The East Main Street area needs sidewalks.

People can be spotted quite often walking in the street and on the frontage roads headed to the bus stop and to the Walmart area.

The bus stop — which is at Ole’s East Side Shell station — is where people who don’t have motorized transportation go when they need to leave town. It only makes sense in community planning and development to provide these pedestrians with the means to get to the stop without the perils of walking in the streets.

People without a car often don’t have much of a budget to live on. So they stroll to places advertising low prices, such as Walmart. They end up walking along that speedy 50 mph stretch of Main Street between the Green Mill area and the Walmart area, because there are no frontage road alternatives. Frankly, it seems downright unsafe to walk there.

Installing sidewalks isn’t completely up to City Hall because East Main Street is U.S. Highway 65 and, thus, controlled by the Minnesota Department of Transportation. The good news is city officials indeed see the necessity and hope sidewalks can be built there someday.

Add our voice to the list of people who want

MnDOT to build sidewalks on East Main Street. The state agency did a great job with sidewalks on West Main Street near Skyline Plaza.

Let’s connect the eastern part of the city with the core. Let’s get the pedestrians off the highway.