting to school refreshing, fun, and highly visible! Thank you to our volunteers and Rhinebeck Village Police Department for their support.
We’d like to do these every Friday and are looking for a volunteer to organize it.
Public Workshop about Federal Grant for Walking and Biking Infrastructure
It was standing room only at Village Hall on September 26, 2023, for a discussion of potential grants and priority areas for the improvement of sidewalks, signage, bike infrastructure, crosswalks, and other measures.
This event was timed with the 2023 Climate Solutions Week, and the goal was to gain public input, ideas and concerns. There was clear support for the Village Board applying for 2023 TAP federal funding for Safe Routes to School sidewalks, crosswalks, and other infrastructure to improve safety of walking and biking to the High school/Middle school campus and to Chancellor Livingston School. Further, there was a sentiment of frustration that more improvements have not already been made and a call for immediate interventions.
The students bring their creativity to the streets!
Tactical Urbanism
During Climate Week 2022 students installed temporary traffic cone sidewalks and chalk-paint crosswalks at the intersection of South St and Parsonage, down to the Lions Mini Park—an important stretch on the walk to school.
This was a special collaboration with the Village's Climate Smart Rhinebeck Task Force and students involved in the Village's Comprehensive Plan process. In May, Task Force/Comp Plan subcommittee members Jennifer Breslin and Scout Pronto designed a full day youth workshop with guidance from consultants from Project for Public Spaces and K a N Landscape Design. Students did a future visioning experiment, a walking assessment of the Village, and brainstormed interventions for public spaces. They shared their findings and recommendations with the Comprehensive Plan Committee via this Youth Voices website.
The project included signage prompting passerby to do a feedback survey, which we also shared via Village and Climate Smart newsletters. See survey results here.
E-Bike Test Rides
During Climate Week 2022, the Village’s Climate Smart Task Force partnered for a demo event with a Pioneer Valley based, 9-municipality bike-share system that uses Bewegen electric bikes. Members of the public were invited to take a test ride and encouraged to share their ideas with the Comprehensive Plan’s Transportation Subcommittee.
Planning for Biking and Walking Infrastructure
Comprehensive Plan Transportation Subcommittee Recommendations
Bike and pedestrian friendly ideas have been a theme for the Comp Plan Subcommittee on Transportation and Mobility.
Village Worth Walking: Pedestrian Study
In a 2011 “Village Worth Walking” study from Dutchess County, connectivity North/South and safe passage to the elementary school is listed a one of the top priorities. As of 2023, this is about 2800 feet of sidewalk and about a dozen crosswalks.
“Improve pedestrian access to Livingston Elementary School and better connect the southern part of the Village to the Village Center, by creating a contiguous sidewalk from the Elementary School to the Village center. This recommendation focuses on adding or improving sidewalks along four road segments:
a) Knollwood Road: Construct a new sidewalk from Somers Drive to South Parsonage Street (1,255 linear feet). The new sidewalk should run along the south-side of Knollwood Road, connecting to existing sidewalks on Will Temper and Stortini Drive. Three crosswalks should also be added where the new sidewalk meets Stortini Drive, Will Temper Drive, and Arnett Road. [NOTE: sidewalk was added on Knollwood from the elementary school to Stortini and a crosswalk was added across Knollwood at Stortini. So continuing the sidewalk from Stortini to S Parsonage is now 1056 linear feet.]
b) South Parsonage Street: Construct/reconstruct a new sidewalk on the east-side from Knollwood Road to North Park Road (940 linear feet). A crosswalk should also be added where the sidewalk meets North Park Road.
c) South Parsonage Street: Construct a new sidewalk on the east-side from North Park Road to South Street, connecting with the Park entrance (525 linear feet).
d) South Parsonage Street: Reconstruct the existing sidewalk, rated as damaged, on the west-side between South Street and East Market Street (300 linear feet).” (P.7
Revamping Route 9
Dovetailing with these “Complete Streets” recommendations, the opportunity to work with Dutchess County and DOT presented itself. The DOT identified the Landman Kill bridge over Route 9 as in need of replacement and this prompted Mayor Bassett and Trustee Lewit to get a study from County Planning with options for revamping the Rte 9 corridor from the bridge up to Northern Dutchess Hospital. Recommendations include:
Additional crosswalks with signage and RRFBs (rectangular rapid-flashing beacons) on Rte 9.
Bike lane would only be for a short distance (through north and south gateways) then transition to sharrows with on-street parking.
