Fort Worth Walking Toward Improvements

As the City of Fort Worth continues to grow, city staff continues to look at ways to make the commute -- by car, bike or foot -- a little easier.

The city is starting up a Walk Fort Worth Master Plan project, similar to the successful Bike Fort Worth plan which is now being implemented across the city.

"Part of being a large city is improving mobility and pedestrian activity is certainly apart of that," said Jason Lamers with the city.

The Trinity Trails are certainly a pedestrian and bike friendly area of town, but a new online survey intends to find where residents would like to see sidewalks, crosswalks, and other pedestrian areas improved.

James Newsom, owner of Fort Worth Running Co., took the online survey. While he usually runs along the trails, he does see a need to improve the walking areas around his business in one of the city's new urban villages, the West 7th Street development.

"The quicker we can get ahead of the game, the better," Newsom said. "I've just noticed with 7th street the way there's so much traffic that just getting across 7th street is getting to be a problem."

The survey doesn't merely address the new parts of town, but also neighborhoods that might not have sidewalks or many pedestrian friendly options. The survey also allows residents to submit a lot of their own opinions and not just answer multiple choice questions. City staff says they want as much public input as possible during the initial start of the master plan project.

"Take the survey and give us your feedback," Lamers said. "And that feedback will be looked at and will be considered going forward as part of our pedestrian activity plan."

The survey data will be collected through the summer. Once the city comes up with a master plan, staff will then find ways to fund and implement the ideas.