BATON ROUGE mdash; For nearly two hours, leaders from the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (DOTD), LSU, the Baton Rouge Police Department and the city-parish held a closed-door meeting at the DOTD district headquarters off Airline Highway to discuss safety plans and infrastruc ture updates for Nicholson Drive.This comes less than 72 hours after LSU student Leah Fonte and her fianceacute;, Shane Hirstius, were struck and killed by a car while walking along the shoulder of the road.While the discussion was closed to the public, city and state transportation officials noted that numerous ideas were shared, though they declined to provide specifics.Frequent commuters on Nicholson Drive expressed hope for swift improvements, citing long-standing hazards like poor lighting and a lack of sidewalks. Local resident Hayden Manahan suggested an increased police presence could also improve safety."Nothing fun about it, you know, dark long walk," Manahan said. "Maybe a little more police patrol late at night, like on the party nights, on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, have a little more cops out here up and down this road."The issues remain the same for many: lack of lighting and sidewalks along the busy road. Some residents told WBRZ they often have to cut through parking lots or walk in the street to get to their next location."Since they closed the other sidewalk, we just walk along the street, and that puts a lot of people in danger, because everyone is usually taking this route to take a right, so they're mostly on the right side," Baton Rouge resident Mohamed Elgallad said.Officials have not stated when details of any proposed safety plans will be released.A procession for Fonte and Hirstius is scheduled for Wednesday morning in their hometown of Metairie, followed by a prayer service Wednesday night at Archbishop Rummel High School.Permalink| Comments ...read more read less