The Vermont Agency of Transportation is starting its second phase of On-Road Bicycle Planning. During the first phase VTrans held statewide public meetings using the Vermont Interactive Television Network. But that technology is now a thing of the past. Starting with the first Phase Two meeting Thursday night, VTrans will live stream using Go To Meeting software.By clicking a link on VTrans' On-Road Bicycle Plan webpage, anyone can access the meeting on a computer, tablet or phone. Participants can comment or ask questions by typing into a chat box.
There will also be live webinar viewings at 10 regional planning commission offices around the state. Those sites will be equipped with a phone line to the central meeting site in Montpelier.
Project Manager Sommer Bucossi says the meeting organizers will make one phone connection live at a time, in a round-robin fashion. This way, she says, participants at the satellite sites will chime in one site at a time.
During Phase One, VTrans planners used other new technologies, including an interactive wiki map and workout tracking software by Strava, to gauge what roads Vermonters bike – both for transportation and recreation. Bucossi says this kick-off meeting for Phase Two will bring participants up to speed on what was learned in the first phase of the planning process.
"The main objective of the statewide meeting is to let folks know what Phase Two is, to give them an opportunity to understand the scope, and to let them know aspects of the project that will have direct public participation," she says. "One will be an online survey and one will be an additional wiki map."
The meeting is scheduled for Thursday, Dec. 1, from 6 p.m. until 8 p.m. And despite the use of streaming technology, a snow date has been set for Dec. 8.
