On Saturday April 7th, our Regional Planner Leonard Bonarek tagged along with the Narberth Cycling Club on its ride as part of Opening Day for Trails. While there were 26 events scheduled across our region to celebrate the official first day of trail season on The Circuit, this ride was unique.
Most trail rides start on a trail. Narberth Cycling Club did things differently. The ride highlighted how one can get from downtown Narberth to the current trailhead of the Cynwyd Heritage Trail all while all while using existing low-stress streets. These streets are all over our region, and often there are existing networks of them that connect to a Circuit trail.
This is where TASCC comes in. Standing for Technical Assistance for Suburban Circuit Communities, BCGP’s newest program seeks to highlight our region’s low-stress network, and how we can use it to promote better bicycle transportation networks. We’ve been working with Narberth Cycling Club, and our Montgomery County affiliate group since February on what has become our first TASCC pilot project.
During our initial phase of the project, we worked to identify our lowest-stress route, and on April 7th, we test rode it, and got invaluable feedback.
Once we work out the kinks, we’re looking to start new TASCC projects throughout the region, so get ready: the cyclists are coming, and this time it’s for transportation, not just recreation!
