March-April 2002
Bike and Pedestrian Needs to Go Unmet
Ron McLinden

 Whatever comes out of the General Assembly or an initiative petition process, it’s likely there will be nothing to address the state’s backlog of bike and pedestrian needs. Most state-maintained roads in cities and towns will still be unsafe for people wanting to travel along or across them without benefit of a motor vehicle. Look around your own town for the evidence: Manchester Avenue in St. Louis, Noland Road in Independence, Missouri Boulevard in Jeff City, Glenstone Avenue in Springfield, Stadium Drive in Columbia.

 We should expect that all future road projects will include appropriate accommodations for non-motorized travelers. However, roads that are currently adequate for traffic won’t be improved any time soon, and so there will be no opportunity to address bike and pedestrian safety needs as part of a road project. Thus, we’ll all have to work on our local and state officials, including MoDOT, to get them to fund projects that focus primarily on bike and pedestrian safety. With new sales tax money going for roads, it’ll be tough for them to argue that pedestrians and cyclists don’t contribute to the road budget.