Sometimes, it seems, common sense is just too innovative. At least that seems to be the case when it comes to some state bureaucracies.

Last week officials with the town of Waynesville met with the state Department of Transportation to discuss plans for upgrading Howell Mill Road, the hilly, winding two-lane road that connects Old Asheville Highway to Russ Avenue. The meeting was supposed to involve only officials, but residents and reporters found out that this important road was to be discussed and showed up. In the long run, the show of public interest may make the final product a better road.

When thinking about improving this road — which ends just a few hundred yards from an elementary school and goes right by the town’s huge recreation center complex — one might be inclined to think about kids riding bicycles and, perhaps, even pedestrians. After all, during busy times of the year well over a thousand kids a week come to the fields or the rec center. In addition to the planned programming that takes place on the outdoor fields and inside the center, the walking path along Richland Creek, the tennis courts, the playground, the picnic shelters and the creek itself are immensely popular. When Old Asheville Highway construction is finished, it will have a sidewalk from North Main Street all the way to Howell Mill Road.

In other words, putting a sidewalk and bike paths along Howell Mill Road makes perfect sense. But not to some in the DOT.

“DOT is not going to build a sidewalk unless there is justification for it,” said Jack Ward, who works with the firm contracted to design the road.

Later, when recreation department employee Tim Plowman mentioned the need for bike lanes, here’s the reply he got from a DOT employee: “That would lead to more right of way, which the town would have to buy. That’s funds the town has to come up with.”

Taxpayers everywhere know that adding amenities to any kind of government project drives up the price. On the other hand, in instances like this it’s a safe bet that the majority of those taxpayers would agree with Waynesville officials that a simple three-lane road built for speed with limited attention to pedestrian or alternative transportation opportunities is simply poor planning.

The sad reality is that as Waynesville has embarked on an era of progressive planning and is trying to create a walkable community that holds quality of life in high regard, it has found itself at odds on almost all occasions with the DOT. Beginning way back when the Old Asheville Highway was still in the planning stages, up to the recent disagreement about how to solve traffic woes at the new Hazelwood Elementary School, the disagreements have followed the same ideological pattern: town officials arguing for more than just asphalt, the DOT always arguing to accommodate more vehicular traffic with few or no amenities for pedestrians and cyclists.

State highway planners have said that they are changing, that they do take into account more than just the needs of people driving automobiles. Their actions, however, simply don’t support that contention.

This is not an interstate, a rural highway or an urban loop. It’s a road that travels through a mixed-use area that includes a school, a recreation center, and a walking trail. This road should have bike lanes, sidewalks and whatever other pedestrian accommodations are feasible that will encourage alternative modes of transportation.