The City of Bedford is looking for suggestions for its Sidewalk Connectivity Plan. Here’s how to log your idea.
The Sidewalk Connectivity Plan is underway in Bedford, and city officials are seeking community input through the rest of the summer to determine where new connections should be constructed. While all suggestions are encouraged, the main idea behind the project is to lay sidewalks down in areas where they don’t currently exist to improve accessibility and safety for all.
In addition to making the city more inclusive for people with mobility devices, the Sidewalk Connectivity Plan’s goals include creating a designated network of sidewalks to help get from one area to another with greater ease, and to encourage a healthier residential lifestyle. Once all responses have been logged, they will be analyzed by city officials to determine how much the project will cost and where sidewalks will eventually be placed from there.
Molly Fox, a spokesperson for the City of Bedford, spoke with KERA News about the initiative and said it will likely take a few years to carry out in its entirety. She said, “I know it just seems like a little bit of concrete, but it’s actually very costly. We want to make sure that we are having the biggest bang for our buck, so to speak, when it comes to putting in our missing sidewalk segments that matter the most to our residents.”
Fox stated that a portion of each annual budget over the next several years will go toward the Sidewalk Connectivity Plan, and that a final master proposal will be laid out by Summer 2027. This version will outline designated construction sites and note when sidewalks in those areas are expected to be accessible to residents.
Suggestions are still being gathered by the city
Since Bedford’s sidewalk accessibility plan is still in the works, officials are gathering recommendations on an ongoing basis between now and Fall 2026 for potential sites. Click here to access the Sidewalk Connectivity Plan’s interactive map to see where suggestions have already been made. If you think a specific neighborhood, school route, park, shopping plaza, or another area of the city could benefit from adding a sidewalk, you can use that same link to log your idea.
Essentially, all you need to do to submit your response is scroll to the Missing Sidewalk Reporter App on the above link and then click “Submit Comment.” From there, you can type in a specific address or place where you think a new sidewalk should be placed. Alternatively, you can draw directly on the map to suggest a desired location.
Molly Fox told KERA News that officials are expecting residents to request sidewalks close to schools and said they’re considered “high priority” areas on the city’s overall list. She said, “Whether it’s pushing their newborn baby, walking their dogs or just sending their kids off to school, our top priority — and it should be in any community — is our resident safety.” Fox added, “[It’s] meaningful to us, not only as city employees, but as individuals ourselves who also enjoy the same things in our neighborhoods.”
