The City of Winchester, together with the NSVRC Winchester Frederick Metropolitan Planning Organization contracted EPR to conduct a bike routes study to recommend designated north-south bike routes and appropriate treatments through the downtown.  Winchester recently installed the Green Circle Trail, a loop trail that circles the downtown.  The purpose of this study was to focus on specific north-south corridors through the downtown area that would both connect to the Green Circle Trail and give people bicycling to and from downtown various options.

EPR’s approach began with stakeholder discussions with city planning and public works staff, conduct field reviews to ride each proposed route alternative, study traffic volumes and land uses, note street cross-sections and availability of room for bike treatments and to note specific intersections or places that would need special treatments. In May 2018 a public workshop was held to roll out a few alternatives for the north-south routes. Public comments were taken at this event which helped shape the study recommendations.

The final report included section maps with detailed street treatments, MUTCD references for treatments, a signage plan, and preliminary cost estimates. The recommended treatments were predominately shared lane marking (sharrows) along with signs to designate and mark the routes, with some conventional, separated bike lanes to be install where curb-to-curb availability allowed, or where parking could be removed. The downtown areas is characterized by narrow streets in much of the historic district, most of the downtown is 25 mph, and on-street parking is highly valued and established in most of the area. Given the context, and parameters of the study, two parallel north-south routes were recommended, one on the east of the downtown mall and one on the west, to give bicyclists more alternatives.