At a time when more people are looking at walking and riding bicycles – either for health reasons or as basic transportation due to high fuel costs – the subject of sidewalks and streets comes up often.

Many cities and towns are eyeing ways to become more “pedestrian-friendly” and are allocating money in their budgets to repair roads or build new sidewalks.

The Tahlequah City Council has been discussing the annexation of property in the East Ross and Nalley Road area. The move has raised the ire of some nearby residents, who believe the city’s money would be better spent improving roads and building sidewalks.

The Daily Press has recently received three letters to the editor citing streets and sidewalks as a growing concern, as well as a number of calls and e-mails.

“Tahlequah is increasingly becoming a pedestrian-unfriendly city,” said Dr. John Yeutter, associate professor of accounting at Northeastern State University. “This is surprising in a time of increasing energy costs; we should expect the city to be working to encourage alternatives to vehicular traffic.”

Yeutter said when he moved here in the mid-1990s, nearly all the pedestrian signals on Muskogee Avenue were working properly.

“Now, some of these have been removed, and none are functioning,” he said. “This is glaring evidence of the lack of attention to infrastructure maintenance both by the city council and TPWA, who I believe is responsible for the maintenance of signals.”

Yeutter considers the sidewalk situation comparable.

“As someone who walks to work, who travels to many local events on foot, and who walks in residential neighborhoods regularly for exercise, I am acutely aware of the lack of sidewalks outside the central area of the city,” he said. “This creates a hazard for pedestrian traffic, who must walk in the streets.”

Local resident Lindsey Blakley also appreciates the city’s work to improve the downtown sidewalk areas, but find a few flaws that may be missed by others.

“I think the city has done a pretty good job of downtown,” said Blakley. “The south side of Main Street [Muskogee Avenue] could use more help. Since I use a manual wheelchair, I find that it’s hard to get into the stores because of the door frames, but the sidewalks aren’t bad. I would live it if they were all like the ones in front of BancFirst. It’s easiest to cross the street there. [The sidewalks] aren’t too steep and they are smooth.”

Like Yeutter, Blakley has noticed the lack of sidewalks in residential areas.

“One big request I have for the sidewalk installers: Put in sidewalks on Allen Road, please!” she said. “My mom almost runs over joggers when she’s taking me to work early in the morning. Joggers run up and down West Allen Road where I live, and they wear dark clothing. Kids walk to school down that road, as well, and they have nowhere to jump when people [drive] down West Allen Road. It is very dangerous. I’m surprised no one has been killed there.”

As far as streets are concerned, Blakley believes the city sometimes lacks a cohesive plan.

“It seems the city is making an effort on the streets,” she said. “But it also seems that when they pave the streets, it’s not long before they have to dig a trench straight across where they’ve just paved. It seems there isn’t any structure or reason to their paving pattern. They pave here, then there.”