Biker and Pedestrian safety is a concern in Rapid City - KOTA Territory News

Biker and Pedestrian safety is a concern in Rapid City

Saturday, a bicyclist was hit by a car at the intersection of Saint Joseph Street and 11th street, and in the last week there were at least three other accidents that were similar in Rapid City. Which leaves a lot of people wondering if something can be done to make Rapid more biker and pedestrian friendly.

The Rapid City Area Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan has been in the works for more than a year. "What the city did is they looked at all of the highest priority needs and then they went and categorized them from there," said Rapid City Council Vise President Charity Doyle.

She says part of her ward on the south side of town is a very high priority. "I don't feel it's safe; I don't feel it's safe for a lot of reasons," said Doyle. "Even with the infrastructure in place, even with the cross walk there it still isn't necessarily safe."

Avid bikers say there are many places in Rapid that can feel the same way. "Every so often you know you just have this feeling that it was a near miss or you hit your breaks at the right time to keep from having a collision with a car," said Bicyclist Vince Brawn.

He says distracted drivers are a big concern. "When you're riding a lot of times you'll look down into a car and you see the driver texting or talking on the cell phone, that's what I worry more about," said Brawn.

But there're more issues than safety addressed in the master plan. "We would like people to be able to have an option for getting to work for doing what they need to do," said Doyle.

"The further you can go on your bike from home that would be the better situation for us so we would like to see a lot more trails," said Brawn.

Doyle says the master plan will probably be completed in bits and pieces. "It's probably not going to happen fast," said Doyle.

The next step is for the City Council to accept the master plan into their comprehensive plan and Doyle hopes that will happen in the next couple of months.