Skip to main content

Active Transportation

Active transportation is walking, cycling, and rolling — every trip made under a person's own power. Alto DOT designs and maintains the facilities those trips depend on: sidewalks, crossings, curb ramps, bikeways, and trails.

Every trip in Alto begins and ends on foot, including trips by car and transit. That makes the pedestrian network the one network everyone uses.

Pedestrian Facilities​

Sidewalks​

Sidewalks are required on both sides of new and reconstructed streets except where topography or an absence of destinations makes one side sufficient. Existing gaps are closed through the capital program and as adjacent properties redevelop.

Sidewalk width is set by context: residential streets carry a narrower walkway than a commercial frontage with outdoor seating, transit stops, and street furniture competing for the same space.

Crossings​

Crossing design is where most pedestrian risk concentrates. Alto DOT selects crossing treatments by roadway width, speed, volume, and sight distance rather than by request:

ConditionTypical treatment
Low speed, two lanes, good sight linesMarked crosswalk
Wider crossing or higher volumeMarked crosswalk with curb extensions or a refuge island
Multilane, moderate speedRectangular rapid flashing beacon (RRFB)
Multilane, higher speed or volumePedestrian hybrid beacon
Warranted by volume and delayFull traffic signal

A marked crosswalk on its own does not slow a vehicle or shorten a crossing. Marking a long, fast, multilane crossing without a supporting treatment can make it more dangerous, not less, by increasing the number of people who attempt it. DOT will not install one.

Curb ramps and accessibility​

Curb ramps are installed at every crossing on reconstructed streets and are upgraded through a dedicated program. Detectable warning surfaces are required at all ramps. Accessible pedestrian signals with audible and vibrotactile indications are installed at signalized crossings on a prioritized schedule; see Traffic Operations.

Requests to prioritize a specific curb ramp or APS location are accepted and are weighted by proximity to transit, schools, medical facilities, and senior housing.

Bicycle Facilities​

Alto's bikeway network is designed as a connected system rather than a set of disconnected segments. A bike lane that ends at the hardest intersection has not solved the problem it was built for.

  • Shared streets — Low-volume, low-speed residential streets where cyclists and drivers mix comfortably, sometimes with wayfinding and traffic calming
  • Bike lanes — Dedicated lanes on moderate-volume streets
  • Buffered and separated lanes — On higher-speed or higher-volume corridors, where separation from traffic is what makes the facility usable by most people
  • Trails and paths — Off-street connections, including causeway paths and waterfront routes
  • Intersection treatments — Bike boxes, two-stage turn queue boxes, and bicycle signal faces where turning conflicts warrant them

Bicycle signal faces are designed per Chapter 4H of the UIA MUTCD, which Alto adopts from the federal manual without amendment.

Trails​

The city's trail network connects parks, waterfront, and neighborhood destinations, and is maintained jointly with Parks & Recreation. Trails that function as transportation corridors — rather than purely recreational routes — are designed to DOT standards for width, sight distance, lighting, and crossing treatment where they meet a street.

Safe Routes to School​

School areas receive specific attention: school zone signing and markings, crossing guard placement in coordination with APD, and targeted crossing improvements on school walking routes. Requests from schools and parent groups are reviewed each year ahead of the school calendar.

Winter and Maintenance​

Sidewalk clearing in front of a property is the property owner's responsibility. The city clears sidewalks adjacent to city property, transit stops on trunk routes, and curb ramps at signalized crossings. Snow cleared from a roadway must not be deposited into a crosswalk, curb ramp, or bike lane — a cleared street with buried ramps has simply moved the problem onto the people least able to get around it.

Report a blocked or damaged facility to DPW.

Requesting an Improvement​

Requests are most useful when they describe the trip someone is trying to make and what prevents it. A described problem can be met with a range of measures; a prescribed solution can only be accepted or rejected.