A Fond Farewell to Marielle

We’d like to wish a fond farewell to our former bicycle and pedestrian planning manager, Marielle Brown. After a long, successful career with Trailnet, which started in early 2012, Marielle has accepted a position as Capital Improvement Project Liaison for the City of St. Louis, Board of Public Service.

As the Pedestrian and Bicycle Planning Manager, she created plans for eight communities in the region. For more than four years, Marielle energized our bicycle and pedestrian planning process by redesigning our plans to include outreach at community events, neighborhood walking tours, and early action projects. These elements engaged the community during the planning process, galvanized support for adopting the completed plan, and became the groundwork for supportive policies like complete streets.

Marielle was the first Trailnet staff member to become a routine voice in providing technical expertise in regional transportation planning and funding efforts. She became the go-to expert for educating local governments on how to incorporate walking and bicycling into applications for federal funding. She also had a talent for unpacking difficult technical issues and translating the information for a broad audience. Much of her recent work was focused on envisioning traffic calming. Through a number of demonstrations,  Marielle worked with communities and public officials to rethink street design.

The culture of Trailnet’s office was also highly influenced by Marielle, who managed to impress all with her vegan cooking. It’s safe to say the general nutritional health of Trailnet’s staff and it’s exposure to quality cooking will be significantly diminished by her absence.

Marielle’s thoughtful and progressive approach to bicycle and pedestrian planning has been highly valued and is now woven into the fabric of our mission and core values. We’re honored to continue her legacy as we move forward to improve walking and bicycling in the region.