The City of Fort Myers is in the process of renovating the Edison Golf Course and BikeWalkLee is urging the Fort Myers City Council to incorporate plans for a multi-use path as part of these renovations. (See our July 1st letter). Now is the time for the City Council to act to change the renovation plans and they need to hear from YOU. Below is a "call to action" by Ann Pierce. If you live, work, visit, or recreate in Fort Myers, here's your chance to advocate for safer biking and walking in the City.
By Ann Pierce (BikeWalkLee Steering group member and member of City of Fort Myers' Bike/Pedestrian Advisory Board)
The City is
resisting calls to accommodate cyclists around the massive obstacle presented
by the Edison golf course.
Tell Council
to give cyclist a break, specifically with wider multi-use paths around the golf
course.
The course
is in the middle of renovation, but they totally neglected to consider safe
accommodations around what is also a massive obstacle for thousands of
pedestrians and cyclists.
The course
fully occupies all of the land between US 41 and McGregor, forcing cyclists to
either share narrow sidewalks with pedestrians or take to particularly
dangerous segments of roadway. This shouldn’t be the most dangerous part of
your ride through town.
Two Boards
(City’s Bike/Pedestrian Advisory Board and BikeWalkLee) have already
recommended that enough Right-of-Way (ROW) space for a 10’wide (the minimum
safe standard) multi-use pathway be dedicated now - during the
renovation. Final paving beyond the
standard 5 feet can come later when funds are available. Commitment of the space will make the City
more competitive for grants from numerous sources to complete these pathways.
Changing
renovation plans now may not be easy with little extra room, but it is both possible
and necessary. With the growing interest in walking and cycling, the greater
knowledge of minimum safety expectations and standards – making these changes
is the only responsible official position to take. It is certainly is within
the government’s scope of core services to ensure provision for safe facilities
for all citizens employing various mode of legal transport. I’m not so sure
about the responsibility to provide golfing pleasure.
Passage around the golf course is a chronically
unsafe condition and Council members were elected to solve just these kinds of thorny
problems.
Don’t be put
off by various responses below:
1. Cyclists will get hit by golf balls. I’d rather take my chances on that than being
hit by a car, besides there are many versions of netting and tall landscaping.
2. There is no funding to make these
wide paths. We are only asking for clear ROW set-aside now. Funding for final
paving can then be pursued later.
3. “The US 41 side is controlled by the
state, we can’t do anything about that side.”
Representatives from FDOT told me just this week “We’re waiting for the
City’s call and are always ready to use any opportunity to make the sidewalks
safer for everyone.”
The City is planning
to move a short segment of sidewalk along McGregor, from south of Olmeda to the
restaurant parking lot, inward to a safer location. However it will remain the
same narrow width with no other ROW designated. This is insufficient action.
So... here
we are now.
The
oversight has been made clear, the dangers and liabilities inherent in ‘inviting’
cyclists to share a new but narrow walk with pedestrians in the era of
ubiquitous earbuds are known to all and both alternative roadways remain as overtly
dangerous as ever.
The City Council can
act to change this now, but...only if they hear from you!
Please
contact the City Council and City Manager to request that ROW be clearly
designated now, during renovation, with planned future completion of at least 10
foot wide multi-use pathways around both sides of this golf course.
Councilwoman
Christine Matthews - CMatthews@cityftmyers.com
Mayor
Randy Henderson - RHenderson@cityftmyers.com
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