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How One Volunteer Quieted a Busy Laramie Street
AARP Wyoming
One traffic shortcut sparked year of advocacy from AARP Wyoming transportation volunteer Nancy Sindelar — and Laramie is safer for it.
Nancy didn’t set out to become one of Laramie’s strongest voices for mobility and pedestrian safety. She just wanted to stop commuters from speeding down her street.
Years ago, the addition of nearby stop signs transformed her quiet residential street into a shortcut for drivers who now had a straight shot to downtown. Suddenly, cars were speeding through the neighborhood morning and night.
“There are kids and dogs and people living on our street,” Nancy recalled. “I said, this is a bunch of…”
Instead of simply complaining, Nancy went down to City Hall and asked a simple question: “How do I change this?”
She went door-to-door, gathered signatures from residents and nearby businesses, attended the city Traffic Commission meeting and successfully pushed for the sign configuration to be changed. A short time later, crews arrived to move the signs — and the speeding cars disappeared almost overnight.
That one neighborhood problem turned into years of community involvement focused on mobility, pedestrian safety and connectivity throughout Laramie. Today, Nancy chairs the Traffic Safety Commission and is an active volunteer with AARP’s Age Friendly Laramie, helping improve how people safely move throughout the community.
One of the projects she’s most proud of started with a bike ride.
Returning from a road ride, Nancy noticed something dangerous near Interstate 80: The multi-use path ended and residents from one of Laramie’s low-income neighborhoods were being forced to walk on a gravel single-track alongside a five lane state highway. Citizens trying to access services, mothers pushing strollers, and people walking to work, had no proper way through the area.
Nancy spent seven years advocating for the connection there — writing letters, organizing support and repeatedly bringing attention to the issue until the connection was finally completed.
“If there’s a sidewalk, there is a better place to walk,” she said.
She also became what she jokingly calls “a thorn in their side” when it came to pushing for bike racks on every city bus. Nancy saw early on how much a small change could make. Having bike racks reliably on every bus meant residents could combine biking and public transit to get to work, appointments, meetings and shopping without relying entirely on a car.
At the time, only some buses had racks. Nancy kept poking transit leaders to make them standard on every bus.
Today, every city bus in Laramie includes one.
Nancy still brings her bike on the bus herself — partly because it’s practical and partly, she admits, so people see it can be done.
More recently, Nancy spotted another problem while traveling to the hospital for regular medical appointments. A planned bus stop would have required patients to arrive at the bottom of a steep hill to reach the entrance. She immediately thought about people using wheelchairs, walkers, crutches or mobility equipment.
“People using assistive tech would not be taking the bus.” she said.
She worked with transit officials to advocate for a safer stop close to the hospital entrance — one that would better serve both patients and hospital employees.
Nancy describes her work simply: “It’s mobility and connectivity. It’s going from where you are to where you want to be and all the spaces in between.”
A veteran, lifelong cyclist and longtime volunteer, Nancy believes local involvement is where real democracy happens.
“Kids that are born after I’m gone will be riding on bike lanes or safe routes to school,” she said. “This is where I can make a difference.”
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