Adam RollinsThe San Antonio City Council has approved a multibillion Bike Network Plan (BNP) that will transform bike lanes and amenities across the city over the next 25 years.
The city anticipates the completed project will cost between $3 billion and $8 billion, prioritizing bicycle infrastructure such as facilities, trails, lanes and crossings. The plan will result in approximately 1,740 miles of new and upgraded bike facilities across the city. This will include developing an additional 449 miles of shared-use paths.
The BNP succeeds the city’s original 2011 Bike Plan, providing an updated blueprint for development based on how San Antonio has changed over the last 14 years. To ensure the most pressing projects are targeted first, the city broke the holistic network into a series of road segments and categorized them into four tiers.
- Tier 1 projects will be completed between 2025 and 2030, totaling 337 miles. These are the highest priority initiatives that can be quickly deployed and built.
- Tier 2 projects will take place between 2028 and 2035 and contain the largest number, culminating in a total of 733 miles.
- Tier 3 covers a total of 420 miles to be completed in 2030. These projects either have feasibility issues or are not high priorities.
- Tier 4 projects will take place between 2035 and 2050, culminating in 250 miles. These are long-term visionary projects that will be implemented opportunistically, since they either have severe constraints or are very low priority compared to the other tiers.
The plan’s overall goal is to create a safe, interconnected city for bicycles and other non-motorized modes of transportation. While San Antonio has an existing bike network, it’s largely disconnected, making it difficult for travelers to easily traverse the entire city. The BNP will play a critical role in connecting trail networks.
To help guide deployment, the San Antonio City Council passed an implementation plan in December 2024 outlining a series of foundational documents for the project. These documents include:
- A recommended network development and structure report covering how the city will create the BNP’s safe, connected and accessible bike network.
- A policy actions and constraints report that recommends amendments to existing policies to better support bike infrastructure and safety.
- A funding strategy plan, providing a guiding approach to securing funding for the multibillion initiative.
- A cost estimation report that estimates overall facility costs for the projects.
- A bike facility maintenance cost estimation memorandum that analyzes four primary maintenance issues affecting the current bike network and that would threaten the BNP’s future.
- Guidelines for bike facilities for future amendments, providing the baseline changes needed for planning, designing and implementing bike infrastructure.
- A document defining the metrics put in place to keep the city on track for successfully developing the BNP.
Image by D Gislason from Pixabay
