As a colleague of a young woman, wife and mother in the early phases of a long recuperation following a recent car-bicycle accident on MacGregor Downs Road, I would like to address some long-standing concerns.

This woman's life was no doubt saved by wearing a helmet which provided significant protection. However, I am deeply concerned about the larger issues of bicycle and pedestrian safety. On moving here, I had hoped to ride my bicycle more, but I quickly found that it is extremely dangerous. A Leo Jenkins Cancer Center staff member was killed in front of her children last year by a hit-and-run driver when she stopped to drag a bicyclist off the road who had just been hit by another hit-and-run driver. Periodically we see that pedestrians are hit on Memorial Drive.

While significant progress has been made in installing sidewalks in Greenville, we desperately need bicycle lanes or paths for all major streets, not just in a few areas. In a town with few hills and an obesity epidemic, wouldn't good pedestrian and bicycle lanes make a lot of sense? We are constantly bombarded by the media with the need to decrease carbon dioxide emissions.

We need to provide a safe environment so that people can ride bicycles to work yielding the added benefits of less crowded streets and decreased demand for parking.

I would hope that newly elected council members might begin addressing these issues. Safe lanes on Memorial Drive, Evans Street and Charles Boulevard might be places to start.

As drivers, we must also be vigilant and aware of the admonition to "Share the Road." The safety of bicyclists and pedestrians in this town should have high priority and it is only too sad that this has not been addressed sooner.

LILLIAN BURKE, M.D.

Greenville