Des Peres residents oppose citwide bike/ped plan because bikers/walkers "transients" will "burglarize" and reduce "livability" | STLToday

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“Now, if they connect us to Kirkwood and Valley Park and Webster, we are going to have a massive influx of people coming through a quiet subdivision,” Sodemann said. “I live on the corner. If anyone wanted to burglarize it would be the perfect spot.”

Sodemann was one of several people who spoke against the project at a City Council meeting in August. Another was Des Peres resident Bryan Anderson.

“It’s a privacy issue,” he said. “People buy homes for the neighborhood and the community. They don’t just buy a home, they buy it within a neighborhood because they like the livability of the neighborhood, they like the privacy and they like their neighbors.

A cyclist goes north on Ballas Road on Sunday, Sept. 13, 2015, in Des Peres. More bicycle lanes are proposed for Des Peres along Manchester Road. Photo by J.B. Forbes, jforbes@post-dispatch.com

“When you have a lot of outside transients — and that’s frankly what this would be — you lose that sense of neighborhood, you lose that sense of security, you lose this sense of privacy.”

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Des Peres residents oppose citwide bike/ped plan because bikers/walkers "transients" will "burglarize" and reduce "livability" | STLToday

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MoBikeFed comment: The kind of worries we are hearing in here in response to the proposed Des Peres bike/walk plan are the type that are often voiced by residents uncomfortable with anything new or changing in their neighborhoods.

But in reality, making a community safer and more inviting for bicycling and walking brings exactly the opposite of what these residents are worried about. Trails, routes, and 'greenways' are used mostly by local residents because biking and walking is by nature a local activity.

More local residents out walking and bicycling means more eyes on the streets, greater safety, and less crime.

Being able to safely walk and bicycle in your own neighborhood is one of the most important aspects of "livability".