Friday, September 10, 2010

First Bicycle/Pedestrian coordinator for Memphis

Memphis has its first bicycle/pedestrian coordinator, finally, and I hope that smart growth and walkability will get more attention from the city now. Midtown needs a few north/south protected bike lanes to get people safely across Union/Poplar/Central.

The last time I asked one of the city engineers about a bike lane up Cooper all the way to Overton Park (they're planning one for further south, but they're not going to tie it in to the park), he responded that there is no sidewalk going in to the park from Cooper, and they didn't want to do a bike lane that far only to dump people on Poplar. That seems incredibly short-sighted to me, though I'm also frustrated that DPS has not taken the southern neighborhoods more into account for getting into the park. Lots of small areas funnel north to the park along Cooper, and there is no excuse not to have a sidewalk available there for strollers, kids' bikes, wheelchairs, etc.

Maybe the new coordinator can get that whole area properly taken care of.

No comments:

Post a Comment