Thank you to all who participated. Results will be shared soon!

We’ve been moving right along in November!

This month consisted of our second planning team meeting along with a walk-shop, van-tour, and mapping workshop.

Planning Team Meeting

We refined the vision and goal statements that we had brainstormed at the kick-off meeting. The revised versions are:

VISION: A healthy and accessible community for all ages and abilities to walk and roll.

GOALS:

• HEALTH: Create active transportation opportunities and infrastructure to promote the physical and social health of the whole community.
• SAFETY: Continue to make safety improvements to benefit all people walking and rolling.
• GUIDANCE: Continue to follow and update guidance and policies to create and maintain user-friendly streets and crossings.
• LIVELY: Encourage downtown activity though attractive street and sidewalk design, programming, and policies.
• ENGAGEMENT: Support educational programming to encourage active transportation, teach safety skills, and spread awareness of the benefits.

Walk-Shop

Dedicated planning team members braved the cold to walk past Jefferson Elementary School and to downtown. Participants noted concern with the intersection of Center Street and Garden Street and with crossing Broadway.

Van-Tour

Since we had a lot of ground to cover, we toured the city’s Bike Circle Route, and beyond, via van. We noted needed bicycle and pedestrian connections between Cottonwood Street and the Oakwood Estates Mobile Home village and the rest of town.

Mapping Workshop

The consultant team provided a short project overview, summary of the Active Transportation Program process, and facilitated a corridor mapping workshop. The attendees broke into 4 groups and identified origins and destinations and potential routes to create connections for both transportation and recreational purposes.

This project is led by the Heart of New Ulm’s Coalition for Active, Safe and Healthy Streets (CASHS). We are a coalition that includes people from the City of New Ulm, Brown County, New Ulm Public Schools, local utility companies, Bike MN, Allina Health, and New Ulm community members. MnDOT funded this Active Transportation Action Plan as part of the Minnesota Active Transportation Program.

Our team met in late September to kick-off our planning process. We confirmed our planning process and schedule, and discussed the principles of active transportation planning. We also did a team visioning and goal-setting activity to guide the plan. Some key themes of the activity included:

• Develop a network for all ages of people
• Make the network accessible for all abilities
• Support physical activity
• Create attractive, beautiful, and inviting facilities
• Revitalize downtown areas
• Increase the number of people using active transportation
• Provide programming to support active transportation
• Ensure safety and comfort for all users
• Create a sense of community cohesion through shared experiences and interaction
• Improve physical and mental health and wellness

We also identified existing engagement activities already occurring in New Ulm and ideas for effective ways to connect with people throughout our planning process. We are currently outlining the specific events and activities we will do to engage people in New Ulm moving forward. Look for more information and ways to get involved as we continue to build out our Active Transportation Action Plan.