As part of Hennepin County’s Penn Avenue Community Works program, Lucy Laney Elementary School students advocated for safety improvements near the school, saying narrow sidewalks and poor street crossings made them feel unsafe.
Even though improvements at the school weren’t initially included in a planned reconstruction of Penn Avenue as part of the METRO C Line Bus rapid Transit project, Hennepin County responded to student concerns and involved them in the process of designing and planning pedestrian safety improvements near the school, including: enhanced boulevards; pedestrian scale street lighting; overhead rapid flashing beacons to a nearby intersection; new curb extensions; and 14 new trees to school property.