When she wants to ride her bike, Barbara Berman usually straps it to the roof of her car and drives out of Cherry Hill.
"I'd love to go to Wegmans on a bicycle," said Berman, who meets friends outside town to ride. "It depends on how brave you feel, you know?"
For Berman and other bicyclists, crossing the sprawling township and its wide, heavily trafficked highways can be a challenging, and sometimes frightening, endeavor.
So they were excited Tuesday when the township Planning Board adopted a bicycle and pedestrian master plan - a project they pushed - to change that.
"This is a big deal for us," Berman said Wednesday.
Two and a half years in the making, the plan calls for 15 new miles of sidewalk and 35 new miles of bike paths - lanes, paved shoulders, or shared lanes - to be installed as the township undergoes roadwork and capital improvement projects.
The plan, which has no time frame, grew out of efforts by Sustainable Cherry Hill, a nonprofit that promotes local initiatives, and its Way to Go committee, which focuses on alternative transportation.
Berman, a member of that committee, said the group, working with the township, realized a plan was needed after trying to win grants and failing.
The grants were often contingent on having a plan to carry out, committee members discovered. Through research and meetings, they learned about a state Department of Transportation program for communities to develop bike and pedestrian plans.
They alerted the township, and the state covered the cost of retaining a consultant.
The resulting study examined traffic volume, accident data, and the condition of sidewalks, among other factors.
That analysis, combined with community input, led to the identification of certain roads as most in need of new sidewalks or bike lanes.
Among the priority areas for new sidewalks are Kresson Road between Brace and Springdale Roads, and Kings Highway from Route 70 to Haddonfield Road.
The plan proposes new bike lanes, paved shoulders, or shared lanes along roads, including Kings Highway, Church Road, Chapel Avenue, Park Boulevard, Kresson, and Springdale.
Absent are Routes 70 and 38. The plan notes that earlier studies issued recommendations for Route 70, where there were 17 crashes involving pedestrians or bicyclists between 2007 and 2009, more than any other road in the township.
"Really, Route 70's not a good road to ride a bicycle on anyhow," said John Berg, a cyclist involved with the plan.
Though installing signs and restriping lanes could be done at relatively little cost, adding the recommended sidewalks would cost more than $9 million, according to the plan.
Whether the plan is carried out - and when - will be up to the township. One bike lane was installed along Kings Highway south of Route 70 recently as part of a Camden County project.
Berg and Berman intend to continue working with the township to make the plan a reality.
Cherry Hill was designed around neighborhoods, but "now we want to bike around Cherry Hill," Berman said.
Contact Maddie Hanna at 856-779-3232 or mhanna@phillynews.com .
