Columbia plans to improve key intersections for walkers, bicyclists

Some of the busiest intersections in Columbia are in line for makeovers as part of an emerging trail network designed to get more people out of their cars and onto their feet.

The city plans to hire HDR Inc., an architectural, engineering and consulting firm, to redesign intersections in Columbia for $205,000. The intersection work would cost $2.6 million and falls under the $22 million PedNet Project, funded by the federal government as part of the Nonmotorized Transportation Pilot Program that’s trying to reduce motorized transportation by getting more people to walk and bicycle.

Chip Cooper, president of PedNet Coalition Inc., a nonprofit organization formed in 2000, said its mission is to create a network in Columbia for nonmotorists to use.

“We don’t have a network in place that’s obvious to people who get around by means other than cars,” Cooper said. “Intersections are barriers and breaks in the network, which degrades the concept of a network. If an intersection is inappropriately designed, or hostile to pedestrians and cyclists, it discourages them from getting around in other ways.”