In her days as a town councilor, Ann Canedy mobilized the Village of West Barnstable to make some noise and actively lobby for sidewalks along Route 6A.
Hearing their call, MassDOT awarded the village funds to improve the sidewalks, crosswalks, and intersections along Route 6A east of the village.
In honor of Massachusetts Winter Walk to School Day Feb. 7, Canedy struck again. Her white hair, black faux-fur jacket, jeans, and running shoes stood out among colorfully bundled K-3rd-graders, parents, teachers, and Trooper the dog.
The group assembled at 8 a.m. sharp, kindergartners leading an orderly, single-file line. They walked about a mile, from Sturgis Library to West Barnstable Elementary School, demonstrating the pressing need for 6A sidewalk improvements west of the village.
Back then, “We had a 6A Committee,” Canedy said as she hiked alongside students half her height. “It had a lot of clout with the state.”
Today, the sidewalks west of the village display crumbling patches of asphalt. The berms of the road are torn up from installing water mains. Tree stumps dot the land next to the Hinckley homestead, where sidewalks are non-existent, save for a muddy pathway across from Lothrop Hill Cemetery.
“We have a need that’s a ‘chicken and egg’ problem,” Canedy said. “There are thousands of people who walk here per day. This route is very widely used by school children, runners, moms with baby strollers, and people walking their dogs.”
“There is a federal national standard” for sidewalks, said Douglas Payson, former president of the Barnstable Village Association, whose father was president of the Massachusetts Highway Association.
“There’s a direct correlation between walkability and home value," Payson added, changing into his realtor's hat. "We want West Barnstable to be pedestrian-accessible from all four points of the compass."
Sporting an aqua-blue L.L. Bean down jacket and matching backpack, Karen Cloutier, principal of Barnstable West Barnstable Elementary School, said she wholeheartedly agreed.
“It’s the healthy thing – physically and socially healthy – to walk to school,” said Cloutier.
Canedy, Payson, and Cloutier have teamed up to work with Safe Routes to School, a federally-funded MassDOT initiative.
At Safe Routes to School, Program Director Diane Hanson and Outreach Coordinator Patrick Higgen work with schools, communities, students, and families to increase biking and walking among elementary and middle school students in the state.
Roughly 48 percent of U.S. students bicycled or walked to school in 1969. Today, less than 15 percent of children walk or bicycle to classes, according to U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration studies.
Canedy was not shy in expressing her support of more and improved sidewalks. "It's a treasure, what's here in West Barnstable," she said. "If you build sidewalks, they will come."