On Wednesday January 9, the City of Missoula will present a draft of their Pedestrian Facilities Master Plan to the Public Works Committee of the Missoula City Council. Transportation Planning Manager Aaron Wilson says this plan has been in development for over a year.

“This is a transportation plan looking specifically at our pedestrian facilities,” Wilson said. “That includes things like sidewalks, shared use paths, ADA upgrades, things like curb ramps, safety crossing at intersections, essentially all of the things that would be within the realm of a pedestrian’s experience.”

According to Wilson, the primary focus of the plan is on sidewalk infrastructure and ADA accessibility.

“Ideally we want to create a pedestrian system that is accessible and usable for people of all ages and all abilities in Missoula,” Wilson said. “There is a lot of need out there. We need to be really strategic in our investments to make sure that we can do that in a reasonable amount of time. We are really just making sure that we have safe, accessible and usable facilities for people to be able to walk where they are going.”

Wilson says everyone is a pedestrian at some point and a lack of adequate pedestrian facilities impacts all Missoulians. The plan is available right here.

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