About the Plan

Owned by Alison Carpenter (Deactivated)
Last updated: Apr 28, 2016
6 min read

The Duke Bicycle & Pedestrian Plan is intended to identify projects, programs, and policies that can encourage more students, faculty, staff, patients, and visitors to bike and walk to/from/around campus.  The campus planning initiative will focus on the university and health system locations within the campus envelope, as well as in the near-campus area, including access to/from off-site locations such as the Innovation District and American Tobacco Campus.  

At the same time that Duke is conducting its first major bike and pedestrian planning study, the City is working on a Bike + Walk Implementation Plan that will act as an update to the 2006 DurhamWalks Pedestrian Plan and the 2006 Durham Comprehensive Bicycle Plan.

The following scope of work was developed to provide guidance and communicate project expectations to the consultant team for the Duke Bicycle & Pedestrian Plan. Duke anticipates a 10-month timeline for the planning process.  

Steering Committee/Project Team Meetings & Public Involvement

Duke will convene a steering committee to guide the planning process. Meetings with the steering committee will be held at project milestones or decision-making points to facilitate communication among the consultant team, staff, and key stakeholders. The steering committee members will be expected to assist in the dissemination of information, facilitation of meetings, and the solicitation of campus input. In addition to in-person meetings with Duke staff and/or the steering committee, the consultant will transmit monthly project status reports in the form of a short memorandum to the Client Manager along with the invoice and specifically highlight any areas that require review, approval, input, or response.

  • Digital survey for feedback from campus community on biking/walking conditions
  • Up to five (5) steering committee meetings
  • Up to two (2) public meetings, one of which will be an open-door, “charrette”-based studio on-campus lasting two days conducted prior to June 30, 2016
  • Interactive web-based mapping application for Duke community input maintained and updated by the consultant
  • Presentations at two (2) Duke Transportation Advisory Committee meetings
  • Monthly project status reports (transmitted with invoice)

Background Information Collection

This task includes the collection of existing GIS data for the near-campus area, including data from existing (or in progress) studies listed below. Additionally, this task will likely include the verification of existing facilities using Google Earth or another remote solution.

  • 2006 DurhamWalks! Pedestrian Plan
  • 2006 Durham Comprehensive Bicycle Transportation Plan
  • Durham-Chapel Hill-Carrboro 2040 Metropolitan Transportation Plan (MTP)
  • Station Area Strategic Infrastructure (SASI) Plans
  • 2011 Durham Greenways and Trail Plan
  • 2014 Durham Access to Transit Study
  • Durham Comprehensive Plan and Unified Development Ordinance
  • 2015 Duke-Durham Coordinated Transit Study

The consultant would obtain content, information, and GIS data for each of the studies/plans above, then synthesize the information into a single map with a compiled, organized geodatabase that collectively shows completed, incomplete, and previously proposed projects.  The map should accurately account for any projects that have already been constructed or are in the process of being constructed.

The consultant shall also review existing plans (provided in digital or paper form by the client to the consultant) related to university and health system policies and programs including but not limited to the following list, in order to identify gaps where new policies or programs would be useful.

  • Duke University Climate Action Plan and Annual Greenhouse Gas Inventory
  • Duke University Campus Master Plan
  • Duke University Parking Plan
  • Duke University Sidewalk Plan
  • Duke University 5-Year TDM Plan
  • 2016 Duke Bike-Ped Benchmarking Study

Network Review and Recommendations

The consultant team will review existing conditions on campus, including transit access points as well as on-road and off-road bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure to help determine future needs.  In addition, this phase will include a review of existing programs policies at Duke, including but not limited to the Campus Master Plan, Climate Action Plan, and 5-Year TDM Plan.  The consultant should carefully review the existing TDM program offerings and recommend enhancements to help the university achieve a balanced mix of options for student and employee commuters.  This phase should include a thorough review of Duke University’s geography, campus layout, and demographics (e.g. student/employee figures, University/Medical Center distinctions, on-campus/off-campus residents, residential density maps of campus commuter population, etc.).

Additionally, the consultant should consider local and regional bike/ped infrastructure and transit services, and consider how they interact with the Duke University transportation network.  This review will consider and incorporate City of Durham bicycle and pedestrian planning projects and recommendations.  Local and regional priorities should coordinate with the recommendations for future university-based improvements, and opportunities to partner should be identified, especially where cost efficiencies and/or improved access could be achieved through combined efforts.

