Evie Hemphill recently took her friend’s children for a bike ride on Holly Hills, which she describes as a “fairly chill street.” During the ride, Hemphill wanted to check in with the group, so they pulled over to the right side of the bike lane. She noticed in the distance a large pickup truck driving toward them, and it was using the bike lane as a passing lane. The truck wasn’t slowing down.
“I just started waving my hands frantically,” Hemphill says. “He did move back over, and in plenty of time, but I don’t understand how we can have a city that works for children, or anyone, to explore outside if that’s the behavior that is now accepted.”
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Hemphill is programs director for St. Louis BWorks, an organization that teaches children about bike safety through an Earn-a-Bike program. In recent years, she’s noticed an uptick in bad behavior from motorists. And after two high-profile car crashes in the city—one in which a teenage pedestrian lost both of her legs and another that left four dead after a driver ran a red light and sent a vehicle over a bridge guardrail—Hemphill is one of many people calling for a renewed effort to make roads safer. The push is coming at a time when the city is making its largest-ever investment in road and pedestrian safety.
Bike Share
To learn more about BWorks and its other programs, Book Works and Byte Works, visit bworks.org.
In early March, St. Louis mayor Tishaura Jones signed the Safer Streets Bill, which pledged $40 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds to redesign city streets and implement traffic-calming measures such as medians, bigger sidewalks, and traffic circles. Scott Ogilvie, the city’s Complete Streets program manager, says the work will happen in 2024–25. Traditionally, the city has relied on ward capital to fund road safety projects and the aldermen to lead them. “This is a real opportunity for us as a city to deliver projects in a more cohesive way,” Ogilvie says. Although Safer Streets won’t be able to address every street in St. Louis, the bill will fund a citywide transportation and mobility plan, which Ogilvie says will help prioritize the next round of projects after this $40 million is spent.
But design can’t do everything. Ogilvie says that the biggest factors behind more serious injuries in crashes—not just in St. Louis, but nationally—are speeding, distracted driving, and larger vehicle size. “You can design to reduce speeds much easier than you can design around the vehicle characteristics or what people are doing inside of the vehicle,” Ogilvie says. He thinks it would be helpful if the Missouri State Highway Patrol would regularly work the highways in the city; however, Cpl. Logan Bolton of the Missouri State Highway Patrol says almost 17 percent of trooper positions in the St. Louis area are vacant. Ogilvie says the city is brainstorming ways to support more formal drivers’ education—which is not required to obtain a Missouri drivers’ license—be it through schools or another partner.
In the meantime, organizations like BWorks might be left to fill in gaps. “I feel good about the lessons we’re instilling, and I feel good about the drivers that our graduates will become,” Hemphill says. “I do think that if we had more young St. Louisans thinking about this as pedestrians and cyclists, that when they are behind the wheel, maybe they approach that with a little more presence of mind and solemnity.”
MORE TO KNOW
HIGH IMPACT
CRASHES IN ST. LOUIS, BY THE NUMBERS
Trailnet, a St. Louis nonprofit that works to improve biking and walking options, releases an annual report that tracks and analyzes crashes involving pedestrians, cyclists, and motorists in both St. Louis and St. Louis County. Here is a snapshot of the injuries and fatalities that happened on St. Louis roads in 2022.
ST. LOUIS CITY
PEDESTRIANS: 18 PEOPLE KILLED / 171 PEOPLE INJURED
CYCLISTS: 2 PEOPLE KILLED / 48 PEOPLE INJURED
MOTORISTS: 58 PEOPLE KILLED / 5,358 PEOPLE INJURED
ST. LOUIS COUNTY
PEDESTRIANS: 19 PEOPLE KILLED / 231 PEOPLE INJURED
CYCLISTS: 0 PEOPLE KILLED / 67 PEOPLE INJURED
MOTORISTS: 76 PEOPLE KILLED / 8,883 PEOPLE INJURED
SOURCE: TRAILNET.ORG
