Jackson bike-pedestrian path aims at safety

Plans for widening Highway 34-72 in Jackson include plans for a parallel pathway for bicycles and pedestrians. The Missouri Department of Transportation has received negative comments about the pathway.

Some of those comments call the pathway a safety hazard, perhaps because of the volume of traffic a four-lane highway can be expected to carry.

But the idea of the pathway is to promote safety. As the new highway is planned, there will be a center median that limits turning left except at intersections. This also means pedestrians and bikers will be pretty much limited to crossing at intersections.

MoDOT says the four-lane design with the median is safer. Some Jackson residents are still skeptical about that and are more concerned about the ease of making left turns.

But the bicycle-pedestrian pathway would seem to enhance safety in that part of Jackson where the highway connects schools, residential areas and businesses.

Although MoDOT says it is willing to leave out the pathway, it looks like it might be better to have it for the very reasons the highway department thinks it's important: safety.