Bike group founded
Blaise Hart-Schmidt
Issue date: 11/6/08 Section: News
A group of students in Professor of Biology Michael Kelrick's Grassroots Environmentalism class have formed the Bicycling Accessibility Advocacy.
Junior Kelly Hall is a member of the BAA and said the group's main goal is to evaluate where bike lanes are needed in Kirksville and to raise biking safety awareness.
"Right now we're trying to establish more community awareness for the need of cycling lanes, but … what is equally important as having a biking infrastructure would be an awareness in the community about safety," Hall said. "We designed a pamphlet that we're going to distribute to public places, kind of like a PSA on biking awareness for motorists and cyclists."
Hall said the group is organizing seminars for Earth Week and Freshman Week and is pushing the City of Kirksville to create bike lanes on busy streets. She said that although their class will cease at the semester's end, the group's overall goal is to get the city to recognize the need for bike lanes.
"Once a bike lane is put down, people will say 'Oh, this is a good idea, keep doing it,'" Hall said. "So we just want a starting point."
Hall said the group was working on the project when they found an old project from 2001.
"We decided to try to bring the plan back," Hall said. "[We're going to] encourage members to continue working on it and try to work with the city to understand that it's an important plan."
Hall said that although the old project is a recent discovery, the group is encouraging its revival.
"We are not trying to impose this huge idea with huge costs, just little steps at first," Hall said. "Maybe a 'Share the Road' sign, something very affordable. And then we're not talking about widening streets and stuff, we're talking about painting a line to make a bike lane on streets already wide enough."
In 2001, a group of Kirksville residents proposed a plan to the city that included 23 miles of bike and hike trails in Kirksville. City Manager Mari Macomber said the city received a grant in Oct. 2001 from the Missouri Department of Transportation for $215,000. The state was to reimburse Kirksville $150,000. However, after City Council decided to discontinue the project, Kirksville did not receive the grant.
Junior Kelly Hall is a member of the BAA and said the group's main goal is to evaluate where bike lanes are needed in Kirksville and to raise biking safety awareness.
"Right now we're trying to establish more community awareness for the need of cycling lanes, but … what is equally important as having a biking infrastructure would be an awareness in the community about safety," Hall said. "We designed a pamphlet that we're going to distribute to public places, kind of like a PSA on biking awareness for motorists and cyclists."
Hall said the group is organizing seminars for Earth Week and Freshman Week and is pushing the City of Kirksville to create bike lanes on busy streets. She said that although their class will cease at the semester's end, the group's overall goal is to get the city to recognize the need for bike lanes.
"Once a bike lane is put down, people will say 'Oh, this is a good idea, keep doing it,'" Hall said. "So we just want a starting point."
Hall said the group was working on the project when they found an old project from 2001.
"We decided to try to bring the plan back," Hall said. "[We're going to] encourage members to continue working on it and try to work with the city to understand that it's an important plan."
Hall said that although the old project is a recent discovery, the group is encouraging its revival.
"We are not trying to impose this huge idea with huge costs, just little steps at first," Hall said. "Maybe a 'Share the Road' sign, something very affordable. And then we're not talking about widening streets and stuff, we're talking about painting a line to make a bike lane on streets already wide enough."
In 2001, a group of Kirksville residents proposed a plan to the city that included 23 miles of bike and hike trails in Kirksville. City Manager Mari Macomber said the city received a grant in Oct. 2001 from the Missouri Department of Transportation for $215,000. The state was to reimburse Kirksville $150,000. However, after City Council decided to discontinue the project, Kirksville did not receive the grant.
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