Opinion: Roundabout rigamarole overshadows real safety issue on 48th Street

Have you ever noticed the bike path along Columbus Road and Cannonball Road, running each side of Wismann Lane?  

Did you know it has a name?

It is the Erin East Memorial Bike Path.

Erin was a 13-year-old, seventh-grade student at Quincy Junior High School.  The weather in November 1988 reached the high 60s.  Perfect for a bike ride.  

Erin’s bike ride that day was his last.  Unprotected by a dedicated bike path, Erin was killed in a collision with a vehicle while biking along the roadway.  

That tragedy prompted Erin’s mother, Lana Taylor-East, to spearhead a successful effort – themed “Save a Friend for Erin” – to construct the bike path in her son’s memory.   Motivated by Taylor-East’s efforts, the South 24th Bike Path Organization, chaired by Kay Harberts, followed leading to the construction of a bike path south on 24th Street from Cherry Lane to Ghost Hollow Road.  

As City of Quincy and Adams County officials debate the roundabout for the 48th and State Streets intersection and piddle over roadway jurisdiction, they and many in the community have lost site of the hazardous route extending south to John Wood Community College and on to Harrison Street leading to the Sarah Atwater Denman Elementary School.  Many walk and bike daily along that unsafe and dangerous route.  

No doubt the roundabout is controversial, hugely expensive, and worthy of debate.  Still, that is no excuse for the failure of our public officials – city and county – to more immediately, even on an interim basis, address the broader safety risks associated with the unacceptable 48th Street corridor.  As originally conceived, the 48th Street area project included providing sidewalk and bike path improvements to Harrison Street.   

What our officials are doing is exactly what Laurence J. Peter, best known for the Peter Principle, observed:  “Democracy is a process by which people are free to choose the [person] who will get the blame.”  City and county officials point fingers at and blame each other.

We place the blame on all who stymie the development of a safe route along 48th Street with or without a roundabout.  A safe route is essential; a roundabout is not.

Following Erin’s death and in an era of more cooperative politics, Former Quincy Mayor Verne Hagstrom proposed with broad approval that the City of Quincy, Adams County, Townships surrounding Quincy, and the Two River Regional Council of Public Officials, work together to plan and build bike paths in high-risk areas.  Great concept, but except for those undertaken mostly by private initiatives the vision floundered and the needs were never addressed.

There are unsafe corridors beyond the 48th Street corridor.  State Street from 24th Street to at least 36th Street, 36th Street south from State Street, and 24th Street south of State Street to Harrison, immediately come to mind.  And then there are many well-traveled routes still lacking complete sidewalks or any sidewalks at all.  We recognize that some areas involve the State of Illinois, but let’s stop with the excuses.

We appreciate that city and county staff have supported safety improvements and for that they are to be commended.  They are not the final decisionmakers.  It’s time for our public officials to step up to the task. So far, they haven’t.

We urge renewing Mayor Hagstrom’s vision.  Our public officials should develop a cooperative plan to identify and provide for safe pedestrian sidewalks and bike paths in high-risk areas throughout our area.  

Do we really need to wait for another Erin East?

Or do we?