Meeting held over lack of progress and transparency in South Bend city bike routes development project

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- County Surveyor Derek Dieter held a meeting discussing the lack of progress and transparency in the city's bike routes development project.

The project that Dieter is proposing aims to connect more of the west side of South Bend to the eastside. Dieter advocates for a more inclusive and redesigned trail system that people would love to bike.

"I know that they had preliminary plans and they talked about it at the meeting the other night of going down college, which my personal view, I think this is a much easier. It's much safer. You're a light. There's not much traffic on that road, as opposed to going a block and a half, trying to cross. And I think Lincoln Way is probably the third highest traffic count in South Bend, so hopefully the city we want them to look at this and encourage it, and that's one of the many reasons we've been so in tune of what was going on because the public hasn't been asked, spoke to." says Dieter.

The proposed route would connect the Coal Line Trail, Martin Luther King Jr. Dream Center, Kennedy Park, Charles Black Community Center and LaSalle Park. This West Side bike route would become the only public trail in Indiana named for Indianapolis-born world cycling champion Marshall “Major” Taylor.