It’s not by accident (just another near-miss) that Squeaky Wheels, the island’s bicycle advocate, is holding a meeting Monday from 6:30-8 p.m. at the Senior Center Commons. Bicyclists and other community activists are calling the event “Safe Roads For All,” and it’s not an oxymoron like it may sound.

Dana Berg and other “squeaky wheels” think there’s a little too much animosity being spilled out on the road, whatever mode of transportation one prefers.  And she’s afraid that while we sit around and wait for a city with no money to widen some of our most dangerously narrow roads (pick one) someone’s going to get clipped just like what happened in Seattle.

For example, one of the worst and busiest stretches is the 500 feet of shoulderless northbound SR-305 near Vineyard Lane. Go figure. There’s a $100,000 (or whatever) bridge there and no shoulder. A state engineer said something like, “there’s no money to fix it and won’t be until someone gets killed.” Lovely.

So let’s fix it ourselves. Let’s lower the speed limit in some areas. Increase enforcement, including ticketing bicyclists who roll through stops signs at the bottom of a hill at 30 miles per hour. Or ticketing pedestrians or bicyclists who think they own the road or travel without night lights. And most of all, we need to start thinking about ensuring safer routes around our schools.

Essentially, we have to start thinking for ourselves rather than assuming someone will do it for us. Not today. If there are grants out there, then we have to find them. And we have to start caring for our neighbors when we’re traveling because if you haven’t noticed it, these potholed, skinny old roads aren’t built for speed.

Correction

Funding for proposed solar panels on City Hall, a project initiated by Bainbridge nonprofit Community Energy Solutions, will be 100 percent privately funded. For more information, visit www.cenergysolutions.org.