Cities for people first, then their cars.

The Urban Indy blog takes a look at pedestrians and cyclists at risk in our cities, and it's a timely consideration. Only recently, Broken Sidewalk reported on a spate of traffic accidents, with five peds/cyclists dead and one injured on metro Louisville streets in ten days. It would help if every now and then, motorists were held accountable. That's probably why you almost never hear bicyclists (or pedestrians) bitching about traffic calming.

For all the progress that has been made in recent years in raising consciousness about alternative solutions for mobility, we are reminded of how far there is to go, as was the case earlier this year when Kentucky State Fair officials concluded that bicycles might make their scrum even less organized than it already is. However, good news on a tiny scale still leaks out of Louisville, as when we learn that new bike parking has been installed on Frankfort Avenue. If only the riding can be made as safe as the parking.

New Albany's specific sorrows continue to be symbolized by a piecemeal approach, although Matt Nash kept it positive when considering the relationship of bicycle to bike lanes and Luddite to political promises in Nawbony. My unsolicited advice to the Gahan Administration is this: Get as pro-active as possible to make the historic inner city a place where pedestrians and cyclists are safe. Two ways streets and traffic calming are two places to start reclaiming the notion of a city being about its people, not about its cars.