The roads and crosswalks in Medford need to be made safer for everybody. Last year I put a resolution on the agenda, which the council supported, to improve pedestrian safety at Wellington Circle. It was fueled by complaints about how unsafe it is to get from one point to the other. After walking the area I noticed that I was putting my life in danger every time I crossed. I noticed myself running from point A to point B, in order to avoid the traffic. Then I thought if its tough for me, what about our seniors and our disabled citizens. Unfortunately, this is the case in many areas within our city and something needs to be done.
I think it is a big endeavor to make bike lanes along all of our primary and secondary streets, but it is one that I would support, even if it had to be done one street at a time or a few streets a year. Not only would it be beneficial to people who ride bicycles, but it would be much safer for the walkers as well. Keeping the bicycles off of the sidewalks, by giving them their own lane, would eliminate everyone especially our senior citizens from worrying about sharing the sidewalks with bicycles.
Creating Bicycle lanes would also be a plus for the environment, because it would hopefully encourage more people to ride to work, school, and on errands, which in turn takes cars off the roads and emissions out of the air.
