BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Bloomington Mayor Mark Kruzan wants to spend up to $2 million to expand his southern Indiana city's bicycle and pedestrian trails, including adding a "bicycle boulevard" to make it a more bicycle-friendly community.
Kruzan said Tuesday that his plan would improve the quality of life in the city about 60 miles south of Indianapolis.
"The improved livability of a community is what this is really about," he said.
Kruzan said he didn't know the exact cost of all the projects because it's so early in the planning process, but he estimated it would likely cost between $1.5 million and $2 million.
The Herald-Times reports that Kruzan is counting on drawing on several funding sources for the project, including the local tax increment financing district and federal funds.
Bloomington's planning director, Tom Micuda, said the city will hire a consultant this year to start working on a plan to implement the mayor's proposal. He said the consultant's study will produce recommendations for key corridors.
Kruzan said he envisions the B-Line Trail, which runs north and south, as a backbone of the city's trail system and he wants to use Allen Street as part of an east and west corridor linking other areas to the B-Line.
He said he's proposing an aggressive schedule "to construct a bicycle boulevard" along that corridor. The first phase of that project would begin this year, Kruzan said.
A bicycle boulevard is a street where bicycles are given priority over other modes of transportation, particularly over cars. It also includes signs informing drivers to expect bicycles on that road.
The ultimate goal, Kruzan said, is to elevate the city's status as a bicycle-friendly community.
He said the city also intends to purchase and construct a trail on the Black Lumber rail spur that eventually links up with the city's recently purchased switch-yard property. That project will likely be built in 2014 and 2015, with the hope that 80 percent of the project will be federally funded, Kruzan said.
Bloomington completed a plan in 2008 for bicycles, pedestrians and greenways that provides a conceptual framework for several improvements in the city's infrastructure. Kruzan said that in order to change the conceptual plan into an improvement plan, the city will generate a Greenways Implementation Plan that will be completed in 2012.
He said those recommendations will give the city a road map for where to install facilities such as bike lanes, shared-road markings and more.
Kruzan acknowledged he was frustrated, like many others in the community, with how long it took the administration to act on the conceptual greenways plan.
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