Walk Bike Ambassador success in Chesterfield

Trailnet’s 12 Walk Bike Ambassadors are located throughout the St. Louis region. Their activities include assisting with Trailnet advocacy campaigns and addressing walking and biking issues in their own communities. These advocates have already won infrastructure changes for their communities and are working for safer streets in the region. 

Our Chesterfield Walk Bike Ambassador, Patty Szymkowicz, read in her local paper about an upcoming re-paving project on a county road she knew well. The project description mentioned nothing about bike lanes, which concerned Patty because she knew of important connections from this county road for people on bikes, including the Monarch Levee Trail. Patty also knew that the County has a Complete Streets policy and, therefore, the Transportation Department should have considered accommodating all road users on this road project. Patty located the county project manager and asked about whether bike lanes would be included in the planned road design, emphasizing the important connections for bikes. The good news is that, shortly after Patty began asking questions, the county did a traffic study and decided to install bike lanes on the road. Due to an alert Walk Bike Ambassador we can score one for people who bike in Chesterfield!