Past Wins

  • Engaged with over 4,000 community members, 60 civic organizations and partners to determine where people most need and want biking and walking connections through our Connecting St. Louis Plan. When complete the recommended network will connect neighborhoods, job centers, cultural districts, and more.
  • Supported ongoing efforts to advance the Connecting St. Louis planned connections
  • Advanced a protected bike lane, and improvements for people who walk and ride the bus on Tucker Blvd. downtown, by funding an initial engineering study that sets the project up to be ready for a federal funding application by the City of St. Louis.
  • Built public-private support to apply for federal funding on a Tower Grove Ave. protected bike lane starting the connection between Tower Grove Park and the Cortex Innovation district. If awarded funding by East West Gateway through the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) Program in the fall of 2020, this project would be the first of the Connecting St. Louis Corridors to have secured construction funding, and would likely be built in 2022 or 2023!
  • Continue to advance the pilot of the City’s first Calm Streets project on Louisiana Ave. between Gravois and Meramec. When completed in late 2020 or 2021 this one mile stretch will showcase a people-based neighborhood street design that makes walking and biking safe and comfortable in a way not seen before in St. Louis, and will serve as a model and pilot project for the rest of the City. When the entire 3.6 Mile corridor transformation is complete it will connect just East of Tower Grove Park to Carondelet Park.
  • Continued to support Froebel Elementary by helping them implement Trailnet’s 2015 School Transportation Plan. Trailnet supported the local effort to install a speed hump; implement a high visibility, ADA accessible, mid-block crosswalk; and paint concrete planters that slow traffic. Click here to see the video! Also coming in 2020, new ADA accessible ramps, crosswalks, and pinch-points will be installed at two intersections by the school.
  • Organized local champions to advocate for a protected bike lane in Clayton on Maryland Ave. This protected bike lane will be the first of its kind in St. Louis County when constructed in 2020. Protected and separated bike lanes are a proven way to increase safety, spur economic development, and get more people biking on our streets.
  • Advocated for the return of a bike lane on Southbound Tower Grove Ave. at the intersection of Vandeventer. Used data from the annual volunteer counts from the Walk/Bike Counts to show that this is the most heavily utilized on-street bicycle facility in the region.
  • Created a local lending library of equipment available for non-profits and neighborhood organizations to model potential traffic calming measures in their communities. Click here to see our Slow Your Streets Guide on how to organize a pop-up demonstration in your community!
  • Successfully advocated for the addition of buffered and in places protected bike lanes to Broadway / 4th Street between Chouteau and Park during a repaving project that did not originally include them.
  • Founded Missourians for Responsible Transportation, a state-wide advocacy coalition along with BikeWalkKC, PedNet from Columbia and Ozark Greenways in Springfield to push for Statewide active transportation reforms.
  • Helped advance the Rock Island Trail, by facilitating the fundraising and feasibility process for Missouri State Parks to enter into an Interim Trail Use Agreement that preserves the potential cross-state trail.
  • Partnered with other organizations in the Social Policy and Electoral Accountability Collaborative (SPEAC) to respond to the Ferguson Commission Report’s call to actions advancing the dialogue around racial equity and policy collaboration. SPEAC efforts include hosting the 2017 Mayoral Forum, planning a 2018 County Executive Forum, and hosting a 2019 Board of Alderman President Forum.
  • Revised policy language of the AV START ACT Senate Bill 1885 to include requirements of a “vision test” for autonomous vehicles. This would require vehicle manufacturers to prove that their vehicles and technology have the ability to see and appropriately react to people walking and biking in a multitude of conditions before they are allowed to operate on our public streets.
  • Revised ordinance language of the County Bill 385 which would more clearly define where people on bikes can ride on county roads and establish a minimum three foot passing distance.
  • Challenged design assumptions in the Bevo Great Streets Project and won the recommendation of serious improvements for people walking and two way protected bike lanes along a historically car-oriented stretch of Gravois from Christy to Chippewa.
  • Helped model a pop-up parklet and then designed a permanent version at the intersection of Laclede and Vandeventer. This parklet will provide a key placemaking component to this corner, making easier and safer for people along the Laclede corridor. The design will also incorporate additional bike parking for the businesses on this busy corner.
  • Because transportation doesn’t function in a vacuum, we participated in discussions at the Affordable Housing Trust Fund regarding preserving availability of affordable housing near transportation networks like Connecting St. Louis.
  • Advocated for marked construction detours and construction tunnels for people walking and biking during the Interstate 44 bridge reconstruction at 39th, Thurman, and Tower Grove.
  • Organized residents to support a traffic calming project along Grand Drive near Carondelet Park that will add two roundabouts, and make it easier for people walking and biking to enter the park from the YMCA and the Carondelet Connector Greenway.
  • Continued to meet with and push local, state, and national elected officials on policies related to making it safer and easier for people to walk, bike and take public transit. These include increased funding for sidewalks, bike lanes, and busses; stricter guidelines for autonomous vehicles; and a texting-while-driving ban.
  • Provided input on improvements and enhancements at five MetroLink stations including Laclede’s Landing, Convention Center, 8th & Pine, Forest Park – DeBaliviere, and the Delmar Loop stations.

