Laudable aspiration, but what about the city’s more pressing matters?

In “On Boylston, making way for cyclists,” the reporter writes, “In September, the Wu administration announced it would expand its bike network so half the city’s residents would be a three-minute walk from a bike route.” While that’s a laudable aspiration, if one owns or travels by bike, I’d suggest some more pressing “three-minute” public policy goals that would benefit much larger segments of the population.

How about goals to put half of Bostonians within a threeminute walk to: a well-equipped urgent care medical center or MinuteClinic; a well-stocked supermarket with fresh fruits and vegetables; an accessible handicapped parking space; a quality elementary school; quality and affordable day care; quality senior day care; quality non-exam public high schools; accessible, dependable, and low-cost public transit — even neighborhood shuttle services. The list could go on and on. While we’re listing priorities, where is the plan to deal with Boston’s downtown vacancy rate before the predicted falloff in commercial tax revenues hits home?

An extensive network of bike lanes is not a bad idea, and it will benefit some small minority of the city’s residents. A Boston “chief of streets” may be a progressive-sounding idea, but there are serious problems facing the city that no network of bike lanes can address. The focus and resources dedicated to the Wu administration’s bike lane infrastructure plan would be better spent on more important issues.

BARBARA ANTHONY Cambridge

The writer is a senior fellow at the Pioneer Institute, former undersecretary of the state Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation, and a former senior fellow and associate of the Center for Business and Government at the Harvard Kennedy School.