Today, as we continue to learn more about our negative impact on the environment, and the ways in which our lifestyles also contribute to poor health, many cities are making efforts to become greener, healthier places to live. The trend for cities is not to regress, but to progress. To create laws that are more conducive to healthy lifestyles and greener forms of living. However, defying these trends, and really, defying logic is a town in Wisconsin that appears to be regressing as a city.

Going Backwards in Wisconsin

I am not one to dog on cities, coming from a huge metropolis, filled to the gills with suburban sprawl; huge houses with SUV’s pulling out of garage doors each morning as folks make their extra long commute into the city for work. However, even in my neck of the woods, the idea that it would be good to actually ban walking and biking is just crazy. But this is exactly what Hull, Wisconsin is doing. This small city in the north wishes to ban biking and walking. Banning bikes outright seems pretty draconian and bicycle advocates in Hull, Wisconsin are hopefully aware of these happenings.

Many cities are concerned about pedestrian and cyclist safety, but they put into place far different mechanisms than that which Hull, Wisconsin is proposing. To protect pedestrians and cyclists, their idea is to ban these activities entirely. While this is certain to reduce the number of injuries and issues associated with non-motorized transportation, this seems a pretty extreme way to go about dealing with the problem.

The biggest problem with regard to pedestrian and cyclist safety is sharing the road. In many cities, bike lanes are employed to denote the area of the road reserved for non-motorized transportation. In areas that do not have bike lanes, cars are still generally expected to share the road. This puts a lot of one’s safety on oneself as a cyclist, as you take a risk by commuting in this fashion in an area where it just isn’t safe to do so. As more people are looking towards these healthier, greener ways of getting from point A to point B, more cities are creating bikes lanes, or completely alternate paved routes meant to be used by non-motorized transportation.

Banning Bikes – Not Everywhere Though

The proposed rule in Hull would not ban the use of bicycles or walking in all areas of the entire town, but it would ban these activities on many main roads. The main problem with this is that, for those who use non-motorized transportation to get themselves to and from work need to use these main thoroughfares in order to make efficient use of their time and get to work in a timely manner. What makes this proposed ban most interesting is that this town doesn’t have a big problem with injuries related to non-motorized transportation. There hasn’t been a pedestrian or cycling-related accident for a number of years. Perhaps city officials simply do not want to share the road.

Photo Credit: Some rights reserved by markhsal

Chris Keenan is a green and general blog writer. He writes for many sites including Precision Garage Door. Chris also maintains a personal house and garden blog.