What Can We Do To Make Our Streets Safer In The Wake Of Bill Safos' Death?

What makes Lakewood so great?

I’d argue that the reason so many people love living in and visiting Lakewood is our close proximity to nearly everything you’d need or want in your daily life. Lakewood was incorporated as a village in 1889. Streetcars came to Lakewood in 1893, 1903, and 1916. Long before the advent of the personal automobile, Lakewood was developed and built out as a walking, biking, and transit-oriented community. While the streetcars are long gone, the legacy of pre-automotive America still has a profound impact on the city’s layout and the quality of life for all who call it home. Our business corridors allow small, local businesses to thrive while other municipalities are dominated by big box stores, chain restaurants, and strip malls. From nearly any point in Lakewood, a person can walk or bike to a myriad of unique shops, delicious restaurants, and cozy watering holes. Our city’s schools are touted as a walking district with elementary schools generally being no more than a mile from their students with a complete lack of school buses. We have plenty of barbers and salons, healthcare and dentistry, convenience stores, and grocery stores all at our fingertips. I’m not sure there’s a better place to live car-free or car-light in all of the midwest. 

However, Lakewood isn’t perfect. As with most of North America and Europe in the post-war era, Lakewood fell victim to car-first planning and redevelopment. Clifton Boulevard went from a peaceful, tree-lined boulevard with a streetcar in the median to a seven lane monstrosity often mimicking a freeway. Drivers today routinely exceed sixty miles per hour along Clifton with very few points for pedestrians to safely cross. Detroit Avenue has up to five lanes – two lanes for travel, one for turning, and a lane for parking on each side – through our busiest commercial corridor. Madison Avenue has seen some positive changes in recent years, thankfully gaining a painted bicycle lane on each side. However, this is also a busy commercial area, yet there are 28 intersections between Riverside Drive and West 117th that do not have a marked or signalized crossing for pedestrians. Further, our bicycle lanes and sidewalks are unmaintained through inclement weather, further prioritizing personal automobiles as the primary means of transportation.

On December 11, 2024, Bill Safos was killed by the driver of a luxury SUV while crossing Madison Avenue at Hilliard Road. The driver was traveling an estimated 47 miles per hour, nearly double the posted speed limit of 25. For anyone that walks or bikes regularly in Lakewood, especially at this intersection, this isn’t particularly surprising. At the December 16, 2024 City Council meeting, there was an outpouring of complaints about traffic safety and the need for changing traffic patterns in Lakewood as well as support for Bill Safos’ friends and family. During the nearly 20 public comments, Mayor George didn’t appear to look up from her computer or phone a single time to acknowledge the requests and interests of her constituents. Yet, when Councilperson Tom Bullock commented that the current 2025 budget does not allocate funding for intersection improvements, she interjected that there is funding for intersections through the Bunts Road rehab project.

Looking at the Bunts Road rehab, it is set to completely redesign Bunts Road with curb extensions, a ten foot multi-use path on the west side, and major improvements to the utilities infrastructure underneath. It will also encompass additional on-street car parking, better signals at intersections, and planting more trees. More trees, a multi-use path, curb extensions, and improved signaling at intersections are all objectively good things for Lakewood. However, this accounts for only 7 intersections along an ~1.5 mile stretch of road in Lakewood. Further, it will not be completed until at least the end of 2027.

Since Bill Safos’ death, there have been at least two additional crashes near the same intersection. Both of these crashes involved drivers ignoring clearly established and posted laws that are easily preventable through better street design.There are several quick, low-cost techniques the city could use to make our streets safer for all road users. Installation of curb extensions using flex posts, rubber curbs, or planters could make crossing distances shorter and clear line of sight for drivers at intersections. These methods would also visually narrow the street, causing drivers to slow down. Installing speed tables near known high speed intersections such as Madison and Hilliard would reduce the possibility of drivers racing to beat a yellow light and slow down traffic overall. Swapping car parking and the bike lane, so that bike lanes are “protected” by parked cars and removing unnecessary turn lanes such as those along Franklin would allow for wider, safer bike lanes and lead to more people biking and fewer people driving, alleviating congestion while increasing safety.

I live in a one car household, driving less than 5 days per month, on average. I have been regularly attending City Council meetings, engaging with Mayor George’s administration, and joining local organizations attempting to raise awareness for street safety in Lakewood. My friends, family, and myself have publicly praised Mayor George’s administration and City Council for the adoption of the new Active Transportation Plan, for the excellent work in planning and implementing a multi-use path along Bunts Road, and for the recently proposed Lake-Clifton connector. However, for all the praise we’ve given, there is still a great deal of work ahead of us if Lakewood is to truly be a city that is welcoming to people that choose to travel without a personal automobile. The administration is more concerned with people driving through Lakewood than the people that live here, work here, and play here. They seem to be more concerned with the “Pavement Condition Rating” than people being injured or dying in the street.

There is no amount of enforcement, signage, or public education that will substantially change the safety of our streets. The only thing that will make streets safer is better, safer street design. We need change NOW.

Robert Organ interested in transportation in Lakewood and the surrounding communities that happens outside of a car.I am interested in transportation in Lakewood and the surrounding communities that happens outside of a car.