Walk Bike Ambassadors

In pursuit of our goal to make St. Louis one of the best places to walk and bike safely, we increased our advocacy capacity by launching the Walk/Bike Ambassadors program February 2016. Thanks to a grant from the William A. Kerr Foundation, Trailnet recruited 12 Walk Bike Ambassadors to help raise awareness, increase walk and bike knowledge, organized local residents, and facilitated communication between all parties involved during this movement.

Our ambassadors worked at the grassroots level to ensure the balance between unique neighborhood needs and our advocacy campaigns. Trailnet’s Walk Bike Ambassadors have made important contributions to helping St. Louis become one of the best places in the country to walk and bike. Read about their goals and accomplishments in the articles below.

Complete Streets

Complete Streets make it easier for everyone to walk, bike, or take public transit. These policies require that streets be designed and maintained for safe, convenient travel for all users and all modes of transportation. These policies position cities to promote health because they create systemic change across departments (e.g., transportation, planning, health) that supports health equity due to the streets becoming safer for all users.

It isn’t enough to pass Complete Streets policies. If policies aren’t implemented then lives are not changed. They produce positive impacts such as more opportunities to be physically active, increased property values, higher retail sales, and attraction of new businesses and residents.

Since 2008, we have implemented Complete Streets policies through the following projects:

We’ve assisted nine communities draft, pass, and implement Complete Streets policies of their own:

  • City of St. Louis, original policy (2010), updated policy (2015)
  • DeSoto  (2008)
  • Ferguson (2008)
  • Florissant (2016)
  • Pagedale (2015)
  • St. Louis County (2014)
  • Unionville  (2013)
  • University City (2014)
  • Vinita Park (2012)

South County Connector

Over several years, Trailnet vigorously organized opposition to the South County Connector project for environmental, economic, and historic preservation reasons. This proposed $120 million project, was intended to link I-55 with I-44 and I-64, has now been “permanently shelved” by St. Louis County.

We worked with many others in this battle, including elected officials like county councilman Pat Dolan and St. Louis alderman Scott Ogilvie. Multiple city leaders in Maplewood, Webster Groves, and Shrewsbury discouraged this project after learning this road could displace up to eight families and 21 businesses within these areas. Institutions like the Washington University School of Law and non-profits such as Missouri Coalition for the Environment, Sierra Club and the River DesPeres Watershed Coalition also spoke out against this project for the lack of plans made for cyclists and pedestrians as well as for its price tag.

Although the County declared this project to be “on hold” in November 2014, we realized there was a chance it could resurface.  Now, almost two years later, we can declare victory now that St. Louis County has “permanently shelved” the South County Connector project.

Streets for Everyone

Trailnet created the Streets for Everyone brochure and guide to help educate residents, advocates, and policymakers on the ways and the benefits of creating streets for everyone.

As we work to see walking, biking, and public transit become more viable transportation options, we must create streets that work for young, old, and people of all abilities. We found that the average resident wants streets and sidewalks that include design elements that create a high degree of safety and comfort. With Streets for Everyone, we worked to educate and advocate for this type of infrastructure design throughout the St. Louis region.

Please contact us at advocacy@trailnet.org with any inquiries regarding our past wins.