A proposed pedestrian safety ordinance has drawn both harsh criticism and vocal support from community leaders, elected officials and the public.
In the works for more than a year, the ordinance would restrict people from occupying medians in locations across the city. The Columbia City Council will consider the ordinance and other items at 7 p.m. Monday at the Daniel Boone City Building, 701 E. Broadway.
Some see this as a way to discourage unsafe behavior around busy roads. Carrie Gartner, executive director of the Loop Community Improvement District, said she has seen dangerous interactions between pedestrians and drivers on Business Loop 70.
“I saw and I’ve seen people stop in the middle of a left turn and hand something to someone, and it’s the craziest driving maneuver I’ve ever seen,” she said. “And I’m surprised I haven’t seen a rear end crash yet.”
Gartner was part of a team doing “road audits,” during which she and others walked the streets to observe pedestrian and driver behavior. She said she would rather people use resources located on Business Loop 70 than have to panhandle for money.
“What are we doing?” she asked. “Here we have a food bank. We have a shelter. We have integrated mental health services. We have all this that is like actually easy to get to and doesn’t involve running into traffic to get.”
A $96,000 Street and Intersection Pedestrian Safety Study was prepared for the council. It found that between 2019 and 2023, Columbia accounted for 2.6% of Missouri’s pedestrian fatalities. Additionally, 32% of Columbia’s total fatal crashes were pedestrian-related. The report said this is well above state and national averages.
However, others argue the ordinance is a thinly veiled attempt to ban panhandling.
Second Ward councilperson Vera Elwood said her constituents are more concerned about increased public transit and safer roads than they are about people standing on medians.
“What I never heard from my neighbors and my constituents in my ward was a concern about someone standing on a median, being a danger to a person in a car,” she said. “What I never heard was a desire to address pedestrian safety in this way. I think it is very telling that when we talk about this ordinance, we have heard a lot of people use the terms ‘panhandling ordinance’ and ‘loitering ordinance.’”
Elwood also spoke against the ordinance at a town hall Wednesday alongside First Ward councilperson Valerie Carroll. Elwood confirmed that she, Carroll and Third Ward councilperson Jacque Sample plan to vote to table the motion at Monday’s council meeting. She is unsure where the rest of the council stands on the issue.
Tabling the motion would allow the relevant city commissions to review the ordinance and provide feedback, she said.
How the ordinance would work
The ordinance would only affect roads where the speed limit is greater than 35 mph, daily traffic is 15,000 vehicles or higher, or the median is less than 6 feet wide. This mirrors recommendations from the study.
There are also specific details about pedestrians and drivers, including:
For residents and pedestrians:
- Bans people from standing on any median on a major roadway.
- Requires pedestrians to leave a median within two opportunities to cross, unless they are physically unable to do so.
- Requires people crossing major roads to only use crosswalks, pedestrian-control signals or an intersection, depending on what is available.
- Bans people from approaching vehicles on a major roadway, unless the vehicle is parked.
- Bans pedestrians on major roadways except to lawfully cross the street.
For drivers:
- Bans people from exiting vehicles in a traveling lane, unless there is a medical or vehicular emergency.
- Bans people in vehicles from exchanging anything with a pedestrian on a major road.
The proposed ordinance also says it is not intended to prohibit people giving or accepting items from a parked vehicle or on a sidewalk.
Local advocates sound the alarm
Dan Viets, president of the Mid-Missouri Civil Liberties Association, said the ordinance is not narrowly tailored to the issue of pedestrian safety. The organization formally took a position last Saturday opposing the proposed ordinance.
“The city staff is involved in a great deal of subterfuge to dress this ordinance as anything but an ordinance to prohibit or restrict panhandling,” Viets said. “But it’s very clear that that’s the motivation here.”
The Supreme Court ruled in the 2015 case Reed vs. Town of Gilbert that ordinances to restrict or prohibit panhandling are unconstitutional, Viets said.
“I don’t see very many people hanging out on the medians other than those who are begging,” he said. “And they have a protected First Amendment right to do that, no matter how uncomfortable (that makes some people), no matter how unsightly that may be.”
He also said there is a First Amendment concern with protesters commonly using medians.
Resident Alyce Turner said she is concerned with the ordinance. She said she protests weekly on the medians at Broadway and Stadium Boulevard with 50 to 70 people.
“This is not to discount at all the impact on the homeless population, but also, my civil liberties are at risk in this ordinance,” she said Friday during a Boone County Muleskinners meeting.
Director of CoMo Mobile Aid Collective Catherine Armbrust said this is an attempt to criminalize homelessness and sweep the issue under the rug.
“The desire to clean up downtown in a lot of different ways is about money, encouraging more development and discouraging things that make people feel unsafe or uncomfortable,” she said. “So when people with money want to get more money, they tend to not like people who don’t have money.”
Local Motion is a Columbia-based transportation advocacy group. CEO Mike Burden said instead of banning people from medians, the city should be focused on calming traffic, building sidewalks and improving infrastructure to promote pedestrian safety.
“We just run into this subjectivity where we’re regulating the way people walk or requiring them to walk a particular way,” he said. “And given that we are trying to improve mobility and accessibility in our community, that makes us nervous.”
Opponents of the ordinance suggest writing to the City Council and speaking against it at the meeting Monday. Protesters are also expected to demonstrate outside of the Daniel Boone City Building before the meeting begins.
