Today a letter by Bob Foster of Webster Groves ran in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch about the need for MoDOT to better accommodate bicycling and walking.
MoDOT must move [transportation] beyond the Eisenhower era
As a longtime bike commuter in St. Louis County, it's been great to see the rising interest in bike commuting, including the article "Bike to Work Day is nothing new for rising number here" (May 15). One statistic in the article, however, definitely took the air out of my tires.
According to the article, the Missouri Department of Transportation has only one person out of its 6,500 employees who is working on bicycle and pedestrian issues. Even in Missouri, more than 5 percent of all trips are by bicycling or walking, and MoDOT roads running through our cities are one of the biggest impediments to safe walking and bicycling.
I have been a member of MoDOT's Bicycle/Pedestrian Committee, which was created by the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission, and is supposed to meet quarterly. It hasn't met in two and a half years. I recently inquired about the status of the committee, and there are no meetings planned.
It's also my understanding, as a member of the Missouri State Parks Foundation board, that a planned walkway/bikeway connecting the Katy Trail to Jefferson City has been scaled back to just five feet wide, about the width of two strollers. Apparently MoDOT is seeking more money from citizens' groups to pay for anything better. This is a connection between Missouri's most popular state park and the state capital.
It may be that the trucking industry will be asked to hold bake sales before MoDOT will build truck-only lanes on Interstate 70, but MoDOT website boosting the $3 billion idea doesn't say so.
With high gas prices, pollution, greenhouse emissions, congestion, the needs of those who can't afford cars, tourism potential and the obesity crisis, it makes sense to emphasize safe walking and bicycling more, not de-emphasize it, as does MoDOT.
It's my hope that MoDOT will listen to the citizens of Missouri, double the size of its bicycle/pedestrian staff to two people and plan a transportation system that is not straight out of the Eisenhower administration.