Specifically, consultants will review and map existing campus bike and pedestrian infrastructure including sidewalks, crosswalks, intersection signalization, on-road and off-road bikeways, ADA and bike-friendly campus routes, and bicycle parking.  A gap analysis will be performed in order to identify future infrastructure needs, and prepare for a public input phase to prioritize implementation projects.  Recommendations for future infrastructure shall incorporate best practices from across the country for facilities such as cycle tracks, shared use paths, bicycle boulevards, wayfinding signage, covered bike parking, and enclosed bike storage design standards, and traffic calming. Projects will initially be developed with opinions of probable cost and associated metrics to be used in the “Prioritization of Projects” scoping element (see below).

In addition, the consultant will identify gaps in the University’s planning and policy documents and address how to fill these.  For instance, the consultant may include recommendations to address LEED-based transportation improvements or other innovative sustainable transportation concepts.

Prioritization of Projects

The comprehensive inventory and recommendations map developed during previous tasks will be broken into logical project segments and each project will be evaluated based upon metrics developed with input from the Steering Committee.  Ranking criteria will be developed considering such factors as connectivity, future construction projects, public comment, user groups served, destinations served, pedestrian exposure, user level of stress, cost effectiveness, constructability, route utilization, and accessibility to evaluate and prioritize projects. It is assumed that pedestrian projects would be prioritized differently than bicycle projects and as such, individual mode-specific criteria will be developed.

This exercise may be expanded to more fully involve the campus community, either through an interactive web-based mapping exercise or as part of one of the public meetings.

At the conclusion of the prioritization process, there will be a draft list of ranked pedestrian projects, ranked bicycle network projects, and combined project corridors and facility recommendations.

Implementation Plan

The Plan shall make recommendations to increase opportunities for biking and walking to/from and around campus and encourage more University students and employees to use these options.  Recommendations will focus on program enhancements in the areas of education, encouragement, enforcement, and evaluation, as well as proposed infrastructure improvement projects to improve bikeability and walkability at Duke.  Deliverables will include:

  • A prioritized list of bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure projects with per project cost estimates.  These lists will offer short-term, mid-term, and long-range project breakdowns based upon prioritization criteria and constructability established in the exercise above;
  • Bicycle parking design standards for covered and non-covered installations;
  • Proposed near-term bike parking areas, including number of racks/spaces, size of concrete pad, installation specs, etc.; and
  • Complementary programs that will create a more bike- and/or pedestrian-friendly environment, such as a bicycle education program, air pumps/repair stations at various campus locations, residence hall “bike rooms,” a campus bike repair center, or other such amenities.

Deliverables

All graphics, illustrations, photos, and documentation developed throughout the planning process will be provided to Duke, along with all materials created for steering committee and public meetings. Meeting summaries, sign-in sheets, monthly project status reports, field work inventories, GIS data, PowerPoint presentations, maps, hand-outs, and photos will all be included in digital format in the final package of deliverables.

  • Draft Plan Document: A draft plan will be provided to the Duke Client Manager within seven (7) months of the notice to proceed. The steering committee will review the draft plan and provide comments to the Duke Client Manager, who will review all comments received and provide one master list to the consultant team. The consultant will incorporate comments into the draft plan. The consultant will provide a revised copy of the draft plan to the Duke Client Manager for final review and will review the revised draft plan and provide final comments. The consultant team will incorporate final comments into the draft plan and produce a final plan deliverable.
  • Final Plan Deliverable: The final plan will recommend project, policy, and programmatic improvements to increase bikeability and walkability to/from and around Duke’s campus.  The plan will incorporate an implementation strategy that covers methodology, recommendations, and specifically tailored implementation guidance for completing high priority project recommendations. The final plan will include an executive summary and be available in a PDF format ready for digital publication with active hyperlinks and web quality graphics.

SCHEDULED MILESTONES (all dates are tentative)

The following is a list of milestone deliverable dates that collectively form a project schedule. A Notice to Proceed received before or after April 1, 2016 implies an adjustment to all subsequent scheduling items by an equivalent amount of time.

Notice to Proceed: April 1, 2016

Data Collection/Plan Review and Summary of Existing Conditions/Directions:  May 1, 2016

Two-Day Studio Design Charrette: Prior to June 1, 2016

Production of First Draft Plan for Review: September 1, 2016

Production of Final Plan: December 1, 2016