Introduction

This report is a product of the author's visit to the St. Louis area on August 11 through 14, 1999, arranged by the St. Louis area's Metropolitan Planning Organization, the East-West Gateway Coordinating Council. The visit included an inspection tour of bicycle facilities on August 12. Most of the content of this report is based on that tour. The visit also included a seminar on bicycle transportation given at the Missouri Historical Society on August 13, and an Effective Cycling demonstration, inspection tour and bicycle ride on August 14.

Special thanks are due to the East-West Gateway Coordinating Council, and in particular to Mary-Grace Lewandowski, who capably and cheerfully handled many of the administrative tasks for the visit. The Missouri Historical Society generously allowed free use of its premises. Kim Cella and Renee Drucker of Citizens for Modern Transit took care of all the registration details and refreshments for the seminar.

I also thank Larry Welty, of the Missouri Department of Transportation; Maurice Williams and Deb Ridgway, of Trailnet, Inc.; Alderman Terry Byatt of the City of Ballwin; and Martin Pion of Conservion, who served as guides on the inspection tours. Martin Pion also contributed a large amount of work toward organizing the seminar and preparing these pages for posting on his Web site.

Photos taken by Larry Welty, Maurice Williams and the author during the inspection tour are used in this report. Also used are photos taken by Martin Pion and Tom Murrell. The text alternative message for each photograph identifies the photographer.

This introduction is followed by sections describing the scope of bicycle programs, education issues, and specific issues relative to St. Louis County; to the City of St. Louis; to river crossings; to off-road trails and to multimodal travel. The section on St. Louis County describes some striking features of roadway design in the St. Louis area which affect bicycling.

A three-day visit is a short time to get a comprehensive view of bicycling conditions and issues in a large metropolitan area. Nonetheless, I think that my observations can be useful. Over the years, I have visited a large number of cities in North America and in Europe, and I have had many opportunities to calibrate my first impressions. I have also had the valuable assistance of my hosts in describing conditions from their own, much longer experience. Nonetheless, the opinions expressed in this report are entirely my own.