About 20 people attended a public presentation on the first draft of Charleston's Bicycle Master Plan Thursday night.
The plan, which is a blueprint for making Charleston more bicycle-friendly, will be refined based on public comment and then go to city council for adoption.
It was developed by Alta Planning and Design at a cost of $83,600 and is funded by the city.
In all, 140 miles of bikeways would criss-cross the city if the plan were to be built as proposed. Paths would range from cycle tracks split off from vehicular traffic to shared streets using "sharrows" and signs to remind bicyclists and drivers to coexist.
As proposed, the system would be built in four phases, with the bulk of the initial work to be completed in downtown, the East End and the West Side.
If built, most city residents would have access to some type of bikeway a short distance from their homes.
The plan also calls for extensions to South Charleston, Kanawha State Forest and Coonskin Park.
"We don't expect this to happen overnight," said Jack Cebe, a senior planner for Alta. "Generally, the highest priority projects are in the downtown core."
The plan also includes 10 "priority projects" that Alta determined would be the most critical to the entire bike system, such as a cycle track along Virginia Street from the West Side through downtown.
Funding, of course, remains an obstacle.
The top 10 projects together are estimated to cost between $2.5 million and $2.9 million, with a project to add a cycle track along Kanawha Boulevard from Magic Island to downtown the most costly at $2 million.
The entire 140-mile bike plan as proposed is estimated to cost between $20.2 million and $24.5 million.
City Council President Tom Lane, an at-large Republican who led the charge to conduct the study, said the city could find ways to make the plan cheaper, including making the plan a part of other public works projects.
"As we go out and start repaving streets, we will incorporate the bike trails," he said.
Lane said city department heads will begin analyzing the draft plan to determine the feasibility of individual projects.
The goal is for a final bike plan to be approved by city council in October.
The plan is to be available for public viewing online at www.charlestonbikeandtrail.com or on the city website at www.cityofcharleston.org/residents/bike-charleston.
The public is invited to comment on the proposal, and comments can be accepted online at www.charlestonbikeandtrail.com/contact.html
Contact writer Matt Murphy at 304-348-4817 or matt.murphy@dailymailwv.com. Follow him on Twitter @DMLocalGov.