The Town of Marblehead has commissioned Toole Design Group, LLC to develop a town-wide Bicycle Facilities Plan. As a central component to improving transportation and mobility options, this planning effort will use bicycle planning methods and identify bicycle infrastructure improvements throughout Marblehead with the intent of making bicycling a safe, efficient, and practical option for all residents and visitors.
Draft Bicycle Facilities Plan
The purpose of the plan is to:
- Guide the Town in creating a lasting bicycle transportation program.
- Guide capital investments and identify additional local, State, and Federal funding options.
- Identify convenient, attractive, and safe on-street, including vertically separated, as well as offstreet routes for bicycling to important destinations.
- Identify connections to other modes of transportation.
- Expand the existing bicycle system and improve bicycle travel throughout the community.
- Increase bike ridership in the Town.
- Improve the quality of the existing system, including connectivity within and between Marblehead neighborhoods.
- Promote safe bicycling and enhance bicycle safety including signage and education.
- Identify opportunities to connect bike accommodations with adjacent communities.
The Bicycle Plan will become a planning tool for the Town to facilitate the orderly development of bicycle facilities and provide implementation strategies to encourage their use. Infrastructure improvements to make cycling safer in Marblehead may include painted bike lanes, on-road sharrows, improved rail trail and rail trail connections and increased bicycle parking throughout the Town. The Bicycle Plan should address expanding the bicycle networks in the Town as well as making existing roadways more accommodating for bicyclists, thus increasing safety, reducing traffic, improving public health, and raising awareness for alternative roadway users.
A community engagement workshop occurred on Tuesday, July 30th at Abbot Hall.
There were several community engagement and feedback sessions, including:
- Pop-up 1: July 5th, 2024 at the Arts Festival
- Pop-up 2: July 20th, 2024 at the Farmers Market
- Public Workshop: July 30th, 2024 at Abbot Hall
- Pop-up 3: September 30th, 2024 at Village School Open House
- Public Presentation and Meeting: February 24th, 2025 with Traffic Safety Advisory Committee
Online Survey
The Marblehead Bike Facilities Plan public survey was live from July 5th, 2024 to October 14th, 2024. The survey was available on the Town website, shared through various Town group listservs, and promoted at public engagement events throughout the summer of 2024, as well as through flyers around Town. The survey collected a total of 832 responses. The online survey collected responses about the community’s general opinion of biking in Marblehead, current biking patterns, safety concerns, and anticipated bicycling behavior if a safer network was implemented.