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FERGUSON

A Ride In The Park? Residents Debate Proper Place For Bikes

By Tanya Parker, Post-Dispatch Special Correspondent

Residents of Ferguson are debating the proper place of bicycles and cyclists. A bill under consideration would allow police officers on patrol to ride bicycles in January-Wabash Park.

Currently, all cyclists are barred from the park. Some residents feel that this is a violation of their rights as taxpayers, who pay for public access and use of the park for recreation.

Alderman Greg Faupel, 3rd Ward, is considering sponsoring a bill to allow bikes and in-line skates in the park. He says children are especially restricted because they do not have a place to ride bikes safely. Faupel added that with police in the park, cycling would be controlled and would not become hazardous to pedestrians.

Maureen Damier, who lives on Lakeview Court, can see the park path from her kitchen window. She challenged Faupel to visit the park and consider the many elderly pedestrians and mothers with young children who use the path. Damier claims that the path is too narrow and hilly, and
that bikers would collide with  the city's liability.

While no immediate plans exist to allow bicycles and inline skates in the park, both are taken seriously in Ferguson. A group called Gateway Trailnet, which seeks to turn abandoned railway tracks into bike paths, is seeking a grant to develop a trail for Ferguson — linking it to other paths.


For serious cyclists like resident Martin Pion, the bicycle is a mode of transportation and a solution to air pollution. But Pion agrees that January-Wabash Park should be for the sole use of pedestrians. He measured some of the paths at just 4 feet wide, making them too narrow and dangerous for bicycles. However, Pion encouraged the city to observe its "share the road sign" ordinances.


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