Editor:

Upon retiring here some years ago, I fell in love with Fairhope’s streets the very first day. I was coasting my bike down the hill in front of the present Post Office site. The only other movement was a friendly stray dog along side. How nice to have moved to this serenity from a bustling town with uninteresting flat streets, and where it took a good while to reach the countryside.

I still enjoy my daily hour-long rides. But now, traffic increasingly forces me onto the sidewalk with its hard-to-see pitfalls. As traffic increases in our growing town, motorists and pedestrians will be so busy watching out for one another that they will not be able to enjoy its charms!

The City Council had a solution by recently adopting a “Complete Streets” policy. This prevents road construction being carried out just for motorists without considering non-motorists. The main ideas are to have bike lanes demarcated alongside the auto lanes and also to have enlarged sidewalk-like pedestrian paths buffered from the traffic. The latter will be shared by walkers, young and old, as well as manual and powered wheelchairs. Motorists will be relieved to see non-motorists out of the way.

Detailed guidelines have been supplied by the national coalition, Complete Streets. This movement is sweeping the United States and is advocated by the majority of the states, the U.S. Department of Transportation, AARP, etc.

The matter was brought before the council by Complete Streets (Jane Finger, chairman), a committee of Smart Coast (represented by Charlene Lee and Wendy Allen). The approval of the policy has opened the door to soliciting other local boards and, who knows, maybe the whole state! The committee is now searching for grants and is planning a fundraiser to provide funds for education and encouragement of this.

I compliment the council and the committee for the Complete Streets policy action. Once put into practice, it will surely save life and limb far into the future.

Fairhope