“This reminds me of when I was growing up. We walked everywhere, we road bikes and we took public transportation where it was available,” said Metro Councilwoman Donna Collins-Lewis, who serves as co-chair of STAC. STAC is a joint initiative between AARP Louisiana and the Center for Planning Excellence. Members include representatives from dozens of government, nonprofit, health and business groups.
The initial focus of STAC is on an area bordered to the north by Gus Young Avenue, to the east by Lobdell Boulevard, to the south by Government Street and to the west by Acadian Thruway.
Rachel DiResto, executive vice president of CPEX, said the area was selected because it has a high rate of pedestrian and bicycle fatalities, along with heavy CATS ridership.
“CATS has done a great job of putting up new shelters, but people end up crossing the street for trips,” she said.
Baton Rouge has been ranked nationally as the 19th most dangerous city for pedestrians. From 2005 to 2014, there were 167 pedestrians killed in the city.
STAC identified a number of issues as causing pedestrian deaths. There’s a lack of sidewalks in the area. Many of the sidewalks that exist don’t have lighting. There aren’t many curb cuts, making it difficult for people in wheelchairs to get around. And crosswalks don’t exist on major roads such as Florida Boulevard.
“I’m always amazed by people trying to cross Florida without a crosswalk,” DiResto said.
A number of improvements have been suggested in the area, such as installing a crosswalk on Florida at the Baton Rouge Community College entrance/exit; building a sidewalk along Cloud Drive from George Street to Government Street; and narrowing Ardenwood Drive to three lanes from Florida to Renoir Avenue.
One of the first improvements that could happen is widening the sidewalks along Foster Drive and adding bike paths from Gus Young to North Street. DiResto said the Gus Young/Foster intersection was “the most dangerous intersection in almost all of Baton Rouge.”
CPEX has applied with the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development for a Safe Routes to Public Places grant. The grant provides up to $350,000 annually in federal money for construction.
“Cities can apply for these grants using data to really show safety issues,” DiResto said. “This project was ready to go because we had all this data collected by staff.”
An announcement from the DOTD about the grant award is “imminent," she said. “There’s a real opportunity to do something here because there’s a lot in the area, such as Capitol Middle and the Eden Park Library,” DiResto said.
©2017 The Advocate, Baton Rouge, La. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
