Walkable Oneonta Envisioned

With ‘Complete Streets’ Talk

By LIBBY CUDMORE • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com

ONEONTA – Maureen Blanchard and Lynae Wyckoff envision Oneonta as a walkable, bikeable, wheelchair-friendly city.

“People want to live, work, pray, eat and shop in places that they can get to by walking or biking,” said Wyckoff, a senior health educator at Bassett.  “By improving access to people of all mobility levels, cities see so many benefits.”

The two representatives presented “Complete Streets: Is The City Of Oneonta Ready” before Common Council this evening in hopes that the city would adopt a Complete Streets policy in their Downtown Revitalization efforts.

“The timing is right,” said Wyckoff. “The Downtown Revitalization plan is going to bring more people to Oneonta, so we need to figure out how to move them safely.”

State and Federal regulations require that Complete Streets policies for users of all mobility levels be considered when developing projects that receive federal funding.  “Having a Complete Streets policy could mean extra grant funding,” said Wyckoff.

Projects could include bike lanes and racks, widening sidewalks, extended curbs or islands in the center of long crosswalks to shorten the length a pedestrian has to walk across the street.

“These are all doable, they don’t have to cost a lot of money, but they have a huge impact,” said Blanchard.  “Cooperstown has one and Richfield Springs is putting one in their comprehensive plan.  You need to develop a policy for your needs.”

Mayor Gary Herzig stated that he intends to move forward with putting together a Complete Streets committee, to be approved by council at a later date.  “It’s something we should explore,” he said.  “The goal of our Downtown Revitalization Initiative is to attract young people, and young people want to walk and bike to work, and this would go a long way towards that goal.”