Missouri Bicycle News Article

Groups in the St. Louis area, including TrailNet and the St. Louis Regional Bicycle Federation, have been leading and advocacy effort to incorporate bicycling and walking into the design of Hanley Road in St. Louis County.

Hanley Road serves numerous businesses, workplaces, neighborhoods, and residences.

Due to the topography and road design of the area, it is the only available through street for travel to the many businesses and employment centers that are immediately on Hanley Road itself.

See this satellite map for an overview of the area.

TrailNet and the St. Louis Regional Bicycle Federation have been mobilizing citizens to provide feedback on the need for safe walking and bicycling facilities on Hanley Road (if you live, work, drive, or bicycle in the area you can send a message to your elected leaders here.)

Here is the letter Richmond Heights Mayor Betty Humphrey has been sending in response to citizen letters:

Thank you for your comments regarding Hanley Road and bicycle traffic.

My thoughts regarding this subject are as follows:

Hanley Road effectively serves as the southern extension of I-170. As such it needs to move as much traffic as possible at speeds that are unsafe for bicycle traffic.

Hanley Road is a County road, controlled and maintained by St. Louis County. The County Department of Highways and Traffic has determined that Trailnet’s request to narrow traffic lanes so that an outer wider lane can be built to accommodate bicyclist is not compatible with their goals for this road; nor is it safe.

Reducing lane widths reduces both speed and capacity, and will prevent the Hanley Road project from achieving its purpose and need.

I am in total agreement with the County’s goals of better traffic flow, throughput capacity, and public safety

I appreciate the need for more pedestrian and bicycle friendly streets and roads; however, Hanley Road, with all its challenges, simply is not one of those roads. Laclede Station Road would be a better, and much safer alternative, and one that I could support.

Betty Humphrey
Mayor
City of Richmond Heights
1330 S. Big Bend Blvd.
Richmond Heights, MO 63117
314-645-4595 Fax 314-655-3511
bhumphrey@richmondheights.org

If you write Mayor Humphrey, please be polite and persuasive in your comments--that is what works best.

Most Missouri politicians have not been educated in the need for safe walking and bicycling accommodations on all roads and highways, particularly in urbanized areas, and about the fact that those who walk and bicycle for transportation need to read all the same destinations that everyone else does.

Mayor of Richmond Heights, Betty Humphrey
Phone: 314/781-5486
Mail: 1330 S. Big Bend Blvd.
Richmond Heights, Missouri 63117
E-mail: bhumphrey@richmondheights.org
Website: www.richmondheights.org

Related:

News: "Sharing the road" in Press Journal

AdvocacyAlerts-21 JUL 2007: Make STL's Hanley Road safer for walking and bicycling

TourOfMO: Governor promotes Tour of Missouri in St. Louis

Tips&Stories: William Knowles: St. Louis Nobel Prize winner and bicyclist

AdvocacyAlerts-22 OCT 2007: Hanley Rd in St. Louis County