By Erin Paden

As a 16-year-old, in Lawrence, my bike and running shoes were my initial forms of transportation. After several close calls, I got a driver’s license. My safety concerns were not unfounded. My childhood neighbors lost their 8-year-old son after he was hit and killed, at Eighth and Kasold, while walking home from school. That intersection has had stop signs in his honor for 30 years.

Bicycle and pedestrian improvements are imperative to Lawrence for reasons of safety, equity, health and the economy. Safety is the key. A little over a year ago, I began serving on the City/County Bicycle Advisory Committee and attending Lawrence Pedestrian Coalition meetings. The Lawrence Pedestrian Coalition is a group of residents with a goal of making Lawrence a safer place to walk. We have a vision for a Lawrence that is safe for people of all ages and abilities to actively and safely get to school and work.

Upon moving back to Lawrence, a few years ago, my husband and I began biking with our boys to school. Then two teachers, from their school, were hit by cars while biking to school, at the same intersection on different days (southeast corner of Clinton Parkway and Crossgate Drive).

Then my boys were almost hit. Now we drive.

Another safety example: Take a minute and head out to the Lawrence Arboretum; it is on the shared-use path that connects southwest Lawrence to Clinton Lake. As you approach the intersection of Kansas Highway 10 and 27th Street, look around. Is it safe for kids to ride their bikes to a soccer game? Last year, that intersection had a bicycle fatality and an injury accident. More are sure to follow.

Several weeks ago a child was hit at Sixth and Rockledge and life-flighted.

It’s time to change the way we design roads.

A walkable, bikeable town is equitable. A child should be able to get to school on their own, especially if a parent cannot take them, or the family can’t afford or chooses not to own a car. In Lawrence, a child must live 2 1/2 miles from school to qualify for bus service. By having unsafe intersections and distance requirements for busing, casualties are inevitable.

Pedestrian infrastructure is important for other reasons too: health and wealth.

A pedestrian-friendly community encourages people to change behavior and walk more. When it is safe and easy to walk to the corner store, people do it more often. This results in more exercise and better health. According to the Douglas County Health Plan, only 25 percent of Douglas County children get the exercise they need. With diabetes on the rise and more than 30 percent of our state classified as obese, we can’t afford to wait. It is about community health.

It is also about community wealth. Recently, we were treated to another report on how Lawrence lags behind adjacent counties in job growth, wages and per capita income. Is Lawrence’s solution an $8.5 million investment in Venture Park and a $1.2 million investment in a new water line to the municipal airport — two locations completely dependent on motorized transportation? Neither of these investments has netted the city new jobs. Even if we attract a couple hundred jobs, it won’t make up for the more than 800 jobs we’ve lost in the past 10 years.

According to the Small Business Administration 64 percent of job growth comes from small business and local start-ups. Rather than investing in large real-estate projects and water lines to nowhere, let’s invest in making our community an attractive place for people to start and grow businesses. That means improving our parks, providing access to modern infrastructure, creating a vibrant start-up culture and making our community more walkable. Millennials and techies love to walk and ride to work. They want to work in places close to their homes and where they feel safe walking or biking. By making our town walkable and bikeable we make it attractive.

We want a safer, healthier, wealthier and more equitable community. We need to make our streets pedestrian and bicycle friendly. That means protected bike lanes, better sidewalks, dedicated turn signals and, in some cases, such as the arboretum, a pedestrian bridge. Pedestrian infrastructure is significantly less expensive than automobile infrastructure. We can pay for this with existing transportation funds and other existing resources.

Our community should aim for zero casualties. Let’s not wait for another tragedy. Let’s take action and make our community safe for all transportation choices.