Strolling, biking, zooming by

In the late 1980s, a group of Storm Lakers planned and built a recreational trail to extend  farther around the lake. A committee of over a dozen people worked to make the LakeTrail a reality.

Designed to be built in two phases, one part of the project was planned to extend from Emerald Park to the west end of Vista Drive, just south of the hospital. The second phase was to extend from the swimming pool to the Lakeside city limits. In the late 1980s Storm Lake’s municipal swimming pool was located where Kings Pointe sits today.

One of the committee members worked for Iowa State University Extension as a community development specialist. Alan Vandehaar envisioned dual parallel paths for the project: one path for walkers and runners and one path for bicycles separated by three feet of turf. If circumstances — meaning money — would have allowed for those dual paths, the current situation on the LakeTrail might be different today.

There’s a lot of traffic on the LakeTrail. Having dual paths might have cut down on the growing feeling that you need to sport rearview mirrors on your head. I have gone walking many times with a friend when a sudden whoosh-on-two-wheels overtook us.

It gets the heart going, and it makes an aging body feel vulnerable. What if I’d made a sweeping gesture with my gorilla arms? What if my dog suddenly zigged instead of zagged?

It’s an observed fact that bicycles don’t aways have bells, and walkers are sometimes tuned out on their Airpods. Who would be at fault if a walker made a sudden movement into the path of an oncoming bike? Add a motor to that bike and the collision could send the pedestrian into surgery.

Should walkers walk on the left side of the path? Should bicyclists ride on the right? Should we paint a line down the center of the path? Should we all go through LakeTrail safety classes and sport badges to show we are trail-worthy?

This may seem silly but knowing where to walk or ride safely is no laughing matter. In general, pedestrians and bicyclists can both use the sidewalk in most parts of town except the central business district.

Otherwise, according to Section 9-10-2, of Storm Lake’s city code, bicyclists “shall yield the right of way to any pedestrian and shall give audible signal before overtaking and passing such pedestrian.”

The LakeTrail is more than a sidewalk. It’s a way of life for many Storm Lakers, and it beckons a lot of us, and this is a good thing until it becomes unsafe. The beckoning has grown exponentially this spring with the increasing numbers of ebikes, motorized mini-bikes and scooters thrown into the mix.

Traffic on the trail is one thing, but the greater safety issue occurs on our city streets when kids and teens weave and dart on the road or burst from the sidewalk into traffic with little thought of oncoming cars.

How fast should they be able to go? Should they wear helmets? Should more than one person be able to ride a mini-bike or scooter? How can everyone have fun and also stay safe?

The Storm Lake Police Department and the Storm Lake City Council want to do right by all concerned. Let them know your thoughts. The city welcomes your input at a public input session to be held at 5:30 p.m. on Monday, June 29 at the Chautauqua Park Shelter House.

Joan Zwagerman loves the LakeTrail. She doesn’t love feeling that she might be run over one day.