Why does it take so long to get things done around here? A local architect once summed up our “process” problem thusly: “The planning cycle is longer than the political cycle.”

By that, our friend meant that you can’t plan, fund, design and build major public projects – civic buildings, road improvements and whatnot – without an election coming along or a new constituency emerging and slowing things down.

New faces bring new ideas and new priorities, or simply want to make their own mark on what’s already been decided; plans and projects are revisited endlessly, and when all is said and done, much more is said than done.

Trying to escape this cycle of futility is the city’s Non-Motorized Trans­portation Plan, its successes and failures magnified with the new school year as students hit the road, sidewalk and bike path – and sometimes, unimproved shoulder – to reach their classrooms. The island has come quite a ways in five years, but there’s work left to be done, particularly with those shoulders.

Pedestrian safety around schools emerged among local concerns in late 1998 and again in 2000, when parents protested the absence of a school crossing guard at the busy (pre-roundabout) High School Road/Madison Avenue intersection. Not long after, in a meeting that drew a crowd of 150 to City Hall, school corridors emerged as citizens’ top priority for bicycle and pedestrian improvements. Their demands were codified a year later in the new “bike/ped plan,” leaving funding and political will as the only impediments to change.

Since then, what’s been built? The corridor between Woodward/Sakai and the BHS/Commodore/Wilkes campuses is a success story, with ample sidewalks and a state-funded, cross-campus pathway providing safe passage for youngsters. New bike lanes on Wyatt Way and several other commuter corridors have given riders an easier way into town. True, not much has been done around Wilkes and Blakely schools; the latter still offers little beyond dirt shoulders for kids trekking from nearby neighborhoods, and lacks even a designated crosswalk across Baker Hill Road. Designs are under way for both areas, Public Works officials say, and improvements could go in next summer.

In the midst of all this (and again at the behest of parents), the city clarified the 20 mph speed in school zones and lowered posted speeds at approaches – a smart and inexpensive fix. And to its credit, the City Council has lately matched the community’s commitment to school zone safety, dollar for holler.

The council last year added more than $700,000 to the mayor’s half-million-dollar funding plan for non-motorized work, correctly perceiving that such “quality of life” projects make for good feelings in a community anxious over growth.

One conspicuous failure is Grow Avenue, a key corridor for students south of the main school campus that’s mired in a dispute between neighbors and the city over parking and lane designs. Call it the exception that proves the rule.

None of these improvements would have happened had not Bainbridge citizens stepped up a half-decade ago to demand that pedestrians and bicyclists – particularly the young ones – get their fare share of the right of way.

As school resumes and the city budgets for next year, we should affirm once again that school zone safety, heedless of political cycle, remains a top priority.