Take City Survey on Walking, Biking and Hiking in Carlsbad

The City of Carlsbad is seeking input from people who live, work and play in the city about how they use the city’s roads and off-road trails.  The online survey is part of a larger project to develop better options for people to get to their homes, schools, work places, retail centers, parks, public transportation and the beach.

This input will be used to develop two planning documents that will identify better ways to connect the city’s roads and trails: the Comprehensive Active Transportation Strategy and Trails Master Plan. The city is combining its community outreach efforts for the two plans because it sees an opportunity to create better connections for people using the road and trail systems.

Beginning in December and continuing until early February, the city is asking people go online at www.carlsbadca.gov/input to participate in a 10 to 15 minute online survey and a map exercise where they can show the city locations where they’d like to see improvements or changes.

The Comprehensive Active Transportation Strategy aims to enhance infrastructure connections to promote travel choices for people who want to walk and bicycle. The City of Carlsbad’s Trails Master Plan update will provide recommendations for enhancing the trail network in the City of Carlsbad for a variety of users with a focus on improving access to trails and open space so that residents and visitors can explore all that Carlsbad has to offer. The city currently has more than 46 miles in its trails system and it plans to expand that network.

City transportation engineers and park planners understand that interweaving the road and trail networks and closing gaps between the two can make it easier for people get where they want to go more quickly and safely.

“We see gaps in our circulation system, and the purpose of this survey is to get input from the community on how they use our roads and trails, and where they see gaps,” said City of Carlsbad Senior Civil Engineer Marshall Plantz. “We’ll use that information to develop strategies that we’ll take back to the community to get feedback, so we can fine-tune our roads and trails and make them work better for everybody.”

The active transportation effort is part of the City of Carlsbad’s “livable streets” initiative, also called “complete streets,” which acknowledges that streets are an important part of the livability of today's communities and ought to be for everyone, not just people driving vehicles.

Watch a video about livable streets here.

City of Carlsbad Associate Engineer Steve Jantz said the city wants information from as many trail users as possible, so it is inviting everyone to participate in the survey. In addition the city will reach out to specific groups, such as bicycling clubs, hiking groups, employees of businesses near the trails, and others, to hear their input.

“We have trails throughout the city and an updated master plan will show future trail connections that are desirable for exercise and recreational use and that provide access to open space,” Jantz said. “The updated master plan also will include design standards, user guidelines and other elements that enhance our existing trails and promote usage. Increasing the opportunities for walking not only promotes active, healthy living, it also reduces the carbon footprint when residents have a means for walking or biking safely to neighborhood parks, shopping and schools.”

The city has received a $150,000 grant from the San Diego Association of Governments to develop the Comprehensive Active Transportation Strategy, which will create a safer, more welcoming environment for all roadway users. The city has matched that with $100,000, bringing the total project cost to $250,000.

–City of Carlsbad