Many of those who walk or ride bicycles in the Capital region are looking for ways to make it safer.
Enthusiasts of the bike movement cite health benefits, safer neighborhoods, and increased property values, but the impediments are large. Every three days someone is hit by a car or truck while walking or bicycling in Michigan.
So people in Lansing and Clinton County are working to change that picture.
Lansing’s Walking and Biking Taskforce, created by Mayor Virge Bernero, is hosting three evening sessions next week and an afternoon session March 7 to seek help to design a sidewalk, trail, bike lane and crosswalk network for the city.
Clinton County’s Green Space Commission is holding one meeting next week and another March 26.
Jessica Yorko, with Walk-Bike Lansing, wants to teach Lansing how a network might look and function, but she also wants to hear the community's ideas. Her intent is to match the public’s recommendations with maps to be drawn by Andy Kilpatrick, head of the city’s Transportation Office and task force co-chair. A draft plan will be presented at a public meeting at the end of March.
“We’ll be asking then what we missed,” Yorko says. She hopes that when the plan is complete, it will be folded into the city’s master plan.
The Lansing effort is funded by the Lansing Economic Area Partnership (LEAP), Mid-Michigan Environmental Action Council (MidMEAC) and the Michigan Trails and Greenways Alliance.
Chuck Nelson, chair of the county’s Green Space Commission, said a network would “offer increased opportunities for physical activity, boost property values, and enhance business districts, parks and other communities.”
Source: Jessica Yorko, Walk-Bike Lansing
Gretchen Cochran, Innovation & Jobs editor, may be reached here.
All Photographs © Dave Trumpie
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