Texas DOT, Statewide Long-Distance Bicycle Route Prioritization

In response to the 2005 Texas Bicycle Tourism Trails Act (Texas Transportation Code § 201.9025), TxDOT collaborated with its Bicycle Advisory Committee to investigate the development of a statewide bicycle tourism trail network. High Street was contracted to develop an objective prioritization methodology to inform its development. The tool has three prioritization scenarios:

1) The Signature Segment scenario results in groups or clusters of segments that score similarly based on nearby attractions and existing and potential demand,

2) The Safety and Bicycle Level of Service scenario tends to result in scattered priority scores across the example network with fewer clusters. Scores are largely driven by measures at the intersection-level including potential for conflict and documented crashes.

3) The top scoring segments in the Low Hanging Fruit scenario are grouped along planned TxDOT projects and prioritized by lower cost and windows of opportunity for development.