Last week, The Roanoke Valley-Alleghany Regional Commission hosted this year’s Multi-region Alternative Transportation Social at Stonebridge Park in Vinton.
Greenways, like this one, offer a valuable bicycle and pedestrian resource in the New River Valley.
The annual social is held between the Roanoke Valley-Alleghany Regional Commission and the New River Valley Regional Commission to share ideas and information about alternative transportation projects – anything to do with cycling, walking, or taking public transit. This year’s event was attended by almost 50 people.
“By hosting this yearly social, we give stakeholders from across the two regions a chance to share their ongoing projects and get input from others in the alternative transportation field,” says Regional Planner II Amanda McGee. “This is a great opportunity for localities to learn from others’ successes and failures while working with alternative transportation.”
This year’s event was held at Stonebridge Park, located in Roanoke County.
The Roanoke Valley-Alleghany Regional Commission thanked Roanoke County for the generous use of the facility, and also the Town of Vinton for help with identifying a good site for our event, the commission said in an announcement of the event.
Stonebridge Park offers ready access to the Wolf Creek Greenway, one of the oldest greenways in the Roanoke Valley. Greenways offer a valuable bicycle and pedestrian resource in our Valley, and we were happy to showcase this facility to our New River neighbors.
This year had several exciting topics for discussion. Presenters gave valuable updates on Virginia Tech’s new e-scooter program; the RideShare App created by Ride Solutions; changes to transit systems in the Roanoke Valley; transit planning in Radford; the New River Valley Bikeway, Walkway, and Blueway plan update; and on-road site visits conducted by the Roanoke Valley Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee to survey accessibility of bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure in our area.
These robust and varied presentations helped staff to make new connections between projects and to share opportunities and hurdles they have encountered in developing their programs.
“Next year, it’s New River Valley’s turn to host and we can’t wait to see what exciting new topics they will have to share,” the announcement said.
— Roanoke Valley – Alleghany Regional Commission
