Cyclists want share of Cape streets

A grassroots effort among cyclists in Cape Girardeau to get bike lanes and improved trails is gaining speed.

According to organizer Chris Moore, about 350 people have signed a petition asking for the lanes and better trails. Moore and others plan to bring their petition before the city council at an upcoming meeting.

"There are a lot of bikers in this town who ride and interact with traffic and it doesn't bother them. But a lot of folks would like to ride but are inhibited from riding in the streets. It's too scary if you're not used to it," he said.

Moore, the vice president of a local biking group, Velo Girardeau, has been biking seriously for about a year. He said Cape Girardeau has good bike trails but they are not connected or easily accessible from main thoroughfares.

That leaves the streets. According to Moore and the other bikers, many Cape Girardeau streets are dangerous for bikers.

In 2005 and 2006, there were 23 accidents involving motorists and cyclists in the city. Those accidents resulted in 17 injuries and one fatality.

In 2004, 725 cyclists were killed and 41,000 injured in traffic crashes across the United States, according to the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration. The number of fatalities is about 10 percent less than it was 10 years earlier.

Patrick Koetting, a salesman at Cape Bicycle Cycling and Fitness at 2410 William St., says many bike accidents go unreported. Koetting said he was once knocked off his bike on Broadway but chose not to report it because he was late to work. The driver left the scene without stopping.

"I'm fairly young, confident and not afraid of traffic. But pretend you're an 18-year-old college student. You live in the dorms and work at Applebee's. You're not going to feel safe riding to work," he said.

Koetting said the most dangerous streets for bikers are William Street and Kingshighway.

Bike trails, he said, need to be about more than recreation. They need to be about transportation.

The Cape LaCroix bike trail "is amazing and it's great to get on it and get exercise, but you need a trail that goes places. Imagine if you could connect the Schnucks shopping center and the mall and the university and downtown with a bike path and not cross traffic. Imagine how many people would be biking," he said.

Moore said advocacy for bikers is likely to be a long-term project. He does not expect an immediate expansion of trails or widening of city streets, but said there are simple things the city can do to make it more bike-friendly.

He pointed to several roads already wide enough to accommodate bikers that could be restriped to include bike lanes: Lexington Avenue from end to end, Sprigg Street from end to end, West End Boulevard south of Broadway and Perryville Road north of Broadway.

City engineer Jay Stencel said those streets could accommodate bike lanes without inconveniencing motorists. However, striping might result in lost parking spaces, he said.

"This would be the biggest hurdle, and I would have to see how other communities handle the parking situation," Stencel said.

Mayor Jay Knudtson says he'll listen to the cyclists. He said the issue of biking trails and improved recreation came up frequently during two town planning workshops held in January. The workshops were part of Cape Girardeau's yearlong revision of its comprehensive plan.

"We have a responsibility as a council to react to some of the major outcomes of the comprehensive plan. One of the biggest mistakes we could make as a council is to just file this thing away somewhere," Knudtson said.

He said restriping major streets for bikers might be possible. "Common sense would tell me that to stripe a bike lane on Lexington would not be a huge expense and would probably go a long way to creating a safe environment," he said. Knudtson also challenged bike enthusiasts to gather information from other cities with bike lanes to see how they handle problems like parking and funding.

Funding does exist, say the cyclists.

In the past decade, Cape Girardeau has used transportation enhancement funding from the Missouri Department of Transportation to help pay for three major projects aimed to help pedestrians and bikers -- the Cape LaCroix Trail, the Riverwalk and sidewalk improvements on Lexington Avenue. The federal share of these three projects added up to $1.62 million or 80 percent of the total cost.

MoDOT distributes an average of $11 million in federal enhancement funds for bicycle and pedestrian improvements.

Moore pointed to Columbia, Mo., which in 2005 received a $22 million federal grant to improve its pedestrian and cycling resources. The grants were secured in large part thanks to the advocacy group the PedNet Coalition.

Its Web site, pednet.org, includes ideas and links to other cycling groups across the state.

tgreaney@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 245